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Issue 34.2

Editor: NANCY WRIGHT

4

CCJA AWARDS – NOMINATIONS

5

EDITORIAL
By Irving Kulik


12

ENTREVUE DE L’ACJP AVEC ANDRÉ NORMANDEAU
Par Nancy Wright


13

SNC – Lavalin, the State and Remediation Agreements (RAs)
By François Boillat-Madfouny

19

A first step towards “What to do about prison care systems,
child welfare care systems and juvenile care systems?”

By Jon Friel

22

Biological Witness: DNA Phenotyping
By Janne A. Holmgren

28

Prison, the New Asylum: Canada’s Response to Mental Health Problems
Among Convicted Persons

By Brandi Chrismas

33

Un mot ou deux sur les revues francophones en criminologie (1948-2018)
Par André Normandeau


YOUNG RESEARCHER CONTRIBUTIONS

38

R. v. Gladue and R. v. Ipeelee: The Canadian CJSʼs Response
to Indigenous Overrepresentation

By Brody Scott

42

Solitary Confinement as a Function of the State’s Power Over Life
By Jennifer Moore

47

PRISON REFORM
By Marisa Linscott-Wiltshire


51

COMING EVENTS


Abstracts

CCJA INTERVIEW : ANDRÉ NORMANDEAU
Nancy Wright, Justice Report Editor-In-Chief

This interview with Quebec criminologist, Universite de Montréal professor, and devoted family man, Andre Normandeau, relates how he turned an early passion for helping troubled youth and their victims into a fulfilling career in criminology. Normandeau’s family has a history in law enforcement; his grandfather was a criminal lawyer and his great grandfather was a chief of police in Quebec. After obtaining a BA in criminology at Universite de Montreal, Normandeau pursued an ivy-league education in the US. Upon his return to Quebec, he became a professor at Universite de Montreal and subsequently replaced the renowned Denis Szabo (Canada’s first criminologist and founder of the first criminology department in Canada, at Universite de Montreal) as director of the department, in which capacity he changed the orientation of the Criminology Department to include a major focus on practical training. Normandeau’s vast international experience has involved the directorship of Universite de Montreal’s International Centre for Comparative Criminology (ICCC) and participation in many of its international congresses, and he has also been visiting professor at a vast number of universities in Europe and the US. He has long been involved with the Societe de criminologie du Quebec (SCQ) and his association with CCJA dates back to the early years of his career. He has served as the book review editor (French books) of CCJA’s Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice (CJCCJ) for the past 50 years; has served on CCJA’s board and its advisory committee and helped SCQ organize a number of congresses with CCJA. Normandeau also shares his involvement in public inquiries, elaborates on an article (in this issue of Justice Report) on French and English criminology journals before offering some closing statements on “justice” and “being just” for future criminologists.

SNC – LAVALIN, THE STATE AND REMEDIATION AGREEMENTS (RAS)
François Boillat-Madfouny
Policy Review Committee Member (CCJA)
CCJA Director (Representative of Québec)
Prosecutor (City of Montreal)
Graduate Student (Faculty of Law – Université de Montréal)

Given the recent media attention regarding the engineering firm SNC-Lavalin and the Canadian federal government, I consider it relevant and appropriate to zero in on the starting point of this media attention: “deferred prosecution agreements”, or “remediation agreements”. This policy-review article outlines a few of the criticisms and rationales behind this procedural tool and briefly describes the way it is structured within Canadian criminal law.

A FIRST STEP TOWARDS “WHAT TO DO ABOUT PRISON CARE SYSTEMS, CHILD WELFARE CARE SYSTEMS AND JUVENILE CARE SYSTEMS?”
Jon Friel (R.Psych Alberta)

Jon Friel reports on a question that has been nagging him since he started his career in Alberta over 50 years ago: What do we do? Pointing to the US response to the ongoing crisis in child welfare (i.e., California Evidence-Based Clearing House for Child Welfare – CEBC) as a step in the right direction, Friel questions the lack of Canadian involvement and iterates some concerns over one of the programs CEBC is currently following : Martha Holden’s CARE model. To this end, Friel offers a critical review of Holden’s 2009 book Children and Residential Experiences: Creating Conditions for Change (2009), in which she details her model, to conclude with a call for the establishment of an evidence-based clearing house in Canada.

