FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Aug 24

It’s About Time that Canada Does Something Concrete to Deal With Wrongful Convictions

by bcurry

On Sept. 15, 1990, Tim Rees was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for at least 15 years for a ten-year-old girl’s murder in Ontario, Canada.  Rees always denied killing the girl.  However, after serving 26 years in prison for the murder, it was announced that Rees, who is now sixty years old, will have his sentence reviewed by the Ontario Court of Appeal, after Canada’s Attorney General recently ordered a new appeal.  The AG noted in his press release that there is a “reasonable basis to conclude that a miscarriage of justice likely occurred.”  Rees was released on parole in 2016, where he remains.  On the year he was released, Innocence Canada — a non-profit organization that advocates for wrongfully convicted citizens — took his case.  Two years later, an application was filed with the former minister of justice claiming Rees had been wrongfully convicted.  Their strongest argument for the application was an undisclosed “highly incriminating statement” by the landlord of the victim’s family home, which he had made to the Toronto police homicide squad.

Tim Rees case is only the most recent example of someone who was wrongfully convicted of a crime and later could be exonerated due to new evidence.  Many more cases came about in the U.S. and Canada with the arrival of DNA tests used to investigate previous convictions years ago, used eventually to determine the innocence of those wrongfully convicted.  I would highly recommend that one read *Wrongfully Convicted by Kent Roach which highlights several cases of wrongful convictions in Canada to get a fuller understanding of this past and current issue.

As noted, under the current system, it’s the justice minister who decides on miscarriage of justice applications, often a long and costly process.  Recently, the current federal government in Canada introduced Bill C-40 which if passed would create an independent commission to review such applications and make decisions about whether to order a new trial or appeal.  James Lockyer, co-founder of Innocence Canada, said his organization has been pushing for the creation of an independent commission for some 30 years.  The proposed Miscarriage of Justice Review Commission would be an independent administrative body.  It would have a full-time chief commissioner and four to eight other commissioners.  According to background briefing materials, at least one-third, but not more than half, must be lawyers with experience in criminal law.  Such independent bodies and processes already exist in countries such as the U.K., Scotland and New Zealand.  They apparently have seen the appeals system move much more quickly and flexibly with respect to the applications that come forward.

In recent years, there understandingly has been much attention given to the rights of victims of crime.  To have introduced any legislation facilitating the review of potentially wrongful convictions does take a certain degree of political courage as noted by James Lockyer.  However, there has been one too many cases of wrongful convictions to simply ignore the issue.  In Canada, the issue was raised years ago in the sensational case of David Milgaard who was wrongfully convicted for rape and murder in 1969 and spent 23 years in jail.  As Lockyer noted in a National Post article published on February 16, 2023 that: “If this commission had existed back in the early 1970s, it can safely be said it would have saved David Milgaard at least two decades of those 23 years that he spent in prison.”

Everyone recognizes that our justice systems, including law and enforcement, are not always about justice but sometimes about process and political pressures.  The system is not infallible. There needs to be better means for those who possibly were wrongfully convicted to have their cases reviewed in an independent, fair and timely manner.

*Wrongfully Convicted (Guilty Pleas, Imagined Crimes, and What Canada Must Do To Safeguard Justice): Kent Roach (Simon & Schuster, Toronto, 2023)

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Aug 18

Environmental Crisis for Governments Only Heightened by the Impact on People

by bcurry

This has been a summer of extreme weather events followed by natural disasters such as flooding and wildfires — not only in North America but globally.  Whether we’re talking about wildfires near Yellowknife in Canada’s Northwest Territories or the devastation in Maui’s seaside community of Lahaina, everyone agrees that this year so far has been the worst one on record for wildfires.  In addition, one has the flooding throughout the American south and northeast, and the earlier floods that greatly damaged Halifax and its surroundings in Nova Scotia, Canada.  In several cases, we were not adequately prepared for the consequences of such extreme weather patterns involving droughts and severe storms, often a deadly combination.  Severe storms are frequently followed by or include tornado activity, which also has proven to be deadly in many cases.

