How racial bias can affect 911 calls and what dispatchers in Montreal are learning to stop it

A 911 operator answers a call from a woman complaining about a “Muslim man” parked on a quiet street. The man strikes the caller as suspicious.

The operator weighs her options: does she send the police? The man is allowed to be there and, by the caller’s own admission, he is doing nothing illegal. A police response in this case, and in others like it, could lead to accusations that officers racially profiled the man — but here, the profiling didn’t originate with the officers.

“Some calls are profiled when they come in,” Rose-Andrée Hubbard, the SPVM’s equity, diversity and inclusion advisor, said in a recent interview.

This isn’t a theoretical problem. That call was real and last week, Montreal’s 911 operators listened to it and others, as part of new training intended to help them screen for bias in calls.

“Everything we are putting in place,” Hubbard said, “is to permit our police to intervene based on the actions of a person, not their identity.” |Read more https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/911-montreal-spvm-training-1.6672775|
#cdnpoli #racism #profiling #social

Twitter Hate Speech Rise ‘Unprecedented’, Researchers Say

Twitter has seen an “unprecedented” rise in hate speech since Elon Musk took over the social network, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the Anti-Defamation League, and other groups that study online platforms.

Anti-Black tweets jumped more than 200% from 1,282 times a day before Musk’s takeover to 3,876 times a day now, while slurs against gay men rose more than 58% from 2,506 to 3,964 times a day, The(Opens in a new window) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/technology/twitter-hate-speech.html New York Times reports. Anti-Semitic posts also increased by more than 61% in the two weeks after Musk completed his takeover of the site.

Researchers say they have never before witnessed such a sharp increase in hate speech in such a short period on a mainstream social media platform. |Read more https://www.pcmag.com/news/twitter-hate-speech-rise-unprecedented-researchers-say|
#RIPtwitter #racism #ExtremeWhite #slurs #blacks #gays #cdnpoli

Tenant unions could be the solution to fight rising rents

If you’re a renter, it’s been a hard 12 months. While rents dropped in major cities during the first year of the pandemic, prices have risen as people return to downtowns, sometimes smashing previous records for rental units. Only six provinces https://globalnews.ca/news/8159951/ns-housing-crisis-rent-control/ in Canada have some form of rent control in place.

In Calgary, rent prices for a one-bedroom are up more than 20 per cent from last year. You can expect to shell out almost $4,000 a month https://rentals.ca/national-rent-report for a two-bedroom in Vancouver. In the Greater Toronto Area, prices have jumped since a brief dip at the beginning of the pandemic. A two-bedroom in downtown Toronto can now cost on average $3,300 https://www.thestar.com/business/2022/11/22/the-average-cost-of-renting-a-one-bedroom-in-toronto-hits-2502.html.

The reasons are numerous. Supply has not kept up with demand. There’s a lack of purpose-built rental units https://www.macleans.ca/economy/canadian-economy-guide-2022-rent-prices/, as well as triplexes and duplexes. In some cities, where short-term rentals are popular, rental stock has decreased https://www.marketwatch.com/story/does-airbnb-really-make-housing-more-expensive-these-researchers-say-they-found-an-answer-11612284049 significantly. The financialization of the rental business — when large investment firms purchase buildings and try to make as much profit from a building as possible https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/financialization-and-canadian-renters-1.6378257 by raising rents — has also had a significant impact.

Tenant unions operate on similar principles to labour unions. Residents of a single building — or even from a number of buildings owned by the same landlord — can join together to bargain for rent rates, repairs to units, and a whole host of other issues that may affect them. If the landlord doesn’t come to the table in good faith, or refuses to negotiate, the union can escalate actions. |Read more https://ricochet.media/en/3909/tenant-unions-could-be-the-solution-to-fight-rising-rents|

#cdnpoli #renters #unions #strikes #landlords

Re-indexing AISH And Social Services Jan 1, 2023

The province announced it will re-index Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH) https://taprootedmonton.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cf49a42db023942d337b0dabf&id=a360417b14&e=a9f3b03d8a, Income Support https://taprootedmonton.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cf49a42db023942d337b0dabf&id=fee0eb7fdc&e=a9f3b03d8a, the Alberta Seniors Benefit https://taprootedmonton.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cf49a42db023942d337b0dabf&id=5bb81321a3&e=a9f3b03d8a, and the Alberta Child and Family Benefit https://taprootedmonton.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cf49a42db023942d337b0dabf&id=d79a203e5a&e=a9f3b03d8a effective Jan. 1, 2023. The social benefit programs will see their rates rise by 6% to match inflation https://taprootedmonton.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cf49a42db023942d337b0dabf&id=2728979c0f&e=a9f3b03d8a.

Recipients of AISH and Income Support can expect to see an increase in their January payments, which will go out Dec. 22, recipients of the Alberta Seniors Benefit will see the change reflected on their January cheques, and recipients of the Alberta Child and Family Benefit will see the increase in their first quarterly payment in February 2023.
#abpoli #aish #SocialServices #inflation

Oil and Gas Contractors Demand Federal Cash to Decarbonize

The organization representing Canada’s oil and gas drilling sector is asking the federal government to create a new tax credit it says it needs to help the industry decarbonize, with one member saying the industry is “finally fun again”.

The Canadian Association of Energy Contractors (CAOEC)—which represents drilling rig and service rig companies across Western Canada, as well as offshore drilling rigs in Atlantic Canada—is lobbying the government for a 50% refundable tax credit for drillers seeking to develop and deploy new carbon abatement technologies, The Canadian Press reports https://www.jwnenergy.com/article/2022/11/23/oil-and-gas-drilling-sector-wants-federal-tax-cred/.

“Our members have technology they could deploy in a very short amount of time,” CAOEC President Mark Scholz told reporters in Calgary last Wednesday, following the organization’s annual state of the industry event.

“The challenge for our industry is there’s a lack of capital interest in the energy services space,” he added. “We’re excited about the future, but we need support to get there.”

So far, the major oilsands companies have received most of the net-zero limelight. They’re touting a massive proposed carbon capture and storage network they say would trap emissions from oilsands sites in northern Alberta, though they’re holding back https://www.theenergymix.com/2022/10/16/oilsands-alliance-demands-feds-back-for-24-1b-ccs-project/ on any investments unless Ottawa increases the already lavish subsidies https://www.theenergymix.com/2022/10/20/ottawa-overspends-on-ccs-neglects-worker-skills-iron-earth/ they’re in line to receive.
#cdnpoli #subsidies #decarbonize #EnergyContractors #GovernmentHandouts