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Issue 32.1

Editor: NANCY WRIGHT

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EDITORIAL
By Irving Kulik, CCJA Executive Director

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CCJA NOTICES

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CCJA AWARDS


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INTRODUCTION AU PHÉNOMÈNE DU VIEILLISSEMENT DES PERSONNES ÂGÉES JUDICIARISÉES AU SEIN DU RÉSEAU CORRECTIONNEL CANADIEN…

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EXPLOSION DU NOMBRE DE PERSONNES ÂGÉES INCARCÉRÉES
Par Michel Gagnon et Michel Dunn

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L’INTERVENTION GÉRONTO-CRIMINOLOGIQUE
Par Michel Gagnon et Michel Dunn

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LE FACILITATEUR GÉRONTO-CRIMINOLOGUE
Par Michel Gagnon et Michel Dunn

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SORTIR DE PRISON ÂGÉ. ET APRÈS?
Par Claire Guenat

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LE SERVICE OXYGÈNE POUR PERSONNES ÂGÉES JUDICIARISÉES
Par Patricia Staniak


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RECESSION AND CRIME IN EDMONTON: STRAIN THEORY
IN THE MODERN WORLD
—A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE LINK BETWEEN ECONOMY AND CRIME—

By Amanda L. Nicolucci

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COMMUNITY OF RESTORATIVE RESEARCHERS: INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
Par Margot Van Sluytman


SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL ISSUE ON TERRORISM
CONT’D FROM 31.4

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THE TERRORIST WITHIN: FROM A RESTORATIVE LENS (RJ)
By Theo Gavrielides

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TERRORISM IN AUSTRALIA: RESEARCH, RESPONSES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
By Jeffrey E. Pfeifer

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MATERIAL SUPPORT OF TERRORISM
By Erik Luna

STUDENT SPACE

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TERRORISM: A REFLECTION ON THE PERSPECTIVE OF INDIAN POLICE
By Sthita Prajna Mohanty


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CONGRESS 2017 HIGHLIGHTS

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COMING EVENTS


Editorial

By Irving Kulik, CCJA Executive Director

As we journey into a new year we usually think of new beginnings, new resolutions and perhaps great aspirations. In reality, of course, little changes as the clock strikes midnight on December 31, in spite of the champagne bubbles and celebrations. As the months roll by, yesterday’s challenges remain to be addressed today and over the coming months. Other challenges will be added as a result of the recent US elections. Not long ago “hope and change” was on display for our neighbours south of the border. While many may carry high hopes going forward, we in Canada need to be paying attention to our neighbours and the many, many changes in the wake of January 20. We will also be impacted.

One of the earliest lessons to learn from the election results was the shock experienced by all the experts and pollsters. Of course if you only talk to those who share your views, you confirm only your own perspectives. Let us not forget that no monopoly on ideas exists in a democracy. As we promote effective criminal justice policies, we need to also make room for diverse opinions.

We pride ourselves on our values, our independent thinking and our Canadian way of life. We would fool ourselves, however, not to carefully watch developments in the US. The USA is our closest neighbour, largest trading partner and, even with its role diminished, is still the leader of the free world. So what can we expect in our world from the new administration in Washington? No one can yet predict all that may arrive, but a few matters easily come to mind.

CCJA has often presented briefs that challenge the need for more ‘tough on crime’ legislation which in our view accomplishes little in terms of public safety while increasing the costs, in economic and human terms, of growing incarceration. The US President-elect has recently criticized the release of thousands of detainees over the last while. Given his emphasis on security and terrorism we may expect the US incarcerated population to rise again after years of some decline. This should not impact us directly or immediately, but we will feel the influence. There is always an effect on Canada when the US spawns new trends. It will take time, but it may come here as well. The old adage “When the US has a cold, Canada coughs” remains a truism. How long will it be until we return to ‘tough on crime’?

