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Isabel Chen, a medical student at UBC, is part of a team that has invented a mobile panic button for street-based sex trade workers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
A voice or text message is first recorded onto a SIM card, which is inserted into a GPS-enabled device such as a pager that would only need to be charged once a week. Pressing a button on the pager activates the GPS and sends an emergency message and GPS location to a contact who can get help. Because the GPS is not activated until the device is activated, the anonymity of the user is preserved.
This is such a great idea I’m surprised it wasn’t already invented years ago!
Technology for safety and good!
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"The notion that our sovereignty arises because Canada was a “terra nullius” derives from the presumption that the peoples who lived here at that time were so inferior that they did not live in societies and therefore had no government. They were, in effect, subhuman."Michael Asch, “Self-Government in the New Millenium” (via taleth)
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» Truth and Reconciliation: What Joe Canadian needs to know
MONTREAL - The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada opened hearings Wednesday in Montreal at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel that will run through Saturday — and there are a number of reasons you should be there.
The commission was created after the $1.9-billion residential-schools settlement in 2007 between the government of Canada (along with partner Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist churches) and the Assembly of First Nations.
Frank disclosure of the atrocities committed at church-run, government-backed residential schools have finally started to come out into the open since the settlement. An apology by all federal political parties, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the House of Commons in 2008, was seen as a step forward.
But for Native people, many of whom see the apology as shallow, free of any real remorse or substance, there is still so much work and educating to be done.
How do you fix the devastating impact of sexual abuse suffered by an innocent child of 6 years of age, whose only “sin” was being Mohawk?
How do you reverse the lasting effects of being beaten as a child for speaking your own Native tongue?
How do you give back the confidence stolen from these children after years of browbeating, intimidation and threats at the hands of nuns and other clerical figures who were in charge?
You can’t.
This truth and reconciliation commission, which is holding hearings across Canada, aims to put very real and horrific stories of abuse out there to the public, so Joe Canadian can see that what happened at residential schools had and continues to have a grave impact on Aboriginal people.
Residential schools lasted for more than 100 years. The last one closed in 1996, and they were spread across the country.
An estimated 150,000 Aboriginal children attended residential school, and there were 11 schools right here in Quebec.
Aboriginal children came home and could not converse with their parents after years of being forbidden to speak their mother tongue, and being forced to learn English as a way to “civilize” them.
Siblings were split apart in this province, with brothers unable to speak to each other in any language.
Intergenerational trauma, passed down from those students to generations that never set foot in residential school, is a sad reality in our communities. And it rears its ugly head in many forms, including lateral violence, self-loathing and abuse.
The commission hearings allow non-Natives a rare glimpse into our realities, and answer some lingering questions. Things like: How come most Native people do not speak their own language? What happened at residential schools? And, most importantly to non-Natives: How does this affect me?
Residential schools affect everyone in Canada, regardless of race, mother tongue or political creed.
Children were taken, sometimes forcibly, to schools that were promoted as great venues for civilized learning.
These schools turned out to be anything but — a litany of sexual, physical and mental abuse has been documented.
Imagine being sent to a foreign country and required to never speak English or French again. The punishment for disobeying? A severe beating. Until, left with a choice to live or die, you finally stop speaking your language.
Many brave children stood up for themselves, however, and paid for it with their lives.
Others died from malnourishment, tuberculosis and other diseases.
A number of children lie in unmarked graves that are only now being uncovered.
Rape was a regular occurrence. And what would happen to the rapists? Nothing. No one believed a 6-year-old “uncivilized Indian.”
This is part of Canada’s history.
It’s part of your history.
Why do we remember war veterans who fought overseas many years ago? Because they fought for freedom, and because we are taught to remember the tyranny they fought against.
These residential-school survivors and their stories need to be remembered by everyone in Canada, so that something like this never happens again.
Residential-school survivors are heroes; they fought a fight the magnitude of which few can grasp, but one that should never be forgotten.
The average Quebecer needs to know what these schools did to our people. And they need to know the detrimental effects they continue to have on our people.
They need to know the full history of Canada, not just the parts of it that the modern-day education system presents non-Natives for study.
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» Metis National Council calls for reconciliation for Metis residential school students | APTN National News
The Metis National Council is meeting in Saskatoon to discuss issues surrounding the Metis experience in residential schools and how to push for official reconciliation.
Thousands of Metis children attended residential schools, but were not included in the official 2008 apology from the Canadian federal government.
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» Judge asked to certify Metis lawsuit seeking residential school compensation
SASKATOON - Hundreds of Metis who claim they were physically, sexually and emotionally abused while … - Faith - Winnipeg Free Press.Don’t read the comments. I am near tears.
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» Testimony of intoxicated First Nations girl not credible: Judge | APTN National News
Video report.
TRIGGER WARNING: Graphic pictures of violence sustained from police brutality.
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» B.C. Mountie Cleared Of Assault Of First Nations Teen
TRIGGER WARNING: If you click the link there is a photo of the teens injuries.
A Williams Lake RCMP officer who punched a First Nations teen in the face has been acquitted of an assault charge.
On Monday, the judge ruled Const. Andy Yung acted reasonably during the arrest of 18-year-old Jamie Haller in 2011.
Haller’s mother, Martina Jeff, was expecting a different result.
“It’s been a hard, long, year and a half. We thought we were going to get justice. And everything just didn’t go the way we thought it was going to go. It affected Jamie, it took a lot out of her,” Jeff said.
During the trial, Yung admitted that he punched Haller in the face while she was handcuffed in the back seat of his police cruiser, but said he did so because she was drunk and agitated and had wrapped her legs around his head.
Haller testified that the officer punched her more than six times, but the judge found her testimony to be inconsistent and evasive.
