Madu has introduced Bill 63, the Police (Street Checks and Carding) Amendment Act, 2021. The bill purports to "formalizes the ban on carding and guide[] how street checks are done." As with the policy it codifies, the bill is a bait and switch.
Banning carding while allowing street checks to continue, especially for what is called "crime prevention activities", makes zero sense.
Here are the definitions of carding and street checks in the government's news release. See if you can tell the difference between both. I'll start with carding: "when officers randomly request personal information from a member of the public without reasonable grounds."
Street checks refer to interactions or observations that result in an officer collecting personal and/or identifying information and entering it into a database for future use as per [enumerated] activities" including "crime prevention activities".
What both things have in common is that a police officer is stopping a person who has not committed a crime and in some cases, not even suspected of having committed one. Crime prevention activities are so vague as to encompass a ton of police shenanigans.
Street checks disproportionately target racialized persons. And once your personal information is collected and entered into a database, the police then has legitimate reason to harass you.
If the Minister really wants to make policing safer for racialized persons, ban both. Giving with one hand and taking back with another is not progress.
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Live tweeting today's presser: It's 4:33. Lateness is typical and there is a demonic waiting music playing.
There is a slide of COVID dos and donts just to pass the time. Anticipation is building. Demonic music still playing. I think it is intended to lull you into a false sense of security.
I shazamed the tune. Shazam says "NO RESULT"
It is too fresh to be Mart Kenney though.
For those in the back - medical officers of health across the country have similar powers. Our CMOH can do this without needing to consult with anyone.
@Lorian_H and I have a piece we have submitted for publication on this. We can't put a rush order on it, but take it from us - we have studied the matter across the country and confirm that this power is real.
Our @CMOH_Alberta certainly can. Here are screenshots from our Public Health Act. You don't need to be a lawyer to get what the sections say.
EPS choosing the coldest period in the season to harass people without shelter tells you everything you need to know about why we need less policing and more emphasis on community services for persons on the margins of society.
That they are doing this while the police is also participating in the Task Force to solve all of Edmonton's problems/racism also shows bad faith and why I think the Task Force is all show.
Last year a number of us told #yegcc to divest from policing and redirect the funds to ending homelessness, among other things. The city's response was to form a Task Force. I don't know what they expect the Task Force to say that they haven't been told already.
Here we go. The Judge is rendering her decision on the "Cancelling Christmas" case.
Judge making important note that they are seeking an interlocutory order - a quick and temporary decision on the issues pending full consideration by the court at a later date.
Think of it as "let's put out the fires first before we sit down to talk about how this fire started."
So let's talk about a Black person being the first vaccine recipient in the U.S. This is a massive personal sacrifice that will go a long way in encouraging more Black people to get vaccinated. Why?
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine trials did not enroll many Black people. Here's info from one Phase 1/2 trial focused on immunogenicity: "Most participants were caucasian (96.7%) with one African American and Asian participant (1.7% each)." Notice something weird?
The lack of diversity is an issue for all COVID vaccine candidates. I have been asked above what this means for communities not included in the trials when it comes to receiving the vaccine. My answer: get the vaccine. Why?