Summary of Meetings: Social Justice
Number of Meetings Held:2
November 12, 2020
Registration Count: 36
Guest Speaker: Meenakshi Mannoe, policing campaigner at Pivot Legal Society Amber Prince, off-reserve member of the Sucker Creek Nation in Northern Alberta (Treaty 8), and a staff lawyer at Atira Women's Resource Society Carly Teillet, Community Lawyer with the BC Civil Liberties Association
Meeting Title/Topic: Police Accountability
Synopsis: These presenters shared their thoughts, experience and substantive knowledge in an open discussion panel format on police accountability, including the issues of: challenging criminalization and policing from a campaign perspective; seeing the Defund Movement as a material attempt to shift our collective and shared approaches to inequality, especially anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism; being aware of the host of oppresions that inform the concept of "law and order"; reflections on the Campbell decision, the ongoing needs of Indigenous Peoples vis-a-vis policing, and how to be good allies; the importance of Gladue decisions in justice reform; implications of the criminalization of sex work, among other related topics.
February 18, 2021
Registration Count: 27
Guest Speaker: Garth Mullins (he/him), Host and Executive Producer of Crackdown, Community Organizer Kali Sedgemore (they/them), PHS Peer Supervisor, Molson Overdose Protection Site & Mobile Overdose Protection Unit, a youth peer supporter, VCH peer harm reduction leader, and outreach worker Caitlin Shane (she/her), Staff Lawyer with Pivot Legal Society
Meeting Title/Topic: Effective & Compassionate Drug Policy
Synopsis: Topics include: major harms of drug prohibition, roles of government in contributing to the failed war on drugs, and importance of including people with lived/living experience to inform law reform. As well as, recent proposed amendments to the Mental Health Act
Comments and Observations of the Chair
The pandemic made it difficult to get motivated/organized for a third event (Zoom burnout). Hopefully we can meet in person again in the next term! Submitted by Section Co-Chairs, Joseph Doyle & Aleem S. Bharmal, Q.C.