‘Politicizing’ that which is already political

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, July 23, 2012 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Max Read dismisses those who fret about “politicizing” a tragedy.

It’s easy to understand the impulse to decry “politicization”: politics is necessarily antagonistic, and in the aftermath of a violent tragedy confrontation seems distasteful and disrespectful. No one wants to be accused of using a tragedy for “political ends.” But you don’t really get to escape. The insistence that no one talk about politics is itself a political act. Politics is how we effect change in the systems and structures that govern our lives. To take the stance that tragedies are or should remain “apolitical” or “depoliticized” is to say, essentially, that everything is fine and nothing needs to be fixed; that such an act was random and unpreventable. (In a country with rates of violent crime that far exceed our economic and cultural peers, such a sentiment seems misguided at best.) To demand politics be left out of the conversation is only to hide them.

Similarly, there is part of Dave Weigel’s early response to the shooting in Colorado.

I see Chris Cillizza’s getting criticized for writing a well-researched story about whether gun tragedies affect public opinion of guns.(Short version: There are vastly different KINDS of tragedies, but, no.) Lay off! The only time Americans ever talk about gun laws or the effects of gun laws is after tragedies.

There are probably some distinctions that need to be made. Holding a raucous political rally on the day of a prominent tragedy would have been poor form, but no more so than going through with a gala red carpet opening in Paris for the movie linked to the shooting. Erroneously linking the perpetrator to a particular political cause or party isn’t “politicizing” the tragedy, it’s bad journalism. And to say we shouldn’t be afraid of political debate and discussion isn’t the same as excusing politicians who offer rash, poorly conceived responses in the wake of tragedies.

But, with all that said, the idea that we shouldn’t “politicize” a major event is vaguely puerile. We should respect the loss and the grief, but we can’t suspend reality: specifically, the reality that everything of any significance is political. Not “political” in the way that word has become a slur, but political in that it relates to how we govern our society and relate to and interact with each other. The idea of “politicizing” suggests there’s a difference between “politics” and “real life.” Worse, it would also seem to suggest that we find our politics to be generally distasteful.

But that should be an argument against how our politics is conducted. Not with the very idea of democratic governance. We should be able to talk about the very serious matters of policy that are raised by tragedies such as the shootings in Scarborough and Colorado. To suggest we shouldn’t is to suggest we can’t. That we can’t handle a very serious discussion about a very serious issue. For sure, we should respect the very real tragedies that have occurred and our thoughts should be with those affected. But we should not delude ourselves into thinking that anything is made better by declining to engage with the questions of public policy that are raised by these events.

‘It’s classic dopey on dopey’

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, July 20, 2012 at 6:58 PM - 0 Comments

Opposition MPs criticize Jason Kenney for agreeing with what he thought Rob Ford was saying.

Liberal MP John McKay, whose Scarborough riding was rocked by the shooting, said Kenney should have known better than to echo anything said by Ford, whom he accused of fanning “the flames of ignorance and prejudice.” ”It’s classic dopey on dopey,” McKay said in an interview.

McKay, who has spent considerable time since the shooting meeting with residents in the affected community, said they’re “upset that their community is going to be stigmatized.” He said Kenney’s talk of foreigners is only going to make that worse. ”If being born here of Jamaican or Caribbean parentage makes you a foreigner, I guess they’re foreigners,” McKay said, adding that he saw the residents “more as Canadians.”

Bob Rae tweets.

When Jason Kenney takes his policy advice from Rob Ford, you know we’re in deep trouble as a country.

What does Rob Ford want?

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 19, 2012 at 4:24 PM - 0 Comments

The mayor of Toronto doesn’t want money for social programs. Indeed, last month, he voted against accepting federal funding for a gang intervention program.

He would like to see the federal government impose harsher sentences on those convicted of gun-related crimes. And he would also like to somehow prevent individuals convicted of gun-related crimes from living in Toronto.

“I’m going to hopefully meet with the Prime Minister to see if we can toughen our gun laws,” Mayor Rob Ford told radio station AM40 Wednesday night. “Once they’re charged and they go to jail the most important thing is when they get out of jail, I don’t want them living in this city. They can go anywhere else, but I don’t want them in the city.”

