If you're going to be in the city, it's gonna be a fun night of Blues, giveaways and live music in support of a great cause. Check out the link for more info ...
~Bryan
http://www.youthlink.ca/BluesLINK09_eflyer.pdf
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
BLUESLINK
On May 14th I'll be attending Blueslink - a Toronto fundraiser in support of some wonderfully effective inner-city programs supporting street-involved youth.
If you're going to be in the city, it's gonna be a fun night of Blues, giveaways and live music in support of a great cause. Check out the link for more info ...
~Bryan
http://www.youthlink.ca/BluesLINK09_eflyer.pdf
If you're going to be in the city, it's gonna be a fun night of Blues, giveaways and live music in support of a great cause. Check out the link for more info ...
~Bryan
http://www.youthlink.ca/BluesLINK09_eflyer.pdf
Friday, 10 April 2009
Army suppressing PTSD diagnoses?
Salon.com's Mark Benjamin & Michael de Yoanna break the first of a string of stories stemming from the tape of a US Army Dr acknowledging the pressure he has faced to not diagnose PTSD in soldiers & veterans coming to him for health assessments, and the investigative journey and roadblocks that have since ensued with Military officials and the Senate Armed Services Committee.
http://www.salon.com/news/special/coming_home/2009/04/09/ptsd/
http://www.salon.com/news/special/coming_home/2009/04/09/ptsd/
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Food Insecurity
Paul Caron, a former food inspector with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) began speaking out this week about the weakness of our nation's food security, specifically regarding our vulnerability to cases of bioterrorism or future outbreaks of naturally occurring diseases (eg Salmonella, Lysteriosis).
When probing for details, it's hard not to agree with him that the status quo is inadequate and embarrassing, especially given the high level of awareness generated during last year's Maple Leaf Foods fiasco. Examples of vulnerabilities cited, in the context of meat, include:
- Where the US inspects all meat entering their borders, Canada not only pre clears meat imports before they're even at the border, but gives exporters at least three days notice whether their shipments will be checked or not checked.
- Once crossing the border, it's not just that only 1/10 shipments are sent to inspection facilities for a closer look, but of that 1/10 - the foreign company that sends its meat to Canada can hand pick which specific facility will 'inspect' their product. Pretty independent, huh?
Moral of the story, in the absence of new measures, one can smuggle just about anything into Canada via meat shipments.
-BH-
When probing for details, it's hard not to agree with him that the status quo is inadequate and embarrassing, especially given the high level of awareness generated during last year's Maple Leaf Foods fiasco. Examples of vulnerabilities cited, in the context of meat, include:
- Where the US inspects all meat entering their borders, Canada not only pre clears meat imports before they're even at the border, but gives exporters at least three days notice whether their shipments will be checked or not checked.
- Once crossing the border, it's not just that only 1/10 shipments are sent to inspection facilities for a closer look, but of that 1/10 - the foreign company that sends its meat to Canada can hand pick which specific facility will 'inspect' their product. Pretty independent, huh?
Moral of the story, in the absence of new measures, one can smuggle just about anything into Canada via meat shipments.
-BH-
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
What happens to seized contraband?
On Monday, The Canadian Press shed some light on the findings of a recent audit of the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) and specifically, what the heck happens to the guns, drugs, and other contraband that are seized.
Most seizures end up in Quebec or Ontario (Toronto, Windsor regions). Among the more ridiculous findings ...
- Meth, hash, steroids, blow, etc are all ending up in landfills because guards don't know that they are supposed to be destroyed
- In addition to drugs, guns & ammuno are sent to storage facilities/warehouses with either substandard or non-existent inventory controls
- Of 68 inspection sites, physical security was substandard for half of the interior facilities and for all of the exterior facilities. For example: 70% of warehouses were not continuously monitored (by guards, camera's or motion detectors); 15 sites, there was no control of access by non-government persons; and 23 sites had no inventory controls whatsoever.
Recognizing the potential goldmine this is for organized crime - I would love to also read a similar report of what happens to goods seized by police officers, to see if security or destruction practices are just as shotty. Both CBSA and police forces love to report on how much contraband they "remove" from the streets - but given reports like this, how certain can we be that they are actually staying off of the streets! While they often receive endless credit for removing such items from the market, rarely ever do we think about those numbers critically and ask for them to be put into a more meaningful context.
Going forward, it's time we start demanding much more transparency and accountability from our police and border services about the proportion of seized contraband that are actually being destroyed, and/or being stored in high security facilities with low risk of finding their way back to market.
-bRygUy-
Link to CBSA audits/evaluations: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/agency-agence/reports-rapports/ae-ve/menu-eng.html
Most seizures end up in Quebec or Ontario (Toronto, Windsor regions). Among the more ridiculous findings ...
- Meth, hash, steroids, blow, etc are all ending up in landfills because guards don't know that they are supposed to be destroyed
- In addition to drugs, guns & ammuno are sent to storage facilities/warehouses with either substandard or non-existent inventory controls
- Of 68 inspection sites, physical security was substandard for half of the interior facilities and for all of the exterior facilities. For example: 70% of warehouses were not continuously monitored (by guards, camera's or motion detectors); 15 sites, there was no control of access by non-government persons; and 23 sites had no inventory controls whatsoever.
Recognizing the potential goldmine this is for organized crime - I would love to also read a similar report of what happens to goods seized by police officers, to see if security or destruction practices are just as shotty. Both CBSA and police forces love to report on how much contraband they "remove" from the streets - but given reports like this, how certain can we be that they are actually staying off of the streets! While they often receive endless credit for removing such items from the market, rarely ever do we think about those numbers critically and ask for them to be put into a more meaningful context.
Going forward, it's time we start demanding much more transparency and accountability from our police and border services about the proportion of seized contraband that are actually being destroyed, and/or being stored in high security facilities with low risk of finding their way back to market.
-bRygUy-
Link to CBSA audits/evaluations: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/agency-agence/reports-rapports/ae-ve/menu-eng.html
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