All posts by Olivia Bowden

Suicide rates remain stagnant for youth in Ottawa

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Trying to help someone with mental health issues only when they show signs of self-harm isn’t proactive — it’s reactive.

Counsellor Nathaniel Jewitt equates this problem to a focus on preventing suicide —but only when a person is at the edge of a cliff.

“If somebody is starting to acknowledge that they’re suicidal, there’s already been a lot of pain and suffering and that’s been going on for a while,” said Jewitt, counsellor for Carleton’s Health and Counselling Services.

More has to be done for those facing mental health issues before they reach a point where self-harm and suicide is a thought, said Jewitt, who is one of three counsellors specifically allocated to Carleton’s residences.

“Counselling isn’t the only solution for all of that. It’s how we build communities, how we teach people to make decisions and coach themselves and others through their lives,” he said.

Nathaniel Jewitt, a counsellor for Carleton's Health and Counselling services helps students in residence who might be dealing with anxiety and depression. He's pictured here in his office. Photo by Olivia Bowden.
Nathaniel Jewitt, a counsellor for Carleton’s Health and Counselling services helps students in residence who might be dealing with anxiety and depression. He’s pictured here in his office. Photo by Olivia Bowden.

While services like counselling and crisis hotlines work to prevent suicide, the suicide rate in Canada has remained relatively stagnant since 2000 with suicides making up about 1.5 per cent of all deaths, according to data from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey compiled by Statistics Canada.

Tableau Graph

The above data was compiled via the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey published by Statistics Canada. Click here to view the graph in full. 

For those aged 15 to 24 the average is similar and has also remained fairly stagnant.

For Ottawans in that demographic, the average rate between 2005 and 2009 was six per 100,000 for men and four for women, according to Ontario Mortality Data extracted by the City of Ottawa.

According to Ottawa Public Health Data, about 600 women per 100,000 aged 15 to 24 were admitted to emergency rooms for self harm in 2012, with the rate being about 195 for men.

As a counsellor for students in residence specifically, Jewitt’s office is in Renfrew House on the first floor. Posters in the offices advertise for Tuesday afternoon therapy dog visits and it’s not far from where students live on the floor above. He’s one of three counsellors allocated for that office.

He said common issues among students include depression and anxiety, often related to being away from home for the first time or navigating new social environments.

Interacting with others and reminding each other that it’s normal to be imperfect tends to reduce anxiety, he said.

He said the key to preventing someone from reaching a crisis point with their mental health is to first reduce stigma surrounding valuing emotional well-being.

“It’s about taking emotional needs seriously, but also learning how to manage expectations and deal with hard times,” he said.

The above graphic was compiled using data from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey published by Statistics Canada and The State of Ottawa’s Health 2014 report published by the City of Ottawa. 

Finding resources to help develop those abilities and navigate challenging environments can be difficult-especially for youth, said Charissa Feres.

Feres is an undergraduate student at Carleton University and Vice-President of Student Issues at the Student Alliance for Mental Health (SAMH).

Dealing with her own experiences with mental illness and trouble accessing services caused her to get involved with SAMH to help others going through similar concerns.

Recognizing that a discussion can be had about self-harm without rushing to call 9-1-1 is important, she said.

“There’s different levels to suicidality. A large amount of people who are suicidal aren’t necessarily at that level of intent,” she said.

Charissa Feres
Charissa Feres from Carleton’s Student Alliance for Mental Health says suicide prevention needs to be more proactive. Photo by Olivia Bowden

Spaces where there isn’t fear of being sent to an emergency room are important —unless there is an imminent threat to that person’s life, and then 9-1-1 is necessary, she said.

Recognizing the core reasons for someone reaching a stage where self-harm is considered is crucial, she added.

There can be issues of secure housing, financial instability and multiple oppressions and discrimination that cannot be ignored.

“It’s not always about restricted means,” she said.

“When we talk about suicide prevention, often we are talking too late in the spectrum. We need to talk about preventing suicidal thoughts to begin with.”

Scroll over photos for captions. 

Albion-Heatherington revitalization not realized yet, say residents

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Since the neighbourhood of Albion-Heatherington gained the attention of city council — and city funds — improvements have been made to one of the lowest-income areas in Ottawa in the last year, say some residents.

But revitalizing a part of the city that has an individual low-income rate of 34 per cent, will take more than the attention of councillors.