Asked how he planned to force gangsters out of Toronto, Mr. Ford said: “I don’t know and that’s what I’m going to sit down with the prime minister and find out: how our immigration laws work. Obviously I have an idea. But whatever I can do to get them out of the city I’m going to, regardless of whether they have family or friends, I don’t want these people, if they’re convicted of a gun crime, to have anything to do with the City of Toronto.”

Daniel Dale notes there has been no public suggestion from police that immigrants were involved in the Scarborough shooting.

‘I want to see what’s the most they can do’

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at 11:02 PM - 0 Comments

In the wake of the Danzig shooting, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford wants a meeting with the Prime Minister.

But he says the federal government has to send a message through the Criminal Code. “Three years for possession of a handgun? That’s nonsense. They should do some serious, hard time, and not come back here,” said the mayor, who promised to pressure the prime minister to lengthen the sentence. “I want to see what’s the most they can do. They can do really whatever they want because they have a majority government, and I’m going to put pressure on them because it’s affecting our city more than any other city in Canada.”

I’m told Ford’s office has asked for a meeting and the Prime Minister’s Office is working to schedule one.

Do we have any idea why people are shooting each other?

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at 1:10 PM - 0 Comments

Criminology professor James Sheptycki laments for how little we understand about gun crime.

I am somewhat pessimistic that we will establish a program of independent academic research into the problems of guns, crime and social order in Canada. Without that knowledge, it is easier for politicians and pundits to pontificate. Mayors can be outraged and disgusted. Federal ministers can tub thump about the need for mandatory minimum sentences. It is business as usual for the crime fighters and business is booming. They are shooting in the dark.

The trouble is, there is not a shred of evidence that business as usual is actually having an effect on criminal subculture. In fact, there are research findings that suggest that some of our current policies make things worse.

See previously: Reaction to the Danzig shooting and Guns, crime and public policy

The Scarborough shootings: Shyanne Charles, gun control, and the Toronto Star

By Michael Petrou - Wednesday, July 18, 2012 at 11:56 AM - 0 Comments

Aaron Vincent Elkaim/CP Photo

I get tired of writing about gun control even before I start typing. It is probably the one topic in Canadian public discourse that is most saturated by emotion and bereft of evidence-based arguments. But some contributions to the debate require a response.

This morning we have the Toronto Star weighing in on Monday night’s Danzig Street shooting, in which two people were killed and another 24 were injured when two men opened fire at each other at a neighbourhood barbeque. All the facts are not yet known, but police suspect gang involvement.

The Star’s solution, according to its paper editorial headline, is that it’s “High time to ban guns.” The editorial continues to note that witnesses should come forward. “But society as a whole can do more by banning private ownership of handguns… Indeed it’s hard to imagine how this could have happened at all if the shooters didn’t have access to easily concealed handguns.

“It’s too early to say where the firearms used in the latest bloodshed came from. But there’s no doubt that handguns — legal and otherwise — are all too common and easily obtained. Any reduction in the supply available to criminals would help…

“As of the end of May, there were almost 700,000 legally registered handguns in this country — a sizeable arsenal waiting to be stolen by criminals. While this isn’t the main origin of firepower, private collections represent a significant source that should be shut down.”

Where to begin?  Let’s start with a plea for facts. Continue…

Guns, crime and public policy

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 at 8:01 PM - 0 Comments

To the official statements on last night’s shooting in Scarborough, the Globe adds comment from Julian Fantino and John MacKay.

“This is not a time for panicking. It is a time for people to work together at all levels and find solutions that actually will deal with these people in a preventable way,” Mr. Fantino, the International Development Minister, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. Perpetrators of these types of crimes have not been deterred by the criminal justice responses that existed for many years, he said. “That is why we are stiffening things up somewhat to make the consequences more meaningful and more certain. And, although that’s not the cure-all and the end-all, it does provide some answers.”

… Liberal MP John McKay, in whose riding the shootings took place, said there are better ways to spend crime-fighting dollars than the measures introduced by the Conservatives. But “to be candid about it, I frankly don’t know that any legislation can deal with something like this,” Mr. McKay said. “This is some immature individual who decided that they are going to solve their problems at the end of a barrel of a gun.”

Meanwhile, Vic Toews laments for judges who have refused to abide by mandatory minimum sentencing legislation.

