Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 27, 2008, Winnipeg, Manitoba C m y k Page a14 expensive bracelets w Winnipeg police want to see the use of electronic monitoring bracelets expanded to those charged in Domestic violence incidents As a Way of reducing the breaches of no Contact orders and the amount of time officers spend tracking Down offenders. Ankle bracelets now in use on Young car thieves in Manitoba Are expensive and they Are unproven As a deterrent As yet. The police service should gather better evidence that they work before investing in the technology. The Pilot project that started in april has had some reassuring feedback from the cases in which Young offenders identified As inveterate car thieves have been fitted with the bracelets while on a Community release program or probation. As of june 30, 13 youths had worn the bracelets. One was broken off and the youth was at Large for 10 Days and another youth tried to disable the device which tracks movements by global positioning technology. Other youths have breached the conditions of their release and were rearrested within 24 hours. Whether the bracelets have proven value As a deterrent however remains to be seen. The one year Pilot project is costing $ 336,000 for the use of 20 bracelets and is run in conjunction with a Host of intensive programs to keep Young people on the straight track. The Winnipeg police service believes monitoring those who repeatedly break no Contact orders will reduce the number of breaches but it should show Good evidence of that. At present police respond to complaints from a spouse that an alleged or convicted abuser is breaching an order of probation or of interim release before trial not to have Contact with a complainant. No Contact orders Are automatic upon a charge of Domestic assault which Means that there Are thousands of such orders issued every year. Breaches can be triggered by something As benign As sending a birthday card to a former spouse or As grave As breaking into that persons Home. At More than $ 16,000 a pop affixing bracelets on a fraction of the alleged or convicted abusers would Cost millions of dollars annually. Using ankle bracelets on those who must be monitored closely could have real value particularly if a sentence has been served and release of an individual considered dangerous is unavoidable. Determining who is dangerous however is not something police alone Are Best placed to do As it requires consideration of an individuals criminal history and state of mind. That program is Best implemented at the provincial or Federal level. Those familiar with Domestic violence court say that repeated breaches Are common which would make general application of a two strikes electronic monitoring policy very expensive especially As a further breach would trigger a police response. Before chief Keith Mccaskill seeks the Money for such a program from his Public founders he should have in hand the evidence that ankle bracelets in fact significantly reduced breaches in jurisdictions where they have been used. Editorials Winnipeg free press wednesday August 27, 2008 Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Equality of civil rights a 14 comment editor Gerald flood 697 7269 Gerald. Flood free press. My. Ca Winnipeg repress. Com have your say the free press welcomes letters from readers. They must include the authors name address and Telephone number. Letters May be edited. Letters to the editor 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg r2x 3b6. Fax 697 7412. E mail letters free press. My. Ca letters represent the opinions of their writers and do not reflect the opinions of the Winnipeg free press or its staff. Poll vote online at wow. Winnipeg repress. Com sex Survey questioned re teen sex anomaly aug. 22 ism All for it if youth Are having less sex having safer sex or Are not being pressured into being sexually Active. But i dont buy the Survey. If More teen boys Are having sex and fewer teen girls Are who do they think the boys Are having sex with i dont believe that its become much easier As a teen boy to admit to having homosexual relationships and i also dont believe that there Are Only one or two girls who Are having sex with All those boys. We absolutely have a society that permits boys to own their sexuality and encourages girls to hide theirs. Remember when you were Young and you lied about things either the boys Are lying the girls Are lying or a bit of both. I dont know what that Survey is being used for and i fully believe those Are the responses that the researchers got but i think the results need to be reconsidered. Sarah Mackinnon Winnipeg truly Safe sex re teen sex anomaly aug. 22 although i agree with your analysis of the anomaly i disagree with your solution to redouble the value of condom use. Many teenage girls Are wisely choosing to abstain from All sexual activity until their wedding night. However it is not to protect themselves from the epidemic of std an ill timed pregnancy or a broken heart. Rather they Are motivated by their religious and moral upbringing on the virtue of chastity. Moreover Only those who remain Chaste until their marriage really experience the notion of Safe sex. For All others it remains a myth. As t. S. Eliot once wrote the Way Forward is the Way Back. Ricardo Dicecca Burlington ont. Mccain a Media Darling re medias Grade school crush on Obama flunks smell test aug. 24. If nothing else John Schweiz res commentary about the medias supposed Grad school crush on Barack Obama lets us know what to expect from the Mccain Campaign in the Lead up to the u. S. Election slag the Liberal Media and suggest that Obama is an extremist by association. John Mccain has also been a Media Darling he has hosted saturday night live appeared countless times on David Letterman and the daily show and even played himself in the r rated sex comedy the wedding crashers. Schweizer complains that if a White candidate had a pastor spewing racist vitriol like of amass preacher that the Media would have a Field Day. Yet Mccain actively courted Rev. John Hagee Only to distance himself once it came to Light that Hagee had said that Hitler was a Hunter and that the persecution of the jews was gods will. The Media has not spent much time on Mccaints role As one of the Keating five a group of u. S. Senators who sought to quash the Federal investigation of a Shady savings and loan which resulted in thousands of people losing their life savings. As for playing the race card Obama said that republicans had suggested that he was unfit for president because he did not look like All the people on american Money. Schweizer says that Mccain. Rightfully stated that no one had done such a thing. In fact Mccain ran a commercial in june superimposing of amass face on a $ 100 Bill which you can see on youtube. How about some Quality commentary from knowledgeable commentators instead of a Schweiz res Mish Mash of propaganda and Cherry picked opinion polls please