Western Expresso

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

i held my own event in a dinbgy back alley had over 1000 people come by....

Looked like a good time, I love the backdrop for the gathering. Nice job.

[The Jabroni]

Originally Posted by 1ajs

who welt to nuit blanche?

i held my own event in a dinbgy back alley had over 1000 people come by....

I was at that back alley that night, along with checking out the other venues around the Exchange. Ross Ave was bumping for a bit!

It was my first Nuit Blanche, and I actually enjoyed it. Some very interesting displays and exhibits. We actually went across the river to St. Boniface and checked out the St. Boniface Museum and the Basilica as well.

[Wigglez]

Most Winnipeggers feel unsafe downtown: survey

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...urce=d-tiles-1

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by Wigglez

Most Winnipeggers feel unsafe downtown: survey

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/loc...urce=d-tiles-1

Quote from article:

MacKay said those who felt most vulnerable walking downtown after dark included:

49 per cent of women.
47 per cent of people aged 55 years and older.
Half of people with low household income.

The survey found people living in Winnipeg's suburbs felt the most unsafe when downtown.

I'm not surprised at the poll results when I look at the demographics of who feels the most vulnerable. Those that live in the Suburbs as well? I never would have guessed.

The media has a enormous effect on the perception of safety but tends to focus on the problems rather than any positives that may be occurring. It wouldn't increase viewership or page views.

Well at least they managed to include this near the end of their article.

MacKay said that despite the gloom about downtown, more people do feel safe there after dark than they did 10 years ago.

MacKay said this poll found that 37 per cent of Winnipeggers said they did feel safe downtown after dark. When this question was asked 10 years ago, those feeling safe after dark was 23 per cent, he said.

[esquire]

^ I'm not surprised with the results relating to women. A lot of women I've worked with over the years have had stories about unwanted and creepy interactions downtown. It contributes to a feeling of unease.

[bomberjet]

I've never had a problem downtown. Being a tall male is probably the reason. Sure I've had pandhandlers ask for money, but that's it. You'll never solve that problem, we live in a City.

My aunt was downtown a couples months back. Her car was parked on the street along Edmonton I believe. While my aunt was unlocking her door to get in the vehicle, some crazy lady ran out of the back lane. She started punching and kicking her car, then turned to my aunt and came after her. Some nice motorist stopped and let my aunt in the car. Try telling that to MPI. She actually got a hard time from them.

So I can see why.

[Cyro]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ I'm not surprised with the results relating to women. A lot of women I've worked with over the years have had stories about unwanted and creepy interactions downtown. It contributes to a feeling of unease.

When it comes to women in general from my experience as well, having even one bad experience in the burbs or a location that may be remote but that has no connection to the core of the city, will shape the way they feel about wandering around most neighborhoods at night alone.

This feeling of unease may be shaped long before a female has to work in the core or get around downtown at night.

But every case is different and would be better explained from a female posters perspective, rather than someone who has dealt with some pretty difficult situations and feels at ease walking at night, regardless of the area.

55+ as well, living in the suburbs and never having to go downtown? It would be very difficult to change someones perception in this situation.

The demographics of this poll are very important on how people perceive the area.
What if the question had been, as a woman do you feel safe walking around your neighborhood after dark, after 10:00pm after midnite?

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by alittle1

Apparently, people in Winnipeg like back alleys. Did you have anything for FREE?

playing music and displaying videos and slide shows

[alittle1]

Had this come through my email today and thought it was worth sharing.

“Thought you might enjoy this. Since retirement, Gayle has been quite outspoken on a number of issues that she feels politicians are out in "left field". This was quite a well researched and excellent reply to Mr. Mulcair's ridiculous comments in the Calgary Herald a while back. As she said to me, not much will be done, unless 1000's of people write and share their thoughts to these clueless, vote seeking politicians.”

