Court backlog is biting
Cases could be tossed, auditor says Province acting on concerns: Bryant
Toronto Star, RICHARD BRENNAN AND ROBERT BENZIE, QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU, Dec. 3, 2003.
Thousands of criminal cases could be tossed out because of serious court backlogs, the provincial auditor's office warns in its annual report.
Jim McCarter, assistant provincial auditor, said yesterday the situation is far worse than in 1990 when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the Askov decision that people waiting for eight months or Read More ..r trial are being denied their civil rights to a fair hearing. About 50,000 criminal charges were dismissed as a result of an appeal of the Askov extortion case, which took more than three years to get to trial.
"In fact, the number of criminal charges pending for more than eight months has increased by more than two-thirds — from 60,000 to almost 100,000 — since our last audit in 1997," McCarter said.
"If you are asking me if there is an increased risk of an Askov type decision, yes I think there is," he said.
The 2002-2003 report covers the time the Ernie Eves' Tory government was in power.
Attorney-General Michael Bryant confirmed that the backlog is a very real concern, and that his ministry is in the process of hiring 20 new judges 50 Read More ..osecutors.
\"These are very serious findings by the auditor. The Conservative government ignored these warnings for 10 years and now we are going to have to clean up this mess," he said.
NDP Leader Howard Hampton said the judicial system is one sharp lawyer away from crumbling. "This could happen any day," said Hampton, who was attorney-general during the Askov controversy.
Hampton said the province should be concentrating Read More .. preventing crime than getting tough on crime and should turn to diversion programs "where you don't drag everything through the court system."
The auditor's report also says the Family Responsibility Office (FRO) is "in grave danger of failing to meet its legislated mandate of enforcing court-ordered child and spousal support payments."
As of March 31, 2003, support payments in arrears totalled $1.3 billion, an increase of more than 8 per cent since the last audit of the Family Responsibility Office in 1999.
McCarter listed this office as his No. 1 concern given that 23,000 women and children are relying on welfare when they are owed more than $200 million because the Family Responsibility Office is not doing its job.
"You have women and children who are depending on these support payments," he told reporters.
"They are depending on the government to help them out, to make sure they get their money. And the bottom line is, regardless of the reason, we are very concerned that unless this thing is fixed the government is not helping them out, they are not getting their money and it is creating extreme hardship for these people."
The auditor's report noted that almost 90 per cent of telephone calls to the office from outside the Greater Toronto Area are not answered.
As well, the Family Responsibility Office's document scanning equipment cannot scan blue ink, but there are no requirements for respondents to fill out forms with other colours of ink.
New Democrat MPP Shelley Martel (Nickel Belt) said the troubled Family Responsibility Office only got worse in 1997 when the Conservative government closed all the regional offices and centralized the service in Toronto.
"This (new Liberal government) absolutely has to do something about FRO. Recipients and their families have a legal right to receive this money," she said.
Since 1994 the number of caseworkers has declined by 20 per cent. Now, a worker has a caseload ranging from 600 to 1,300 or an average of 890 per caseworker. That compares to Quebec and Alberta with 400 and 335 respectively.
TEDx Dr Warren Farrell
TEDx - The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It
One of the foremost speakers and thinkers on gender issues
It's a crisis of education. Worldwide, boys are 50 percent less likely than girls to meet basic proficiency in reading, math, and science.
It's a crisis of mental health. ADHD is on the rise. And as boys become young men, their suicide rates go from equal to girls to six times that of young women.
It's a crisis of fathering. Boys are growing up with less-involved fathers and are more likely to drop out of school, drink, do drugs, become delinquent, and end up in prison.
It's a crisis of purpose. Boys' old sense of purpose-being a warrior, a leader, or a sole breadwinner-are fading. Many bright boys are experiencing a "purpose void," feeling alienated, withdrawn, and addicted to immediate gratification.
So, what is The Boy Crisis? A comprehensive blueprint for what parents, teachers, and policymakers can do to help our sons become happier, healthier men, and fathers and leaders worthy of our respect.