Dougald Lamont Winnipeg keep All pools open re pools Good for society aug. 23. I agree that the pools need to be kept open but Why Only the pools in the Core and North end what about Young families single Parent or otherwise who have chosen to live in the suburbs Why dont they deserve to have the pools open too our taxes Are supposed to pay for positive things no matter where you live in the City. But from what Kelly Milan suggests if you want to have a Pool open during one of Only two of the warmest weather months then you had better darn Well live in the Core or North end. Its sad for those families who live outside of that zone. They make too much Money and can afford to take your families out to the Lake probably the family cottage or the Beach you know the one that was closed due to algae blooms. Of Well turn on the sprinkler and enjoy oops youll have to pay the water Bill. Guess Well be moving Back to the Core or North end. Barbara Kraft Winnipeg where is just society Shahina Siddi quits article frequent fasting unites one with creator aug. 24 appears to be unfinished. She ends with the sentence islam lays the groundwork for a nurturing and just society. I would like to ask where is this just and nurturing islamic society to which she refers is it saudi Arabia Syria Egypt Iran Iraq Pakistan Libya where is this just and nurturing islamic society Kim Rosenthal Winnipeg improve recycling rate re City to Eye bottled water ban aug. 22. Coun. Harvey Smith should concentrate his efforts on the recycling of plastic water and pop bottles rather than Banning bottled water. Manitoba has a poor recycling rate for the plastic bottles water and pop come in. We return Only about 35 per cent of our bottles. Other provinces with Deposit programs in place see a return rate in the 80 85 per cent Range. Charge 10 cents at the till return the bottle and receive your 10 cents Back. Its Way better for the environment when the Landfill is spared a recyclable product. Greg Hollins Winnipeg Winnipeg free press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 vol 136 no 286 2008 Winnipeg free press a division of up Canadian newspapers limited partnership published seven Days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg Manitoba r2x 3b6, pm 697 7000 a member of the Manitoba press Council Bob Cox / publisher Margo Goodhand / editor to Days question do you think a review of the Way foreign troops operate in Afghanistan is warranted previous question do you agree with Federal health minister Tony Clement that the Lister Osis outbreak highlights the effectiveness of Canadas food safety systems yes 26% no 74% total 1,336 letter of the Day peace movement Strong is the Canadian peace movement poorly equipped to face the challenges of the 21st Century j. L Granatstein thinks thatus the Case. Canada needs a better peace movement aug. 25. But Are things really that bad its True that the peace movement has changed. Gone Are the Days when tens of thousands could be counted on to March for peace. Gone also Are some of the older leaders and its True the movement has been dominated by voices that dont seem to have a plan besides criticizing the status quo. But that Isnit the whole Story. The last 20 to 30 years have also seen the remarkable Rise of peace studies programs across Canada with universities in Ontario Quebec Nova Scotia b. C. And Manitoba offering programs in peace and conflict studies. Winnipeg is seen As a Centre for peace and conflict studies with programs like the Arthur v. Mauro Centre at St. Paulus College the University of Winnipeg Gas global College and at Canadian mennonite University where More than 1,500 students annually take courses in peace and conflict studies. Through these programs a new generation of leaders in the peace movement Are being trained. Churches Are not silent something Granatstein overlooked. In july the annual convention of mennonite Church Canada unanimously passed a Resolution stating that christs message of peace reconciliation and Grace needs to be heard in our country and committing to develop a proposal for promoting the peace message in Canada. All 21 members of the Canadian Council of churches have indicated their commitment to pursuing peace and Justice. The peace movement in Canada is not losing the fight to use Granat steins phrase. Perhaps it is Only regrouping retraining and rethinking its goals As it prepares for new Battle. John Longhurst Winnipeg valuing pregnancy with a Federal election on the horizon the last thing the Harper government wants is a debate Over fetal rights. Thatus Why it has distanced itself from a conservative private members Bill that proposes to make it a crime to injure or kill a fetus during an attack on a pregnant woman. In order to distract attention from that Bill and to assure pro Choice voters that the conservatives do not have a secret Agenda on fetal rights Justice minister Rob Nicholson has instead proposed a Bill that would make pregnancy an aggravating Factor when sentencing those who assault expectant mothers. The Bill or. Nicholson emphasized would leave no room for the introduction of fetal rights and no room by inference for the opposition parties to raise the abortion bogeyman during the next election. In fact the courts already have the Power to judge an assault on a pregnant woman More seriously than an attack on a woman who is not pregnant. There Are no statistics available to compare such sentences but Legal scholars Are confident that most judges already treat pregnancy As an aggravating Factor when passing sentence which is hardly a Bombshell. Nevertheless notwithstanding the apparent political motives for the Bill it would be a worthwhile piece of legislation because it recognizes the vulnerability and special status of pregnant women. Expectant mothers Are less Able to defend themselves or flee from violence and they can suffer More serious harm in an attack than a non pregnant woman. As Well if the fetus is injured or killed the assault can have much More serious and far reaching consequences for the health of the Mother. Furthermore statistics show that pregnant women face a High risk of being assaulted with an estimated one in six being abused during their pregnancy according to one study. Other research suggests the rate of abuse is even higher. The criminal code currently recognizes Many aggravating factors that judges Are supposed to consider in sentencing including evidence that the crime was motivated by hate or prejudice involved a position of Trust was related to terrorism or was committed against a spouse or child. Pregnancy is noticeably absent from the list. Although the courts May already take it into consideration in sentencing it is entirely appropriate that the code be amended to declare that an attack on an expectant Mother is loathsome and requires denunciation. Such a principle recognizes the special place that pregnant women hold in civilized society. A 14_ aug 27 08. Ind a14 8/ 26/ 08 9 04 14 pm ;