The things we don’t know about doing time.
It’s an interesting fact that any Member of Parliament is welcome to visit one of Canada’s prisons. It’s a much under-appreciated, if dubious, perk. Some stay a little longer than a few hours. The only Canadian Honorable Member who comes to mind is Dean Del Mastro (MP Peterborough) who finagled a one-month stay, but there have been politicians in other jurisdictions who have made a real meal of it. I think of the eponymous A. Weiner, Democratic Congressman from New York (21 months), Rod Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois (14 years), or the British novelist and MP, Jeffrey Archer, (4 years). See what I mean by dubious perk? We’ll get back to the topic of incarceration later.
On the really good news front, our two exchange students shared some life experiences. Mana the-Ever-Buoyant from Japan noted that in Canada everything is SO COSTCO BIG: roast chickens the size of spaniels for example. But not everything it appears, notwithstanding the compact size of a Japanese house and its furniture, when it comes to soy sauce the Japanese have us beat. A large Kikoman Soy Sauce from No Frills is 591ml (a bit over half a litre), in Japan the bottle would be well, the size of a basketball!
Mana reminded us that one of her goals is to visit 25 Rotary Clubs. She’s one quarter of the way through her Rotary year and would like your help to meet that goal. Going somewhere?
Anel-the-Accomplished has a role in Central High School’s Spamalot. Show nights are November 28, 29, 30 and December 1st. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students and can be purchased by calling 289 707 6091.
Sergeant at Arms Mae conferred the honor of Rotarian of the Week on Bob Martin. Bob was some chuffed you could tell, and explained everything about the joy of his time and adventures in Rotary.
Our Guest Speaker was Pam Damoff, MP for Oakville North – Burlington. She shared some of what she’s learned about Canada’s prison system and in particular our Community Correctional Centres (CCC). There was a lot of information, some of it anecdotal. I’ll just replay some of the more jaw-dropping, eye-opening bits.
There’s a treacherous cycle facing an about-to-be-released prisoner. On release he or she is best positioned for reintegration if he or she has a job to go to. If not, to gain traction you really need identification, it’s the currency of urban authenticity. A driver’s license or health card takes several weeks to process and without one or both, work and accommodation is almost out of reach. The options are grim: somewhere to live? Sleep on the streets. Cash to fund living costs? Under-the table casual work, pan-handling – or crime. The levels of government need to cooperate and find a way past this catch 22, without ready access to valid identification we know we are releasing people onto a track to reoffend.
They teach skills in some prisons. But apparently some unneeded skills. Take for example a womens prison in Manitoba(?) that teaches sewing. Pam noted that the needle trades left Canada long ago for points east, so the alternative is small scale bespoke tailoring or kwik-stich type repair shops. Better, says Pam, to teach these women framing carpentry like the men.
The concept of high security versus medium security prisons has less to do with the threat the prisoner poses to the population at large than the internal threat to the individual prisoner. The more anti-social the offender’s crime is perceived the more likely he or she is to need the protection of high security. Hmm!
Those serving long sentences, the axe-murderers, rapists and serial killers, tend to be the least troublesome; perhaps they mellow with age. The most dangerous, the hardest to manage, are the relatively short-term inmates, the younger ones who’ve received a sentence of say three to five years.
It was riveting - all things we didn’t know about doing time.
Pam took some interesting questions and observations from the floor. Johanna Haan. noted that in her years working with offenders in Arizona, it was widely known that when dad was in prison mom was usually successful in keeping the family together, but when mom was in prison dad was less likely to keep a family together. Albert Schmid noted that, when he was a lad in Germany, a young person imprisoned would automatically be taught a useful trade for his return to society.
A couple of more or less relevant footnotes.
Pam is a cycling advocate. Love it or hate it, cycling has its place, more so by far in Europe than here. Perhaps the world’s leading authority on cycling infrastructure is Copenhagenize Design Co in Denmark. It has strong connections with Burlington, Calgary and Montreal, three of its principals are Canadians. Worth checking out. https://copenhagenize.eu/
And… we learned that Pam is one of those Oakville Polar Bear Dippers. There’s a YouTube piece showing a bunch of revellers (including Pam) running into Lake Ontario, immersing themselves maybe thigh deep, then hurriedly retreating. It’s not necessarily that I think they should dive in, full baptismal immersion, head to toe, because I sure as hell wouldn’t, but I’m just saying- maybe thigh deep. Watch it here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpgEKwSFiEc
