Ottawa’s plan to crack down on mentally ill offenders could accomplish the opposite of its intent, critics say – pushing more people with mental illness into a prison system unable to treat them, and putting seriously ill patients in makeshift, less secure accommodation in overflowing forensic hospital wings.
Full story here.
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
Monday, August 20 – Globe and Mail
Corrections Canada faces years of big budget cuts even as its resources are stretched increasingly thin.
The federal agency must trim $295-million in spending by 2015 as part of the Conservative government’s deficit-reduction program. This is the first time the agency has had to cut its budget, year to year, since 2006.
Saturday, April 2, 2011 – Globe and Mail
ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY
When Canadians vote on May 2, they’ll be paying for a federal election whose cost has grown 50 per cent in the past decade, thanks in large part to the money given to political parties.
This year’s election is expected to cost $300-million – up from $198-million in 2000.
The amount spent by Elections Canada covers everything it takes to rev up a cross-country electoral machine at the drop of a writ – from hiring and training about 200,000 people, many of whom will only be needed for a day or two, to renting polling stations and conducting campaigns to boost voter turnout (which dropped to only 59 per cent in 2008).
a business of misfits 