Mr. Mulcair,
Judging from an article in The Calgary Sun entitled "Enough is Enough", your position on a National Enquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women is NOT what needs to be done and Harper is right in not pursuing this time wasting, expensive suggestion supported by both the NDP and Liberals. If you were paying attention at all and did your research you would understand this tragedy, the real issues and what needs to be done to address them.

Some statistics:

According to the RCMP:
6,420 missing persons in Canada 1,455 are women, out of those 164 are aboriginal
88% of murders of aboriginal women have been solved by police
89% of murders of non-aboriginal women have been solved by police
Between 1980 and 2012 there were 20,313 murders in Canada - 6,551 of those victims were women and 1,017 of those were aboriginal women.

Here's where it gets even more interesting:
Almost 30% of the 1,017 aboriginal women were murdered by their husbands.
23% were murdered by another family member.
30% were murdered by an acquaintance.
So, only about 8% of aboriginal women were murdered by strangers.
More statistics:
44% of the family members and acquaintances who kill aboriginal women were drunk
74% of the murderers of aboriginal women are unemployed.
AND NOW THE MOST SHOCKING:
71% of the murderers of aboriginal women already had a criminal record.
53% had been convicted before of a violent crime;
62% had a history of violence with the specific murder victim herself.
To be clear, there are some Chiefs and aboriginal communities in this country that are doing well, for various reasons, but much of it has to do with their leadership (i.e. Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band, but no one (especially the media & government) never talk about him and his people.
Here are the REAL issues:
1. Welfare. The billions of tax payer dollars that go to support aboriginal people, not only in living expenses but free education, free medical, no taxation, etc. has crippled them (as it has crippled many non-aboriginal Canadians for generations). I would venture to say many of them have not worked a day in their lives.
2. Corrupt leadership who have no idea how to lead, manage, inspire or teach their people ..... who take for themselves and their families and friends and are not accountable to anyone (as evidenced most strongly by Chief Theresa Spence in Attiwapiskat.) and blame, blame, blame the Canadian Government.
3. Alcohol and drug abuse, gang violence .... all contributing factors in the crime rate on reserves, lack of parenting, family violence and poverty.
4. A two-tiered justice system that gives aboriginal offenders lighter sentences, or no sentences at all allowing them back into their communities to continue to abuse the same aboriginal women again and again .... often resulting in death (as evidenced by the 83% who were murdered by their husbands, a family member or an acquaintance. If you want a National enquiry .... it should be on this issue.
When you say "It is inconceivable that we, as a country, allowed this situation to continue" .... and "We urgently need to acknowledge the systemic aspect of this crisis instead of ignoring or dismissing it" ..... what are your intended solutions? A National enquiry is not going to fix these problems!
Giving the aboriginals more of hard earned Canadian taxpayer dollars is NOT going to fix this problem!
This was printed in a Nanaimo, B.C. Newspaper last week, and as you can imagine, it had all the natives out banging their drums and whooping, but you know what.. If the shoe fits.

[headhorse]

wow, that is embarrassingly racist and misinformed.

[Simplicity]

Originally Posted by headhorse

wow, that is embarrassingly racist and misinformed.

I'm not here to argue about whether it's racist or not, but remove the references to aboriginals from the statistics and the qualifying statements. Are you quibbling with the veracity of the data or the outcomes?

Serious question. That data is pulled straight from the RCMP's report. If you're going to call somebody racist and misinformed, it behooves you to provide some context.

[Riverman]

Originally Posted by headhorse

wow, that is embarrassingly racist and misinformed.

It does speak of one race, but that is the context of the discussion.

Misinformed? Where?

[blueandgoldguy]

Pretty sure headhorse would be referring to the final 4 points. ie. many have not worked a day in their lives...not sure what the author means by "many"; two-tiered justice system favoring aboriginals which is weird considering they represent a disproportionately large section of the prison population. This is not data collected by the RCMP or any other agency but merely the opinion of the author.