Those of us who live in regions which for the most part have avoided such calamities should be thankful for what we have, and not complain about poor vacation weather or extreme heat.  Even lengthy periods of extreme heat can be deadly as witnessed in the southern U.S. and west coast of Canada.  Yes, we will complain of smoke flowing in from our wildfires.  However, while poor air quality at certain levels can be hazardous to our health, we can do something ourselves to mitigate the impact.  The same cannot be said for those directly facing wildfires, flooding and tornadoes. 

Then there are the enormous costs to all of us as a result of natural disasters.  In the case of Maui, damage estimates already range in the 6 to 7 billion dollars U.S.  The current evacuation of Yellowknife’s population, some 20,000 people, involves the largest single airlift of people in Canadian history.  Fighting the wildfires across Canada will amount to hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars.  For individuals in high risk zones for natural disasters, the cost of insuring their property has gone sky high.  In some cases, insurers are even refusing to insure many properties in such areas.  Food costs will also increase as a result of the negative impact of climate weather on farming and agriculture in general.  Certain harvests will certainly be affected this year, including grain, fruit and vegetable crops.  Then there is the immediate impact on tourism dollars, such as in Lahaina where tourism represented about 70 percent of their local economy.  Nova Scotia has also seen a significant downturn in tourism as a result of the earlier wildfires and recent floods.

Let’s not forget the physical and mental toll on individuals facing such disasters.  Many are losing their homes and places of employment.  The consequential stresses will increase demands on our health care sector.  Then there are those on the front lines, especially those fighting wildfires.  In Canada, four individuals working in related fire services have already died this past spring and summer.  The health and moral of first responders is probably at an all time low.  There is also the impact on our military, who often are asked to help in rescue missions, flood prevention and with logistics for evacuations.  The Canadian military is already stretched thin because of international commitments, all this adding to additional costs that they have to bear.  

While many of us sit and complain about poor weather for vacations, we should remember that there are our follow citizens who are greatly suffering from the impact of natural disasters on their communities.  As I have argued in the past, governments, industries and non-profit agencies, such as the Red Cross, need to adapt in a timely manner in the face of continuing challenges associated with the eventuality of more extreme weather events.  Failure to do so will only result in more costs, both economically and on a personal level.  For now, affected communities will require our continuing assistance and support.  Those of us who are fortunate enough to avoid such disasters need to stop complaining and find ways to support these communities and their people.

Canada Cimate Change Climate Change US

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Aug 14

American Media Under Attack By Local Law Enforcement, Now Physically

by bcurry

In June 2020, the arrest of a CNN news crew live on air in Minneapolis, where unarmed black man George Floyd died at the hands of police, first drew global attention to how law enforcement authorities in the city were treating reporters covering protests that had descended into riots.  At the same time, a reporter from Germany’s international news broadcaster Deutsche Welle was shot with projectiles by Minneapolis police while preparing to go live on air.  In September 2020, Los Angeles NPR station KPCC reporter Josie Huang was forced to the ground and arrested outside the hospital where two Sheriff deputies had been taken after having survived an ambush shooting.  Her press credentials were clearly visible in a recording of the incident.  At the time, the US Press Freedom Tracker, a non-profit project, said it was investigating in total more than 100 “press freedom violations” at similar protests. About 90 cases reportedly involved physical attacks. 

More recently, a small town in Kansas has become a battleground over the First Amendment, after the local police force and county sheriff’s deputies raided the office of the local newspaper, The Marion County Record.  A search warrant for the raid was issued by a judge roughly an hour before the search, which in itself was highly unusual.  As the New York Times reports, the advocacy director at Freedom of the Press Foundation, Seth Stern, noted that federal law allowed the police to search journalists when the authorities have probable cause to believe the journalists had committed a crime unrelated to their journalism.  That exception does not apply, however, in the above case where the alleged crime is simply gathering the news.  The Foundation is a nonprofit that advocates for the rights of journalists and whistle-blowers.  Mr. Stern also noted that, although news organizations are sometimes the targets of legal actions by government officials including subpoenas seeking interview notes and other records, the search and seizure of the tools to produce journalism are rare.  Normally, when journalists are suspected of committing crimes as part of news gathering, the government’s option is to serve a subpoena, which can be challenged in court before it is actually enforced.