Why boys are in trouble
Boys have been painted as the bad guys in the push to encourage girls to succeed, leaving many young men feeling confused and alienated, wondering what they did wrong
The Associated Press
January 5, 1999
According to psychologist and author William Pollack, 'sports are the one arena in which many of society's traditional strictures about masculinity are often loosened, allowing boys to experience parts of themselves they rarely experience elsewhere.'
When Harvard Medical School psychologist William Pollack administered a test to a group of 150 teenaged boys a few years ago, the results were shocking.
The Boy Crisis Book
The Boy Crisis: Why Our Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It
Authors- Waren Farrell PhD and John Gray PhD
What is the boy crisis?
It's a crisis of education. Worldwide, boys are 50 percent less likely than girls to meet basic proficiency in reading, math, and science.
It's a crisis of mental health. ADHD is on the rise. And as boys become young men, their suicide rates go from equal to girls to six times that of young women.
It's a crisis of fathering. Boys are growing up with less-involved fathers and are more likely to drop out of school, drink, do drugs, become delinquent, and end up in prison.
It's a crisis of purpose. Boys' old sense of purpose-being a warrior, a leader, or a sole breadwinner-are fading. Many bright boys are experiencing a "purpose void," feeling alienated, withdrawn, and addicted to immediate gratification.
So, what is The Boy Crisis? A comprehensive blueprint for what parents, teachers, and policymakers can do to help our sons become happier, healthier men, and fathers and leaders worthy of our respect. Read More ..
Health Canada Publication
The Invisible Boy: Revisioning the Victimization of Male Children and Teens
"... the existence of a double standard in the care and treatment of male victims, and the invisibility and normalization of violence and abuse toward boys and young men in our society.
Despite the fact that over 300 books and articles on male victims have been published in the last 25 to 30 years, boys and teen males remain on the periphery of the discourse on child abuse.
Few workshops about males can be found at most child abuse conferences and there are no specialized training programs for clinicians. Male-centred assessment is all but non-existent and treatment programs are rare. If we are talking about adult males, the problem is even greater. A sad example of this was witnessed recently in Toronto. After a broadcast of The Boys of St. Vincent, a film about the abuse of boys in a church-run orphanage, the Kids' Help Phone received over 1,000 calls from distraught adult male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. It is tragic in a way no words can capture that these men had no place to turn to other than a children's crisis line."
American Psychological Association
Dating Violence Statistics in the United States
Nearly one in 10 girls and one in 20 boys say they have been raped or experienced some other form of abusive violence on a date, according to a study released Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.
The mean T-shirt: From the Stupid Factory
Todd Goldman says his popular boy-bashing T-shirts are simply funny.
So why are retailers having second thoughts? Read More ..
Why boys are in trouble
Boys have been painted as the bad guys in the push to encourage girls to succeed, leaving many young men feeling confused and alienated, wondering what they did wrong
The Associated Press
According to psychologist and author William Pollack, 'sports are the one arena in which many of society's traditional strictures about masculinity are often loosened, allowing boys to experience parts of themselves they rarely experience elsewhere.'
When Harvard Medical School psychologist William Pollack administered a test to a group of 150 teenaged boys a few years ago, the results were shocking.
Where the boys are
The Globe and Mail
February 1, 2003
Academically, boys across the country are lagging behind the girls, but a Montreal public school has seen dramatic improvement by separating the sexes in classes. It allows teachers to tailor curriculum and style to suit each sex. The result? The number going on to college has nearly doubled. INGRID PERITZ reports
MONTREAL -- The teenage girls at James Lyng High School like to flirt with boys. They like to tease them, joke with them, even date them sometimes. But attend class with them? As the giggling girls in one math class this week might say, "Gross."
Luckily, they don't have to. Coed James Lyng splits boys and girls up at the classroom door. The division of the sexes is credited with helping turn a faltering inner-city high school into an education success story.