All posts by Amber-Dawn Davison

Newfoundland and Labrador’s marijuana-themed wish list for the federal government

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[Picture source: Creative Commons]

By Amber-Dawn Davison

The topic: Newfoundland and Labrador is assembling a list of requests for the federal government in preparation for the legalization of marijuana in 2018.

What’s new: A series of briefing notes from Service NL acquired through a Freedom of Information request lay out several expectations that the province has of the federal government.

In a September 2016 briefing note, the province asked that the federal government develop a roadside testing device that can accurately detect marijuana, and that it incur “costs associated with development, purchase and training of law enforcement officials related to roadside testing devices.”

Service NL said in a second briefing note from October of 2016 that it expects the federal government to establish a national impairment limit on marijuana and amend the Criminal Code of Canada to “support law enforcement.”



Why it’s important: St. John’s has the highest municipal rate of impaired driving offences in the country, at over 400 cases per 100,000 people. Service NL is concerned that the province’s already troublesome impaired driving situation will be made worse when marijuana becomes legal.

Service NL responded by making several amendments to the province’s Highway Traffic Act in early March, ahead of anticipated federal guidelines on the legalization process. The amendments were based on recommendations from MADD, and lay the groundwork for marijuana legalization by banning alcohol and psychoactive drugs for drivers 21 and under, and increasing impaired driving penalties for everyone.

Service NL hopes these amendments will help ease the eventual integration of federal guidelines into provincial legislation.

What the government says: The province is working with MADD to address existing issues with impaired driving, and future problems they foresee with cannabis. Minister Trimper of Service NL says the primary concern is not eradicating cannabis, but rather finding a way to manage it.

“The issue we are dealing with is that across the country, some 40 per cent of young adults are now using this drug. When you look at that type of statistic, it’s better to find a way that [marijuana] can be perhaps safely consumed and our roads can be protected from its use.”

He stated that the recent amendments to provincial road safety legislation have helped the already-attentive law enforcement agencies to curb the problem.

“Because we have become more sensitive to it, police have certainly become more vigilant than they have been,” Trimper says. “In terms of moving forward, we’ll be working closely with the two police forces we have here.”

What others say: Patricia Hynes Coates is the National President of MADD Canada is from Newfoundland, and has been working closely with Service NL. She says that the provincial government’s position reflect what MADD is seeing across the country: determination to deter everyone, especially youth, from impaired driving.

“We know that we’re not going to catch everyone, so our focus is on deterring people,” says Hynes Coates. “I lost my stepson Nicholas Coates several years ago, and nothing I do at this point is going to bring him back. But if we can stop somebody else from driving while impaired and save a life, well that’s what’s important to us.”

Another Newfoundland native, Rick Janes, says that although he is against legalization, he trusts that the provincial government’s policies will be sound. “At the end of the day, I am confident that as Canadians we can implement [adequate policies surrounding road safety and marijuana],” he says. “I just hope we can do it with minimal loss of life.”

What’s next: The federal government’s official announcement regarding the legalization of marijuana is expected on Thursday. Service NL is awaiting federal direction on the process, including anticipated amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada, roadside testing devices, and funding options.

Minister Trimper says that the process will be bumpy, but he expects the federal government’s national strategy will make the transition easier to swallow. “The roll out of [marijuana] will come in one voice, one direction, instead of each of us taking up our own cause and going in different directions,” he says. “I would suspect we’re going to see not only consistency in Newfoundland, but across the entire country as well.”

ATIP documents:



Human Trafficking in Canada on the rise, but experts warn statistics may be misleading

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[Source: Ottawa Police]

An exponential rise in the number of human trafficking cases in Ottawa since 2009 has many people worried, but experts caution that the data may be misleading. Even though the numbers seem to be going up, the increase may be due to factors other than an increase in actual crimes.

According to crime statistics from the Statistics Canada CANSIM database, over half of the incidents of human trafficking in Canada since 2009 have occurred in Ontario. 106 cases are attributed to Ottawa, which has the second highest concentration of human trafficking offences outside of Toronto as of 2015. The concern is that reported cases in Ottawa have essentially doubled each year.

Professor Kamala Kempandoo of York University studies sex trafficking and cautions that the rise in numbers is partly because of a changing definition of what “human trafficking”.

“If people think most women in the sex trade are forced, then most sex work will be counted as ‘sex trafficking,’” she says, as an example. “the statistics say nothing unless you know what is being counted.”

Until 2005, human trafficking was not a recognized offence in Canadian legislation. Instead, offenders were charged with other crimes like kidnapping, extortion, fraud, and uttering threats. In 2005, Bill C-49 amended the Criminal Code of Canada to recognize all aspects of the crime as a whole, which explains why that there are no recorded cases of human trafficking in Canada before 2005.

Additional amendments expanded the definition of human trafficking, which was reflected in the increase of reported cases nationally.



Criminal Code of Canada (Text)


Human rights lawyer Hugh Scher says the concentration of reported cases in Ottawa is due to population density. Over one-third of Canada’s population lives in Ontario with the majority living in the “corridor” between Montreal and Toronto.

“Ottawa is densely populated,” he says. “It has large and diverse communities from all over the world, and that potentially makes it a greater target for this kind of nefarious behaviour and activity. The more people, the more cases. The same may also be said of Montreal, and other big cities.”

Population density of Canada as of 2011 census

Staff Sergeant David Bal of the Ottawa Police Department says the sharp increase in cases of human trafficking in Ottawa is explained by an increased awareness of the issue, both within the community and on the police force.

“We’re not seeing a growth year over year,” he says. “We are constantly promoting awareness and encouraging victims and witnesses to come forward. And with more people coming forward, there’s going to be more cases.”

 



Police Action Annual Report 2015 (Text)

Although many elements contribute to the rising number, the most important is that there are still numerous victims who have been overlooked because they have not come forward. Increased time, funding, resources, and awareness have improved the ability of authorities to discover cases rather than more cases occurring.

Sgt. Bal says Ottawa is currently in a good position to deal with human trafficking in the years to come. Outreach, training and education will encourage existing victims to seek help and enable Canadians to recognize and report potential cases.

“At the end of the day, the charge is one thing. It’s nice to have, but we want to make sure that if there is a victim that wants to get out of a situation, that we have the resources in place,” he says. “On a macro level, but more importantly on a micro level, in terms of the individual survivors that we’re dealing with, it makes a huge difference in their lives.”

From Trudeau to Trudeau: The evolution of LGBT Rights in Canada

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By Amber-Dawn Davison

Every summer, rainbow flags fly in cities across the country marking the nationwide Canada Pride celebration. People from every culture, gender, and sexual orientation gather to celebrate the LGBT community as an integral part of Canadian society. But beneath the swirls of colour and vibrant pageantry lies a deeper reason for festivity: just 50 years ago, homosexuality was illegal in Canada.

Until 1967, no government had yet questioned that homosexuality was a sin. A young Pierre Trudeau, Justice Minister at the time, took the oft-quoted stance that “the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation.” He proposed amending the Criminal Code of Canada to decriminalise homosexual acts between consenting adults in private, “separating the idea of sin and the idea of crime.”

Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau defends his proposal, 1967. [Source: Creative Commons]
In 1969, newly elected Prime Minister Trudeau saw his proposal enacted into law. That one amendment triggered a series of political, legal and social changes that led to Canada in 2005 becoming the fourth county in the world to change the legal definition of marriage, extending the right to gay couples.

Peter Maloney, a Lawyer and former politician with Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal party, was one of the first Canadian political figures to publicly come out as gay. He remembered that before 1967, to be labelled as gay was akin to being called a dangerous sex offender, and often destroyed professional reputations and personal lives.

“Before that point, if I had even asked a same-sex person to engage in sexual behaviour, that was a criminal offence,” he recalls. “You had to be pretty bold if you wanted to engage in sexual behaviour, and you had to be pretty sure of who you were talking to or you could wind up in jail.”

The decriminalisation of homosexuality was critical to LGBT Canadians becoming socially accepted and treated as equal under the law. Judy Girard, who teaches human rights practice in civil society at Carleton University says that other pieces of legislation like the 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms were more powerful, but the 1969 amendment was symbolically fundamental and led to other discriminatory legislation across the country being struck down.

“Once we were ‘legal’, so to speak, it became clear that we deserved rights and freedoms which were available to all other Canadians,” says Girard. “With one stroke of a pen, Pierre Trudeau caused every jurisdiction in Canada to comply. Those of us who were pressing for changes one piece of legislation at a time saw a watershed of progress.”

LGBT rights grew over the next twenty years, ending one by one many discriminatory practices in both Canadian law and society. By the late 90s, heterosexual biases were erased from most legislative documents, replaced by legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Then, in 2005 same sex marriage was legalized.