“What means most to me at the end of the day here is that the judge, in his careful deliberation, chose to accept the evidence of constable Yung,” said Insp. Warren Brown, head of the Williams Lake RCMP detachment.
“And that tells me that the evidence provided by Const. Yung was truthful, and regardless of the decision, that would be my biggest concern.”
Yung has been on desk-duty since the charges were laid.
Brown says it is too soon to say whether or not the RCMP will conduct an internal review, or if Yung will return to active duty in Williams Lake.
Const. Yung has been in trouble before.
In 2008, while providing security at an international summit in Banff, he was involved in a drunken telephone conversation with his ex-girlfriend when he fired his service gun into the ceiling of his hotel room.
Yung was later cited for disgraceful conduct and docked five days pay.
This should have more notes :(
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» B.C. Mountie Cleared Of Assault Of First Nations Teen
TRIGGER WARNING: If you click the link there is a photo of the teens injuries.
A Williams Lake RCMP officer who punched a First Nations teen in the face has been acquitted of an assault charge.
On Monday, the judge ruled Const. Andy Yung acted reasonably during the arrest of 18-year-old Jamie Haller in 2011.
Haller’s mother, Martina Jeff, was expecting a different result.
“It’s been a hard, long, year and a half. We thought we were going to get justice. And everything just didn’t go the way we thought it was going to go. It affected Jamie, it took a lot out of her,” Jeff said.
During the trial, Yung admitted that he punched Haller in the face while she was handcuffed in the back seat of his police cruiser, but said he did so because she was drunk and agitated and had wrapped her legs around his head.
Haller testified that the officer punched her more than six times, but the judge found her testimony to be inconsistent and evasive.
“What means most to me at the end of the day here is that the judge, in his careful deliberation, chose to accept the evidence of constable Yung,” said Insp. Warren Brown, head of the Williams Lake RCMP detachment.
“And that tells me that the evidence provided by Const. Yung was truthful, and regardless of the decision, that would be my biggest concern.”
Yung has been on desk-duty since the charges were laid.
Brown says it is too soon to say whether or not the RCMP will conduct an internal review, or if Yung will return to active duty in Williams Lake.
Const. Yung has been in trouble before.
In 2008, while providing security at an international summit in Banff, he was involved in a drunken telephone conversation with his ex-girlfriend when he fired his service gun into the ceiling of his hotel room.
Yung was later cited for disgraceful conduct and docked five days pay.
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» Suicide crisis prompts remote First Nation to declare state of emergency
OTTAWA — Two recent deaths among the members of the Neskantaga First Nation have prompted the remote northern Ontario community to declare a state of emergency in the hope of getting help to prevent the spread of suicide.
The First Nation northeast of Thunder Bay has seen two of its members die over the last two weeks, throwing the fragile community of 300 into grief and fear for the stability of other families.
Chief Peter Moonias said that just as the community was burying the first victim — a man in his 30s — they learned of the death of a 19-year-old from Neskantaga living in Thunder Bay.
Moonias said police have yet to declare the second death a suicide, but he suspects they soon will.
The problems come just a few months after another young man took his life there in December, a tragedy that prompted the community to close ranks and put its youth on suicide watch to prevent additional deaths.
“One suicide, we could have handled. … Not easily, but we could have come back,” said Moonias.
But the suicides are coming so close together that almost no one in the community of about 300 has been left untouched, he said. And now, they can’t cope.
“Now we have nothing left. We have hardly anybody who is not affected in the community. The community situation right now is in a state of shock. A lot of them are wondering what will happen next. They live in fear that something else will happen.”
Community and regional leaders decided to declare the state of emergency Wednesday to get help from the Red Cross and the Ontario government’s emergency management office.
Moonias said he was also hoping for help from any level of government in putting together a long-term plan that will confront Neskantaga’s serious problems with addiction to prescription drugs.
He’s also hoping that other First Nations will heed Neskantaga’s cry for help.
“It will be a devastating thing for my people if nobody listens. Like we don’t exist, you know?”
The Ojibway chief estimates that more than half the community’s adults are addicted to OxyContin or other painkillers.
The limited health care resources made available to Neskantaga to deal with addictions have been insufficient and have not worked well, Moonias added.
“Let’s help these young people,” he said. “I don’t want this to continue another day, another month.”
Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq promised the community the help they need.
“Our hearts go out to those who have lost friends and loved ones to suicide,” she said in a statement Wednesday.
“Health Canada will work closely with the community and send both additional nursing and counselling staff to assist during this difficult time.”
The suicide rate in Neskantaga and surrounding First Nations is far higher than the national average, as communities struggle to deal with isolation, drug and alcohol addictions, poverty, poor housing and a loss of cultural identity.
Now, natural resource companies and the federal and provincial governments have taken a new interest in the community’s health as they seek to develop the region for mining. The massive and pristine Ring of Fire is rich with base metals, but First Nations need to be supportive of mining development in order for it to go ahead. They also need to be healthy in order to form a work force.
Last year, Health Canada added some extra funding to deal with addictions in the Ring of Fire region.
But relapses are frequent, and the pace of suicide and attempted suicide has been on the increase, Moonias said.
Normally, a declaration of emergency by a First Nation triggers action by Emergency Management Ontario, which is in turn reimbursed and supported by Aboriginal Affairs in Ottawa.
About me
I exist. You'll find out more about me by reading my blog. Or not, I don't care.
Likes
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Snobby coffee bear. (watercolor, ballpoint pen)
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Posing with toilet
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Liquid Space Series - Jellyfish (by KimodusPhoto)
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Dottie.
the party ended up being really lame but there was free champagne so that was good.
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Me and an old Spanish cannon, nbd. From our honeymoon!