For this reason, raids of news organizations are exceedingly rare in the U.S., with its long history of legal protections for journalists.  However, in recent years, particularly those under Donald Trump’s former administration, the mainstream media has come increasingly under attack for what Trump called “fake news”.  If he felt that the coverage was negative towards him, he immediately accused the reporting as being biased and inaccurate.  Often Trump refused to take questions from certain journalists known to report what he perceived to be negative news about his administration.  However, he never had any problem supporting right-wing media sources, such as Fox News, as presenting the truth, including his belief that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and illegitimate.  Conservative authorities appear to have been given the green light to increase their attacks on journalists and news outlets, especially in cases such as that in Marion County.

Whether at the local level or nationally, it is extremely dangerous that legitimate journalists can be attacked or threatened, physically or otherwise.  In addition, it’s becoming very difficult to keep newspapers in businesses and journalists employed.  According to a new report from Northwestern University’s journalism school in 2022, over 360 newspapers in the U.S. have gone out of business since just before the start of the pandemic.  The last thing that journalists need right now is to be threatened with legal action or physically while covering news stories.  What one particularly needs at this time is a strong mainstream media comprised of ethical and credible journalists willing to get the facts by following up and verifying their sources.  They should never be subject to intimidation for simply doing their jobs, which is the backbone of any democracy.

This most recent attack by local authorities on The Marion County Record is just the latest example of the inappropriate use of the judicial system to intimidate publishers and journalists.  It may only be a local incident, but it represents a much greater threat to the free press.  For this reason, it should be taken seriously as demonstrated by national support given to the publisher by more than 30 news organizations and press freedom advocates, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Dow Jones and the publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

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Aug 9

Political Polarizations Has Increased Mistrust in Many of Our Public Institutions

by bcurry

The New York Times in a very recent article (August 7th) notes that Republican (G.O.P.) contenders in the presidential primaries are bent on feeding voter distrust in public institutions such as the courts, schools and the military.  Obviously, most appear to be following the lead of Donald Trump who, for example whenever he has the chance, publicly attacks the U.S. Justice Department and the F.B.I.  During the pandemic Trump even disparaged the Surgeon General, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health and Human Resources.  Now, facing a barrage of indictments by the Justice Department, Trump has further accelerated his personal attacks on these major institutions.  Unfortunately, several other G.O.P. candidates have followed suit in an apparent attempt to appease Trump’s core followers.

All of the rhetoric, including that disseminated by social media and right-wing media, has created an environment where recent polls show that Americans’ trust in their institutions has apparently fallen to historical lows.  Feeding on voters’ already deeply embedded scepticism might have once been seen as politically risky, but social media and the right-wing media have helped change that.  The Republican governor of Florida and a candidate, Ron DeSantis, has led the charge against what he sees as a biased and liberal-influenced education system in his state.  Not to be outdone, another G.O.P. candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, has gone on record that he would shut down the F.B.I. and the I.R.S. as part of his fight against the so-called “deep state”.

My primary question is what would replace all these important institutions in a democracy that claims to need independent bodies to deal with issues like law and order, public health, the environment, new technologies and the role of the military?  In a modern society, freedoms are important, but there still has to be some oversight of those matters as they relate to the public good.  Campaign rhetoric perpetuating conspiratorial themes does not help to ensure a rational and knowledge-based debate on many of the challenges that, as a democracy, we face daily.  It’s easy to argue that things should be eliminated, but no one Republican has yet rationally put forward any ideas about how one would go about replacing these institutions — and with what.

The Republican Party, just as the Conservative Party in Canada, has long stood for “smaller government in size and role” going back to the days of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.   However, the current G.O.P. extreme rhetoric goes far beyond the past political stances of Republican presidents, from Richard Nixon to the Bushes.  As the Times article notes: “The proliferation of attacks has alarmed both Republicans and Democrats who worry about the long-term impact on American democracy.  Public confidence in core institutions — from the justice system to voting systems — is fundamental to a durable democracy, particularly at a time of sharp political division.”

