London Free Press Columnist: Judy Rebick > January 22, 1999 > > The criminalization of Ontario's poor > > By JUDY REBICK > I am hearing from Premier Mike Harris a lot more than I want to. Every > time I turn on the TV or radio, there he is, pitching his government's > performance. Yesterday, I got a pamphlet in my mailbox about "safety." > The government has thrown hundreds of families into the streets because > of a 21-per-cent welfare cut, as documented in Anne Golden's report on > homelessness in Toronto, and he is talking about safety. > > According to recent reports, the government has spent $30 million on > partisan ads in the last two years. They don't have enough money to give > a pregnant woman on welfare a supplement so she can eat better but they > can spend almost $1 million on a pamphlet that harkens back to the good > old days when "we were able to leave our back doors open." The four-colour > pamphlet says it costs 20 cents to produce and distribute. It forgot to > say 4.1 million English-language versions and 250,000 French-language > versions have been distributed, bringing costs close to $1 million. > > Others have lambasted this outrageous and unprecedented use of taxpayers > money. Even the conservative National Post has taken the premier to task. > What the ads make clear to me is that the Harris Tories don't really care > about fiscal responsibility. > > The message of that little "safety" pamphlet makes it pretty clear what > they do care about. Our society is safer now than it has been in a while. > Violent crime has dropped for the sixth year in a row. Youth crime also > dropped. Most experts credit the drop in crime rates to demographics. > There aren't as many young men, who commit most of the crimes, as there > used to be. But that doesn't stop Harris from playing on public fears, > particularly those of older people about crimes like home invasions. > > The scariest line in the pamphlet is "in the past three years, more > dangerous offenders have been put behind bars and kept out of our > communities . . . Parole is being denied more than it is granted." > > Canada already incarcerates a larger percentage of its population than any > country in the developed world, except the United States. Canada imprisons > more young people than the United States. But right-wingers like Harris > want to put more and more people in prison. It is a pattern. Right-wing > ideologues who oppose government spending on social programs to improve > the lives of the poor and disadvantaged always support increased > expenditures on police, prisons and military. > > The United States has imprisoned a significant percentage of its poor male > population. In the last 15 years, the prison population in the U.S. has > tripled. At a rate of 645 people imprisoned for every 100,000 in the > population in 1997, the U.S. imprisoned a higher percentage of its > population than South Africa under apartheid. The rate for blacks is 6,926 > imprisoned per 100,000 black people compared to 919 for whites. That's in > the U.S., not in South Africa. Factor in parole and probation and 5.4 > million Americans were in prison or in the prison system. That is five per > cent of the male population and 20 per cent of the black male population. > About 60 per cent of inmates are there for possessing or dealing drugs. > Some analysts have estimated U.S. unemployment rates would be two > percentage points higher if it counted the men in prison. > > In a conference recently broadcast by CBC Radio One's Ideas program, > American writer Barbara Ehrenreich pointed out how the deep class division > in the U.S. is self-perpetuating. When government spends little or nothing > on social assistance and more and more on the repressive forces of the > state -- police, prisons and military, poor people begin to see government > as the problem rather than a source of solution. All a ghetto-dwelling > black male sees of the government is police and prison guards. The idea > that electing a politician could promote community interests becomes more > remote. That is one explanation for the alienation of the majority of > Americans with their electoral system. In the last election, only 40 per > cent voted. > > When Harris asks in his pamphlet, "Who is more important these days, > convicted criminals or ordinary people like you?" he is starting down the > American path of criminalizing the poor and disadvantaged. The only way > the savage dog-eat-dog policies of the Harris government can succeed is by > convincing the middle class that poor people are bad people threatening > our way of life. Criminalization of the poor is how the U.S. succeeded in > creating the most unequal society in the developed world. I am sick at > heart that my tax dollars are being used to do the same thing in Ontario. > - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ---- > Judy Rebick is host of CBC Newsworld's Straight From the Hip. Her column > appears Fridays. > > Letters to the editor should be sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > | > |To unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED], no subject, with the > |following message (and no other text): unsubscribe c4ldemoc-l Here are some URLs for people: http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/archive/1995/950403/950403.essay.html April 3, 1995 Volume 145, No. 14 ESSAY BATTERED WELFARE SYNDROME BY BARBARA EHRENREICH Hardly anyone these days recommends punching and slapping as a way of settling marital disputes. On the daytime talk shows, audiences go into frenzies of outrage over batterers and any batterees who dawdle before calling the hotline. In California and Massachusetts, Governors who are feverishly cutting programs that aid women in poverty are proposing actual increases in funds to combat domestic violence. Thanks to Nicole Brown Simpson's sad fate, we tell ourselves, we're all painfully aware of the problem. So why, a rational observer might inquire, are we simultaneously hell-bent on policies that will lock millions of women into violent and abusive relationships? Links to her essays and articles: http://www.well.com/user/srhodes/ehrenreich.html The CCSD Internet Launchpad http://www.ccsd.ca/links.html -