BIOLOGICAL WITNESS: DNA PHENOTYPING
Janne A. Holmgren
PhD, Professor in the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal University (Calgary, AB)

Non-coding DNA has been used for forensic purposes for over 30 years. The profiles contained in most world DNA data banks are non-coding profiles, meaning the DNA segments are varied between individuals. Phenotyping, a new spin on DNA technology relies on some of the coding segments of DNA that contain information about our physical features. Phenotyping, based on the DNA information selected, can produce a composite sketch of what features an individual might have. This article focuses on what phenotyping can and cannot do. The theme echoed herein is that phenotyping in forensic casework should be used with caution.

PRISON, THE NEW ASYLUM: CANADA’S RESPONSE TO MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS AMONG CONVICTED PERSONS
Brandi Chrismas

In this report on the rates of mental health and substance abuse problems affecting inmates in Canada, Brandi Chrismas posits jails and prisons as the new asylums. The author roots this situation in the Deinstitutionalization Movement of the 1960s when scads of people were discharged from mental hospitals and new laws made civil commitment almost impossible, which has made prison the only option for police. Chrismas extols such measures as Manitoba’s Mental Health Courts and the Winnipeg Drug Treatment Court as showing a lot of promise, but she calls for increased education and awareness across the board, because mental health and substance abuse problems among inmate populations defeat rehabilitation programs and can push offenders into a downward spiral.

UN MOT OU DEUX SUR LES REVUES FRANCOPHONES EN CRIMINOLOGIE (1948-2018)
André Normandeau
Criminologist and Professor, Université de Montréal

This article identifies nine (9) francophone and bilingual criminology journals created over the past 75 years or so, including the Canadian Journal of Criminology and criminal justice (1958-2018). By way of comparison, Normandeau lists some 46 English-language criminology journals. In the second part of the article, the author mentions a French lawyer and criminologist from the University of Aix-Marseille who was “murdered” in Egypt by a terrorist 25 years ago and concludes that the profession of jurist and criminologist is not always as safe as one might think.

R. V. GLADUE AND R. V. IPEELEE: THE CANADIAN CJSʼS RESPONSE TO INDIGENOUS OVERREPRESENTATION
Brody Scott
Undergrad (Criminal Justice), Economics, Justice and Policy Studies, Mount Royal University (Calgary, AB)

This article reports deficient understanding in Canada of the Indigenous cultural reality and the impact of colonialism as a main factor in the overrepresentation of Indigenous offenders within the Canadian criminal justice system. Brody Scott begins with the government’s first attempt to address this issue through the 1996 addition of sentencing principles to the Criminal Code (Section 718.2(e)) that require judges to consider alternatives to imprisonment for Indigenous offenders. Mr. Scott then turns to an appeal case, R v. Gladue (1999), which successfully challenged the lower court’s failure to recognize 718.2(e) in relation to a ‘serious’ crime and also led to the creation of Gladue Reports. Noting that a subsequent Supreme Court ruling, R v. Ipeelee (2002), reaffirmed and clarified certain aspects of Gladue, Brody Scott concludes that these appeals and persistent overrepresentation signal a failure by the lower courts to effectively implement the Canadian Criminal Code when sentencing Indigenous offenders.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT AS A FUNCTION OF THE STATE’S POWER OVER LIFE
Jennifer Moore
Undergraduate, Sociology, Bishop’s University (Sherbrooke, QC)

In this interesting article, Jennifer Moore (undergrad, Bishop’s University, Sherbrooke, Quebec) probes excesses of state power over the lives of its citizens, and particularly through the criminal justice system. Recalling past abuses of state power in relation to corporal punishment, such as public hangings, whippings, etc., Moore sets the stage for a lively and well-informed discussion of current abuses of state power in prisons within a context of solitary confinement and Dr. Lisa Guenther’s notion of social death.

PRISON REFORM
Marisa Linscott-Wiltshire
Global Citizen Class, Centennial College (ON), Progress Campus

In this compelling semi-freestyle article, Marisa Linscott-Wiltshire notes that the Canadian CJS aims to provide a fair, compassionate system, but that prison reform is needed to make this possible— specially in regards to members of groups affected by discrimination. Recalling strain theory and social disorganization theory, this student author also bemoans the fact that access to certain things like employment, education, and necessities is unevenly accessible across the class, race and gender continuum and suggests that discrimination and social inequity are leading some Canadians to criminal behaviour. The author frames her take on the need for prison reform on an emerging model of restorative justice – Sawbonna – being developed by one of her professors, Margot Van Sluytman.

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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