Just as I am certain that there are a good number of moderate Republicans in the U.S. and conservatives in Canada who oppose such extreme rhetoric, I am hoping that cooler heads will prevail among our electorates in both countries.  Our democracies are closely watched by countries around the world, and defending our democratic institutions has never been more important in the face of the growth of autocratic regimes globally.  These institutions are essential to defending our democratic values and promoting the public good.  We need to strengthen them rather than knock them down as the result of excessive political polarization.  It’s one thing to push for smaller government influence in our lives, it’s another to suggest that one can simply eliminate or emasculate its influence in highly complex modern societies.  Doing so would just replace democracies with autocracies by centralizing political and economic powers under one regime.  We now have checks and balances, including the courts and justice system, to prevent this from happening.  Unfortunately, the Republicans appear more than willing to minimize such oversight.  Ultimately, the current split in their party, led by Donald Trump’s extremism, could greatly weaken their platform in the eyes of the American electorate, and particularly those of independents.

Donald Trump Judicial System Media Populism Populism in Canada Republican Party Social Media US Politics

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Aug 4

Artificial Intelligence Cannot Offer An Opinion, But I Can

by bcurry

Over the last year, the number of articles and books emerging about artificial intelligence (AI) has exploded.  Some issues have been raised particularly dealing with the matter of AI’s involvement in writing, creatively or otherwise.  For me, this raised the matter of whether AI produced outcomes can offer a real opinion on a subject.  After all, an opinion is a view or judgement not necessarily based solely on fact or current knowledge.  In fact, in some of my blogs I may be expressing an opinion based on my background experiences and my past acquired knowledge base.  Humans cannot avoid having some preconceived opinions which are often attributed to such factors as their history, education, socioeconomic status and culture.  This is what makes opinions so much more interesting than merely providing an overview of information and data simply gathered from varying sources.  Varying opinions among people are what makes debates so valuable and interesting since they provide opportunities to view issues from different perspectives.

In some fields, such as medicine, engineering and most sciences, AI can be very effective in providing an initial interpretation of potential causes and effects based solely on factual evidence.  However, in the social sciences and literary fields from a creative point of view, I don’t see AI as being all that much useful.  When it comes to problem solving and critical thinking, a lot of the needed information resides through engagement within our communities.  Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson in their recent book, “Power and Progress”, note that our reasoning is primarily based on “social communication”.  Decisions need to be made with the use of this social dimension of intelligence.  With respect to many of today’s major issues, we often develop additional skills and capabilities based on our empathy for others and the consequential sharing of goals, values and objectives.  You and I can appreciate this human need, but AI cannot.

In my opinion, there is little substitute for years of experience involving different situations and circumstances over one’s lifetime.  Life-long skills are nurtured and opinions are developed which take into consideration a wide variety of influences.  Sometimes, others come forward with different views and will influence one’s opinion on issues, greatly or in small ways.  Indeed, in the face of good arguments, one will often be forced to soften or alter one’s views.  This is not something that AI can really respond to.

Most importantly, the advent of hundreds of thousands of sources of information in the digitalization age, frequently including misinformation, will influence the use of AI and its accuracy.  Humans on the other hand need to employ critical thinking skills to discern what information is based on reliable facts and is not information based solely on preconceived bias.  This is not easy, and requires extensive research beyond what is contained in digitalized sites.  For example, authors, so-called experts and researchers involved in socioeconomic fields can take years to consolidate their positions on most issues.  From a community point of view, these positions are then often peer-reviewed as a means of validating the methodical approaches taken.  AI cannot consistently and effectively do this.  Whether the results of AI can satisfy such processes has yet to be determined — no easy matter.

In the meantime, I would suggest that bloggers like myself will continue to study and write according to our opinions formulated over decades of experiences and research.  I prefer to provide a human perspective to many of the important issues and challenges we all face in our communities on a daily basis.  After all, mine is but one of many existing opinions on these issues, largely intended to stimulate discussion and debate. 

Artificial Intelligence

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