“We are very concerned about the courts doing that, because illegal firearms — especially those smuggled in from the United States … minimum prison sentences are absolutely essential to create a strong deterrent against that kind of activity,” Toews said in an interview with Prairie network Golden West Radio. ”These guns are being used by gangs in order to perpetrate the kind of violence that we’ve seen on our streets.”

For last week’s print edition, Colby Cosh looked at the two rulings this year in Ontario that have found the mandatory sentences inappropriate.

Reaction to the Danzig shooting

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 at 4:52 PM - 0 Comments

A joint statement from Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and International Cooperation Minister Julian Fantino (the Conservative MP for Vaughan) on the shooting in Scarborough last night.

“Our Government was very saddened to hear about this shooting in Toronto last night.  We condemn this brazen shooting and extend our heartfelt condolences to the victims and their families.

“Canadians are concerned about violent crime, that’s why over the past six years our Government has introduced tough-on-crime legislation, like the Safe Streets and Communities Act, to keep dangerous criminals and gang members off the streets and out of our communities. We have also taken steps to ensure our border is open to legitimate travel and trade but closed to criminals and gun smugglers.

“Our Conservative Government has introduced mandatory minimum penalties for all serious firearms offences. We call on the Opposition to support victims and our actions to improve the safety of Canadian families. Canadians can count on us to stand up for victims and to continue strengthening our justice system so that those who commit serious crimes, particularly with firearms, serve serious jail time.

“Illegal guns and the criminals who use them have no place in our society.  Our Government is committed to ensuring criminals are held fully accountable for their actions and that the safety and security of law-abiding Canadians comes first in Canada’s justice system.”

A statement from NDP MPs Rathika Sitsabaiesan and Dan Harris is here. Statements from interim Liberal leader Bob Rae and Liberal MP John McKay are here.

The most fascinating report on the Scarborough shooting? On Reddit.

By Jesse Brown - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 at 4:15 PM - 0 Comments

Here‘s the most riveting piece of journalism I’ve read in recent memory. It’s an account of last night’s shooting at a suburban block party in Scarborough, north east of metro Toronto, where a reported 22 people were injured and another 2 killed. It’s the most complete recounting of the incident published yet, containing all sorts of details absent from mainstream media reports. So who scooped the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Sun and the CBC? Someone calling themself  BitchslappedByLogic, a pseudonymous contributor to the social news site Reddit who created the report solely by scraping Twitter for first-hand accounts.

The result is extraordinary, a near-instant scrapbook of the crime that intimately connects us with the community around it. The young people in the Scarborough community seem to use Twitter a lot. Many of the people whose tweets went into the scrapbook have tweeted over 30,000 times, with average audiences of less than 700 followers. For a gang-riddled community that vilifies “snitching” above all offenses, there’s a lot of loose talk online, most of it written in Caribbean patois-inflected street slang, seemingly intended solely for an audience of close friends, but all of it of course open to the public.

BitchslappedByLogic starts before the party even began, linking to tweets from the party’s host and from folks planning to attend. Clicking the links takes one on a chilling trip back in time, when an exuberant invite tweet went out with an Instagram photo of cognac bottles. At least three people predicted trouble, one of them gravely cautioning her followers: “[tonight] let us not war but party and bullshit.”

Continue…

The Commons: To believe

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, May 2, 2011 at 1:11 AM - 36 Comments

Just after midnight, at something like 39,000 feet—the reporters at the back of the plane, taken with the elation that comes as a long journey nears an end, having turned this cross-cross country flight into a giddy party—he danced to Aretha Franklin’s R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Eight hours later, having landed in Montreal six and a half hours earlier, Jack Layton boarded a bus that bears a gigantic likeness of his face and set off for a market downtown. Upon arrival he disembarked and was greeted by a man who proclaimed him the next prime minister of Canada and handed him two miniature flags. Strolling the scene, with Thomas Mulcair and the local candidate keeping close, he paused at a fruit stand and accepted a slice of watermelon. A woman stopped him and asked him to take a picture with her daughters and their dog. He cooed over an infant and purchased some dates. The proprietor of a cheese shop stepped outside to shake his hand.

Across the street then and into the middle of a mob that waited to hear him.

“You have an historic opportunity here,” he told them. Continue…