Tina Fontaine, Arresting Journalists, and Fishy Crime Stats

March 23, 2018

So episode 73 – a new record.  But you know that right? Because you subscribe to the show on iTunes and have already rated and reviewed the podcast – right? You should.

Hey look we have a sponsor! Let the podcast money start rolling in! But seriously a huge thanks to Emond Publishing!

So, after some technical difficulties we have a new episode – sorry about that. Maybe it is time to start one of those Patreon deals so we can buy some fancy equipment!

We start off with another hard topic – another verdict in a case involving a young indigenous victim. We look at the tragic case of Tina Fontaine. The system failed her at every step of her life and last month a jury acquitted the man accused of murdering her. But did the criminal justice process fail her? We take a look at the trial and the jury’s verdict.

Then we move on to the bizarre case of a Radio Canada journalist arrested for criminal harassment for doing his job. The charges were dropped but WTF.

And finally we take on the federal government’s cherry picking of crime stats. Fear is a very good motivator and this is what our police and politicians depend on. Fear of guns. Fear of gangs. Fear of drugs. Fear of violence. Fear to justify seemingly ever-increasing police budgets.

The reality is that fear of increasing violent crime is completely irrational. Canadians have never been safer.  The most recent crime statistics continue a two-decade trend of decreasing violent crime.  Violent crime rates were 24 per cent lower in 2016 than they were a decade earlier and are lower today than they has ever been in the last half-century.

But the federal government chose to manipulate statistics about gun violence to sell the budget and new firearm restrictions.

We also have some new art – it is still new because it is way easier to just copy and past this section each week – from an awesome young designer Parker Mazerolle – serious he is crazy good – go check out his work.

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Emilie Taman on Twitter: @EmilieTaman

Michael Spratt on Twitter: @mspratt

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