Terrorism, of course, is an international problem and as the US tightens controls and borders we may have to do the same. Too much of our trade and indeed our economy is dependent on cross-border traffic. We have recently provided input into our government’s National Security Consultation process which came as a follow-up to the Harper Government’s C-51 legislation. We have been impatient with the time it has taken for some modifications to be legislated. Now, however, it is inconceivable that Canada will not keep an eye on developments by President Trump’s administration before presenting any new legislation in this area.

Canada prides itself on its openness to immigrants. While Canada has welcomed more than 38 0 00 Syrian immigrants, the US – with a population ten times the size – received only about 10 000. Notwithstanding, the criticism there has been unwavering and was a major issue in the presidential campaign. A more restrictive US immigration policy may well have an impact on us, for example on travel restrictions, although to what extent is hard to foresee.

The direction of the US Supreme Court will be changing quickly with the selection of the 9th justice and even more as retiring judges are replaced over the midterm. A large number of vacancies on federal benches need to be filled as well. Clearly new nominees to US courts will be chosen for their avowed conservative views. Will their decisions have a direct impact on Canadian jurisprudence? Probably not; however, they may affect us in other areas of our tight relationship, particularly commerce.

While these thoughts may be somewhat depressing rather than hopeful, the reality is that we do not yet know how things will unfold over time. There is much more to the management of an enterprise as large as a democratic government than the ideology of its leader. I maintain hope that we and our values will also have some positive influence on the US and temper many of the ideological themes espoused during a very divisive and unusual election campaign.

Hoping and wishing you all a peaceful new year.

Irving Kulik


Abstracts

INTRODUCTION AU PHÉNOMÈNE DU VIEILLISSEMENT DES PERSONNES JUDICIARISÉES ÂGÉES AU SEIN DU RÉSEAU CORRECTIONNEL CANADIEN
By Michel Gagnon and Michel Dunn (3, pages 9-13), Claire Guenat (1, page 14), and Patricia Staniak (1, page 14-15)

This series of articles propose a workable balance between preserving the dignity of elderly inmates (50+), criminogenic issues, and the limits of the criminal justice network’s human and financial resources and prison structures. In the first three articles, Michel Gagnon and Michel Dunn propose an intervention and discharge planning model to address the needs of elderly inmates and parolees. To this end, Michel Gagnon and co-author Michel Dunn present a geronto-criminological intervention model designed to support a range of activities that are intended to speed-up ‘cascading’ and the eventual release of elderly individuals into the community. The authors have created a Manual, supported by a Toolbox (instructions to the facilitators, pretests and posttests, homework exercises, testimonies, self-evaluation exercises, etc.) to help facilitators assist elderly inmates and parolees in learning to better care for their mental and physical health, deal with the past, and approach old age with hope and dignity. While similar services for elderly offenders exist in certain penitentiaries, Gagnon and Dunn call for a unified implementation across the federal correctional system. In the fourth article, Patricia Staniak (Coordinator of Service Oxygène) reports on a discharge planning initiative directed at elderly inmates and parolees by presenting the profiles of four elderly parolees facing various issues, including poor nutrition, unhealthy lifestyles and unresolved trauma from victimization prior to offending and/or while in prison. The final article, by Claire Guenat, lists the array of issues – major health problems, physical disability, fragile mental health, low income, lack of social skills, little or no work experience, unfamiliarity with technology, isolation, and lack of family/friends – taken into account by Service Oxygène. To this end, she presents the findings of a study carried out among 20 elderly offenders (50+) that show how re-entry often means starting over from zero, that interventions proposed by Service Oxygene can help make the difference, and that satellite apartments are often the last resort to homelessness.

RECESSION AND CRIME IN EDMONTON: STRAIN THEORY IN THE MODERN WORLD —A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE LINK BETWEEN ECONOMY AND CRIME—
By Amanda L. Nicolucci

This article explores the relationship between increases in certain types of crime, loss of employment, and strain theory. Within a framework of Robert K. Merton’s classical strain theory (1957) and Robert Agnew’s 1992 migration of said theory to include the impact of strain on crime rates and delinquency, Nicolucci uses statistics from the Edmonton Police Service to fathom the connection between recessionary pressures caused by fluctuating oil prices and rising property crime in Edmonton, Alberta.

