Studying the history of law in Iran might help point the way to improving legal systems in the West
You might be tempted to think Jairan Gahan’s interest in the legal history of sex in Iran is purely academic. She is most fascinated by the early 20th century, following Iran’s Constitutional Revolution of 1906, when the country was drafting its criminal code. How could that possibly be relevant to life in the modern state, especially…
All the social and justice indicators show that things have only worsened among Indigenous peoples
The March 9, 1988, police shooting of J.J. Harper on the streets of Winnipeg and the much earlier murder of Helen Betty Osborne in The Pas in 1971 led Manitoba Premier Howard Pawley’s government to commission the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry (AJI) on April 13, 1988. This occurred in the middle of the election campaign that…
Leaders in NATO countries are guilty of crimes against humanity, yet only Africans are tried
In recent months, words like genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes have been used extensively in the media. These are important legal terms, and they shouldn’t be used loosely. Using them as political weapons risks making them meaningless. The word ‘genocide’ was coined in 1944 by Polish-Jewish law professor Raphael Lemkin after he studied…
Your employees can inadvertently be a cybercriminal’s best friend
When breaking through an organization’s security defences, employees who create vulnerabilities are a cybercriminal’s best friend. While technical security safeguards are essential, employees continue to be the weakest link when it comes to protecting corporate information from cybercriminals of various shapes, sizes and motivations. Cybercriminals regularly convince inattentive employees, through a phishing attack, to engage…
We are venturing into a new authoritarian version of what used to be a wonderful country
The discussions held by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Premiers leading up to the imposition of The Emergencies Act will not be made public, but the results are obvious: All Premiers except one, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, told Trudeau not to do it. I’m sure that they all urged the Prime Minister to take…
Attack on the Coastal GasLink site was far more violent than the Freedom Convoy
What Canada offers to its citizens isn’t glamorous or sexy, and it doesn’t inspire the beating of drums. It’s peace, order and good governance. These modest goals are accepted and expected by most Canadians. We may even have tended to take them for granted. But our peace and order have been threatened. For the past…
The “theatre” of security is not actual security
In the current Canadian Freedom Convoy emergency, it’s important to remember that we have the “theatre” of security, not actual security. We have badges, signs, uniforms, guns, scans, and pat-downs. We’re told to say something if we see something but are not told what to look for or whom to tell. This theatre accomplishes less…
Canada, among other Western nations, was culpable for his murder
Malcolm X called Patrice Lumumba “The greatest black man ever to walk the continent of Africa.” Lumumba was a very principled man – and one who’s still revered 61 years after his murder. Lumumba was the first prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He brought people together because he embraced the highest…
Democracies, even Canada, are beginning to wake up to the threats posed by China
In an end-of-year message to Canadians, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that Beijing was playing democracies off against each other, suggesting the country might begin a much needed policy change to respond to China’s “coercive diplomacy.” Soon after, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, let it be known that the Trudeau government is developing…
U of A criminology program has highest rate of Indigenous enrolment among all arts programs
Growing up near Lac La Biche, Alta., Shaylee Lyne Desjarlais-Whitford couldn’t help noticing how Indigenous people were treated differently by the justice system. She saw how many close to her on the Kikino Métis Settlement didn’t get fair representation when charged with an offence. “Prosecutors were throwing cases away just to get them done,” she…