(((((((((((coco)))))))))))
Love the lips gurl... :wink

TTO..

Kid..

Gypsy..


Morning Canadian popcicles...

hello ES
Hey Kid
Hello Coco ...glad you found your kitty ... and young lady .... you said hi Mondya ... I never got to work til Tuesday ... just making sure you know I AM not ignoring you

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

MissB...

That IS food for thought...

thank you tall one

Hey Miss Grey ... come on .. beer up

Morning rest of world

Good afternoon Canada

Been busy for the last little while. Traveling around and doing stuff. I'm in BC again and just bought a building here.
Went for a drive to the US yesterday to get diesel and a 6 pack of Coors. mmmmmm, beer!
The weather here is beautiful compared to what it was like in Alberta for the last several weeks.
I'm liking it enough that I might not leave!

its bloody minus a million out there WTF ??!?!?!?!?!

Hey Kid .. kick start that dam fire will ya ?.. I am sick of doin all the work around here ..... ok , ok.... calm down ...breath ... have a beer .... don't mind if I do .... Oh GOD ... I am talkin to myself AGAIN ...

<----runs in and kicks at the fire....

We need a blazing one today folks....

It's dang-ditty-dang-dang cold
out there....

Have to find some "high test" for
my coffee this afternoon....

Did anyone see the Eclipse last night?...
It was beautiful!!!....

I did I did .( jumps up and down to ALSO get warm ) ...
I tried to take a pic, but couldn't hold the camera STILL long enough cause I was FREEZIN


Mornin Earth Sprite

Morning TTO...

ok..it's really afternoon...

I took a bunch of pics last night
but they just don't capture the
beauty of the moon and all the redness
that was there...

I looked at the NASA sight to see what
they had captured and there are some truly
amazing pictures there....

Really ??... can you shot me the web addy so I can look as well ??..
It felt like it was right above my front porch last night .... the moon my dear .. the moon ..

Ahhh, Vancouver......strange and beautiful.........

Hey Kid .. they say that about Toronto as well

Morning Kid..

TTO...

All I have ever heard anyone
say about where I live is...
"What the hell"????...

I guess that is better then " is THIS HELL ? ...

Morning ES

Hey Everybody!

You would think in a city this size, there would be more unsecure wireless signals available.

Nice sunny day here, warmish and NO SNOW!!!

Hey Kid ... where you at ??. I know BC somewhere ??... and are you not looking for a SECURE line ?? ..