COMMUNITY OF RESTORATIVE RESEARCHERS: INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD
By Margot Van Sluytman, Restorative Practitioner and Therapeutic Writing Facilitator, Sawbonna Project for Living Justice (Canada)

This article by Margot Van Sluytman informs on the Community of Restorative Researchers founded in 2013 by Ian Marder, University of Leeds (UK) and Ms. Sluytman’s own lived-experience of restorative justice. In this article, Van Sluytman applauds Marder’s implementation of this board, terming it a community of relationships that nourishes, challenges, deepens and expands both the reason and the manner in which we approach restorative research. Within a framework of Marder’s maxim that “networks like this are about information sharing and relationship building”, Van Sluytman relates her own lived-experience of restorative justice following the murder of her father, Theodore Van Sluytman. She recalls how this journey led her to develop the Sawbonna (I see you) Project based on the values of restorative justice: respect, responsibility, and relationship. Van Sluytman also pays homage to Emma’s Acres, a garden project (founded by the man who murdered her father, Glen Flett, and his wife Sherry) in which those serving time can give back to community. As such, Van Sluytman informs on the Community of Restorative Researchers and its International Advisory Board, of which she is a member, while rendering the essence of her and Glen’s respective journeys to find and create spaces that honour the gift of healing through reconciliation.

THE TERRORIST WITHIN: FROM A RESTORATIVE LENS
By Theo Gavrielides, Founder and Director of The IARS International Institute, UK; Co-Director of Restorative Justice for All, UK; Visiting Professor at Buckinghamshire New University, UK; Adjunct Professor at the School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, Canada.

In this passionate and introspective rendering, Gavrielides advances the abject complicity between the world we have created and certain terrorist activity. In this light, he holds up restorative justice (RJ) as an ethos that is particularly well-suited for unravelling the motivations for such terrorist activity because this former is founded in the belief that there is good in everyone and that our communities will apply RJ whether or not our governments choose to endorse or fund it. Holding up the Je suis Charlie slogan as an expression of a reflective solidarity and shared feeling of community and ownership in what happened in France, Gavrielides points out that this demonstration did not involve any encounter between victims and offenders and that follow-up interviews with the killers’ relatives (and other members of the Muslim community) showed it to be an inclusive and constructive act in making them feel part of the solution and no longer the enemy. Quoting Walgrave, Gavrielides thus lays bare a “restorative social ethics [that] could contribute to a decrease in terrorism”.

TERRORISM IN AUSTRALIA: RESEARCH, RESPONSES AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
By Jeffrey E. Pfeifer

Pfeifer discusses Australia’s efforts to establish a well-informed and strategic response informed by international cooperation and cross-jurisdictional research and discusses two important trends in this regard: initiatives with Asian-Pacific jurisdictions and evidence-based direction for links between Australia and various Middle-Eastern jurisdictions. At the domestic level, Pfeifer explores the knowledge-base and scope of policing practices: (1) establishing agencies specifically assessing threat (see, e.g., Pathé et al., 2015) and using case studies to identify potential dangers posed by individuals (see, e.g., 2010/Porter & Kebbell, 2011); (2) applying existing psychological and policing models to the issue of domestic terrorism through community policing models (Dunn et al., 2016) and using psychological profiling (Wilson, 2008); and (3), trying to proactively identify and protect areas of susceptibility to terrorist attack (e.g., agroterrorism) (Ungerer & Rogers, 2006). Pfeifer emphasizes that the influence of the fear factor on public perceptions and the role of fear on safety, security and decision-making constitute important aspects of the issue that are under-investigated in Australia as elsewhere and that research is being conducted into determining whether fear can be used by jurisdictions (through media, etc.) to encourage a proactive citizenry without itself having the same impact as terrorist activity.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to the author: Centre for Forensic and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Psychological Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Mail H24, PO Box 218, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia 3122 or jpfeifer@swin.edu.au.