Fifty years after Pierre Trudeau’s 1967 proposal,  both Girard and Maloney agree that some inequities still persist. For instance, the difference in the age of consent for anal sex for heterosexual couples versus homosexual couples, and the “blood ban” that prevents gay men from donating blood unless they have abstained from sexual intercourse for a year prior. However, Trudeau Jr. seems intent on fixing those problems.

Justin Trudeau celebrating Canada Pride [source: Creative Commons]
“We have made great strides in securing legal rights for the LGBTQ2 community in Canada,” he said in a November 2016 press release. “But the fight to end discrimination is not over and a lot of hard work still needs to be done.” The same release announced the appointment of openly gay MP Randy Boissonnault as a Special Advisor on LGBTQ2 issues to work on those inequities, and help shape a government apology to the gay community for past injustices.

In contrast to the civil rights issues unfolding across Canada’s southern border, Trudeau’s open and equitable treatment of LGBT rights is comforting to LGBT people all over the world. In his own words, “Canadians know our country is made stronger because of our diversity, not in spite of it.”



Second Cup losses shrinking, but still far from first place

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Second Cup is working its way out of a six-year financial deficit under the leadership of President and CEO Alix Box, but the Canadian coffee shop chain still has a long way to go—and a lot of structural changes to make—if it hopes to compete with coffee giants like Starbucks and Tim Hortons.

Box was named CEO of Second Cup in February of 2014 to help revitalize the Second Cup brand, and steer the company back in a profitable direction. Formerly Vice President of Operations, Company, and Licensed Stores with Starbucks Canada, she has a wealth of experience in “achiev[ing] strong growth in sales and profitability” in the coffee shop business according to a 2014 press release. Almost three years later, it appears she has lived up to her reputation: Box’s strategic business plan has reduced the operating loss of the company from over $30 million in September of 2014 to just $25,000 in September 2016.

Page 11 of Second Cup FS Q3 2015

Page 2 of Second Cup FS Q3 2016

This upward trend is due in part to Box’s aggressive-but-effective franchising strategy. In a May 2016 press release, Box said that the company is “moving toward an asset-light model,” which means that it intends to close most, if not all, of the company-owned stores in order to focus on supporting the much-more-profitable franchises. Since the beginning of 2014, Box has closed 41 under-performing stores, 18 of which were company-owned. As of September 2016, only 5 per cent of Second Cup’s 298 shops were company-owned. Second Cup says that the closures, along with a 2014 internal restructuring that cut almost a third of the staff at headquarters, should save the company up to $2.3 million annually. Box says this money will be rolled into franchise relations.

Financial analyst Alex Mirhady says Second Cup has “stemmed the bleeding” by closing the money-losing shops, and that a franchise-based model is the company’s best bet at this point. “They know that franchise owners are all independent business owners who are going to work really hard. Their own profit is on the line, versus corporate-owned stores where you have a manager who works for $10 an hour and then goes home. They have a vested interest.”

The reality of this is reflected in Second Cup’s operating margin. From the fall of 2015 to the fall of 2016, the corporate-owned stores cost the company over $700,000. By contrast, the franchise stores showed a net profit of almost $1.2 million. Mirhady says that the move toward franchising is the obvious choice, but that he believes significant financial gains from the decision will take some time to materialize.

“They’ve had to invest a whole lot into renovating their stores, and they have had to pay a lot to close those stores, with severance pay, getting out of leases, and likely selling some property at a deficit,” he says.

But while the company has yet to post any substantial profit, it is getting close to breaking free of its operating loss. Box states in an October 2016 press release that she is “pleased with the significant earnings progress,” and “optimistic that this will continue into the fourth quarter.” The financial statements for the fourth quarter—or winter season—of 2016 have yet to be posted.

But Mirhady believes there is still one major hurdle that second cup will need to face, whether its profit increases or not: that is, the lack of public faith in the company, and resulting plummeting stock prices. “The stock price reflects the expectations of the market for [the business’] future profits. In terms of what the stock market thinks of them… have they really turned the corner yet? I don’t see it.”

Only time will tell if Second Cup can recapture its mantle as one of Canada’s top coffee chains. But for now, it might have to settle for being Fifth or Sixth Cup.



Second Cup Stocks 2014-Present by amberdavison on TradingView.com