Did I miss breakfast again


Off to find coffee

Be a good day

Kid
Tigger
ES
TTO

I'll bring the maple syrup...you bring a toque ...or two..... depending on how cold it is...

Back bacon, eh?

Gary Wright
Love is Alive

My tummy's growling

Food for thought... from the Vancouver Sun


Should shame play a part in justice? And should that shame be made visible to the community?

Those are questions that will need to be answered over the next few months, questions precipitated by the city's newest judicial innovation.

On July 3, if all goes according to plan, Vancouver's first community court will open in a building now being renovated behind the police station at 222 Main St.

That renovation, when fully furnished and ready to go, will cost somewhere between $5 million and $7 million, and will have a staff of 50, including Judge Thomas Gove, who will preside, court officers, a victim services worker, an aboriginal liaison worker, a couple of housing and income assistance case workers, a half-dozen probation officers, and a team of health and welfare workers addended to the court and working under the auspices of Vancouver Coastal Health.

These will include an addictions specialist, a mental health specialist and the entire 30-member staff of the VCH Emergency Response Team.

The ERT's clients are those addicted and mentally ill chronic offenders who repeatedly end up in hospital emergency wards and civic courtrooms, and the team's move to the new building is no mistake.

It will be working hand-in-hand with the new community court.

And the court will be just that, serving a geographically defined community that includes the downtown peninsula and the Downtown Eastside.

Its form of justice is designed to be swift and immediate, with sentences handed out within one or two days.

"We're determined to take on a huge number of cases," Gove said in an interview last week, "all of them except the most serious."

Gove hopes to see about 1,500 cases in a year.

"Briefly put, we potentially will take anything short of a murder, manslaughter, drug trafficking or aggravated assault."

Mostly, Gove's purview will be the stuff of civic order and disorder -- shoplifting, public mischief, prostitution, breaking and entering, spousal assaults, drunkenness, drug use -- the litter of minor crimes that besoil the public's sense of its community on a daily basis.

For addicts or those with mental health issues, the accused (with his or her permission) will first be interviewed by a triage team to assess that person's needs, and then the judge will be able to direct them to the team of health and welfare workers addended to the court, who can help that person, Gove said, come up "with a life plan."

This, Gove said, isn't crime and punishment, but problem-solving: these sorts of people need to be redirected out of the court system, not recycled back into it as they are now.

But for crimes of public disorder, the court can swiftly order sentences of community service. These could include... well, Gove isn't quite sure what yet. It could be beautifying street corner gardens in the West End, or tending the community garden in Chinatown. It could be working in a museum. The idea is to make offenders help heal the community they have hurt.

But how about visible outside work like street-sweeping and sanitary detail crews? Or erasing graffiti? Or picking up needles in schoolyards?











Hmmm -- I know this isn't like the Restorative Justice program but it is similar. The huge difference and what I can't support is the "blame n' shame. I can see how that has its place but not as a typical sentence.
We'll see how all us tree-huggin' people lovin' Vancouverites react.

G'day Canada

ES
Grey
Kid
TTO
Gypsy

Hot For Teacher
Van Halen







Hi MsG

Hmmm?

Aliens? or Humans?

Today I'll say "Aliens, please"

Aerosmith
Love in an Elevator

ES Just us today?

Enjoy Family Day. My gal pal is in Ottawa and went skiing today ... sooo envious.

Starting a petition to bring family day to BC - starting with a letter to the Premier about how IF we had family day, I could take time off work to start a family

I like your shoes ...

Am I really at work or is this a nightmare?

"Wrong"



I think not.


Enjoy the journey

Hey you - yes, you.

The one ignoring my e-mail



























Sure blame Telus

Pomegranate .. in space ...say what?





Hi Beachie

Gypsy

Is that your LaSenza gift to you?

Morning!

Is it bright and sunny in the Okanagan too?

I don't mean to brag but --- its here

Grey
ES
Tigger



Everyone else

Glorious day here - I soooo happy

*Happy Dance*

Enjoy your day

Nothing sexier than a man in an apron

Alberta Sask. Manitoba also have it


BC doesn't



Enjoy the day off ...regardless