MATERIAL SUPPORT OF TERRORISM
By Erik Luna, Amelia D. Lewis, Professor of Constitutional & Criminal Law, Arizona State University, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Erik Luna here ponders U.S. laws that criminalize the “material support” of terrorism. Positing that material support provisions represent a movement away from reactive to proactive counterterrorism policy, Luna focuses on a statute in the U.S. Code which criminalizes the provision of material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Luna emphasizes that the designation of organizations as terrorist and the listing of certain things as material support has raised difficult constitutional questions. As Luna notes, however, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the statute and, indeed, Canada has adopted a somewhat similar scheme for identifying terrorist groups. In this way, both nations deviate from the idea of universality of criminal law by listing groups as enemies of the state. Although this may be justifiable in our post-9/11 world, Luna warns that we must not forget the extraordinary nature of associational guilt in a liberal constitutional democracy.

TERRORISM: A REFLECTION ON THE PERSPECTIVE OF INDIAN POLICE
By Sthita Prajna Mohanty, Doctoral candidate, KIIT School of Law, Bhubaneswar, India

Law student Sthita Prajna Mohany suggests that a lack of public awareness, response mechanisms, and modernization combine with otherwise outmoded policy to render Indian police efforts null in the face of terrorism and that new approaches such as Community Policing must be embraced. Mahoney advocates a complete overhaul of the colonial-based Indian law enforcement governance and the creation of mechanisms and practices that will foster a positive connection between citizens and the state at the local level in order to more effectively combat potential acts of terrorism.


CCJA NOTICES

The CCJA congratulates CHELSEA G. PORTER,

as the recipient of a Mount Royal University scholarship, the benefits of which include CCJA membership and publication of Ms. Porter’s article entitled “Rehabilitation of Criminals: Is it worth it?” – in No. 32.2 (Spring, 2017) of the Justice Report.

GENEVIÈVE BOUCHER BOUDREAU, CCJA Executive Assistant and Project Coordinator

As of November 1, 2017 the responsibilities of Geneviève B Boudreau (CCJA Executive Assistant) were expanded to make her CCJA Project Coordinator. Boudreau’s new responsibilities include the coordination of new projects, such as pan-national workshops and conferences, with the CCJA affiliates. Boudreau will also work with the affiliates on new initiatives focused on expanding their dialogue with the CCJA national office.

Biographical Note
Geneviève Boucher Boudreau is a PhD candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Ottawa. Her research focuses on the concepts of violence, national identity, radicalization and religion. She holds an M.A. in Anthropology (Université Laval), an M.A. in Conflict Resolution and Mediation (Tel Aviv University) and was an intern consultant for the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel. After a decade of academic work and fieldwork based in the Middle East, Geneviève’s current research adopts an ethnographic approach that will generate knowledge about communications between Muslim groups in order to develop alternative counterterrorism strategies. Geneviève’s professional experiences have also allowed her to develop skills in media analysis, policy decision-making, international mediation, and leadership.

CONGRATULATIONS TO EMMA KELLY, recipient of the CCJA’s student award!

Emma Kelly is a third year student at the University of Guelph-Humber, working towards her Bachelor of Applied Science in Justice Studies and diploma in Community Justice Services. Her passion for learning has led to work and volunteer experience in many justice-related positions. She is currently a volunteer with Innocence Canada (formerly the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted), which has opened her eyes to the shortcomings of the justice system and driven her to address them in future work. Emma has also volunteered with Pride Toronto and Amnesty International. Her interest in justice has led to work experience with Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis in Public Education and the City of Brampton’s Property Standards enforcement division as an inspector. Emma has also been active on campus in societies, teams, committees and governance. She currently sits on her student government’s Board of Directors. She is extremely grateful to be a recipient of the CCJA Student Award and will use it to further her work in the justice field.

Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the Association’s views, but are included to encourage reflection and action on the criminal justice system throughout Canada.

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