[1ajs]

Originally Posted by headhorse

wow, that is embarrassingly racist and misinformed.

i hear u

but this is a big discusion and just calling one a rasicst does not help times now to look at all lvls of the problem not just aborigonal but everyone. we need to all be at the table and talk. work with our youth to end the cycles its a long term goal we as a nation can do!

were all in this together. i know at least 2 people on the mudrderd and missing list... that are aborigonal women :"( i know one guy that was shuved off a bridge in 94 drowned when he hit his head on the way down he was a family friend and my baby sitter all cause he refused to join a gang......
i have a native friend got stabed walking down the st returning with a floppy to submit a aplication to go to u of m arts program. rip joey and i helped shape the young brother of the guy that stabbed him even though he drove me nuts at times being a kid work on being someone who knows right from wrong and can be very helpfull and respectfull. and i can admit to being a racist bigot at times even towards him...... i come from the midle of the mes seen allot stoped allot... been chased been cased been acusied of arson even. anoyingly

i grew up in it all and im still very clueles at times.......

[bomberjet]

Stats don't lie. If they're from the RCMP, you have to believe them. Based on those numbers, aboriginal women murdered by people they do not know account for 0.4% of the murders since 1980. Is that stat out of wack with other ethnic backgrounds? I really don't know, just trying to learn a bit more about the subject.

Maybe can alittle1 provide a link to the source. Please and thanks.

Obviously a hot topic.

[cllew]

I think that this is the RCMP report page.

Home page for report http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/mmaw-faapd-eng.htm

[Simplicity]

Originally Posted by blueandgoldguy

two-tiered justice system favoring aboriginals which is weird considering they represent a disproportionately large section of the prison population.

I think the point the author is making is that there are concessions - Gladdue concessions - made in in the interest of trying to somehow keep this at bay. The issue is that this rarely affects John Q. Public. It's of almost no interest to me whether an aboriginal offender is released on bail or sentenced at a discounted rate because statistically I'm so unlikely to be a victim of them that I don't concern myself with it. And neither do most white people who aren't knee-jerk, tough-on-crime hardliners.

On the other hand, the people who are disproportionately at risk of being victimized due to this sort of legislation are precisely the people it's designed to protect. And it's a funny little conundrum because what in the hell do you actually do? You're trying to minimize the effects of systemic incarceration on a population while concurrently exposing them to increased risk because those offenders go directly back into their communities; they don't end up in mine.

So as a politician, what do you do? Who are you supposed to represent? Do you protect the offenders because of what could be considered systemic disadvantage, or do you protect those they're most likely to victimize?

Either way, no inquiry is going to answer these questions because there isn't a politician in the world willing to step into that fray...

[drew]

Originally Posted by Simplicity

I think the point the author is making is that there are concessions - Gladdue concessions - made in in the interest of trying to somehow keep this at bay. The issue is that this rarely affects John Q. Public. It's of almost no interest to me whether an aboriginal offender is released on bail or sentenced at a discounted rate because statistically I'm so unlikely to be a victim of them that I don't concern myself with it. And neither do most white people who aren't knee-jerk, tough-on-crime hardliners.

On the other hand, the people who are disproportionately at risk of being victimized due to this sort of legislation are precisely the people it's designed to protect. And it's a funny little conundrum because what in the hell do you actually do? You're trying to minimize the effects of systemic incarceration on a population while concurrently exposing them to increased risk because those offenders go directly back into their communities; they don't end up in mine.

So as a politician, what do you do? Who are you supposed to represent? Do you protect the offenders because of what could be considered systemic disadvantage, or do you protect those they're most likely to victimize?

Either way, no inquiry is going to answer these questions because there isn't a politician in the world willing to step into that fray...

This is very interesting. I had never considered this particular effect of the Gladdue. I definitely agree with your take on this.

[Simplicity]

Originally Posted by drew

This is very interesting. I had never considered this particular effect of the Gladdue. I definitely agree with your take on this.

I'll let you know, I've marked this day in my calendar

[Cyro]

The letter in question can be found here(unedited):
Although it was removed from the Nanaimo Daily News yesterday.

http://www.straight.com/blogra/36690...-debate-racism