“I’ve seen the difference over the past decade. I would say they have tried- I feel perfectly safe,” said resident Yolande McMillan. “But yes, there is some crime.”

The average low-income rate is about twelve per cent for all of Ottawa, according to data from the 2011 National Household Survey, compiled by Statistics Canada, meaning Heatherington’s is almost three times higher than average.

Over the past year, a lens has been placed on the neighbourhood as it’s one of three areas the City of Ottawa has picked for a revitalization project, titled Building Better Revitalized Neighbourhoods, approved in March.

The project specifically targets low-income neighbourhoods, including Carlington and Vanier South.

On Oct 19, the city announced Heatherington will be the subject of a revitalization study, one that will cost $250,000. It’s the result of the work of Diane Deans, councillor for Gloucester-Southgate, who called for the city to bring specific attention to Heatherington over the past year and a half.

Funding for the neighbourhood also came this year after Deans submitted a project proposal for federal funding- for a community kitchen to be added on to the Albion-Heatherington Recreation Centre.



The recreation centre boasts programs for youth and children with a basketball court inside. On any given night you can hear balls bouncing and shoes screeching on the court.

McMillan has lived in the neighbourhood for ten years and often walks her dog behind the centre. Nearby is a local park nestled between several apartments and housing units.

The primary reason for moving to the area was diversity of people- which may not be as present in other Ottawa neighbourhoods, she said.



She believes the city has made major improvements that benefit children in the area specifically.

“They are cleaning the parks on a weekly basis. They tore down the Herongate Mall and are putting up new housing on the other side of the street,” said McMillan.

In the summertime, you can often see children playing in the parks, and an ice rink is set up near the recreation centre in the winter, she said.

The Albion Heatherington Recreation Centre received funding for a community kitchen earlier this year. Photo by Olivia Bowden.
The Albion Heatherington Recreation Centre received funding for a community kitchen earlier this year. Photo by Olivia Bowden.

Some business owners and workers in the area continue to be wary of crime in the neighbourhood.

Yj Zhung works at the local Dollarpal near Heatherington Road, in Walkley Plaza. She said most of the customers at the store are low-income families in the area.

Zhung said she does feel uneasy sometimes-as fights sometimes occur in the plaza parking lot. “This area specifically is not very safe. The police come a lot,” she said.

She often sees teenagers roaming the neighbourhood- as not enough community activities seem to exist. More of these via the community centre, could help.

In the same plaza, Mo Ali works at Bullo Wireless and Exchange Ltd, a tech shop, as a part time owner. On one of the plaza walls is a community graffiti mural, with “community is a shared responsibility” written on it.

He said he likes working in the neighbourhood- but would not want his children to live here.

Crime remains a worry, say residents of the Albion-Heatherington neighbourhood. Photo by Olivia Bowden.
Crime remains a worry, say residents of the Albion-Heatherington neighbourhood. Photo by Olivia Bowden.

“If my kids were here, I’d feel uncomfortable,” he said. “They should have a better recreation centre, or another place where they can play basketball.”

Mentioning the new community kitchen, Ali agrees that this is a good use of resources. But it’s still not enough, he said.

Without enough of these public spaces, kids play on the street and witness drug deals that happen nearby, he said.

“They stand in the plaza sometimes, selling stuff,” said Ali. “The police need to do something about that.”
Earlier this month four were arrested for several swarmings involving robbery that occurred near the recreation centre. Ali said he is in favour of a heavier police presence in the neighbourhood.



Above is a map of Ottawa Census Tracts. Click on each shaded area to learn the percentage of low-income individuals in that neighbourhood. Darker shades indicate a higher percentage. It’s important to note that several low-income neighbourhoods are next to high-income neighbourhoods. All data is from the 2011 National Household survey compiled by Statistics Canada. 

Sandy Hill noise complaints up again for 2016

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Sandy Hill, the neighbourhood within Rideau-Vanier that’s notorious for a high volume of noise complaints may be improving, according to recent data.

But a lower number of complaints could be fleeting. The final tally for noise complaint calls in 2016 may be higher than 2015, based on average monthly calls this year.

Police policy surrounding noise calls changed in April, officially making those complaints of lower priority than before.

The last few years have seen improvements in the area, with calls decreasing by nearly 23 per cent between 2013 and 2015, from 2638 to 2034.

But these marked decreases in noise complaints called via 311 to Ottawa Bylaw services may not continue based on the number of complaints received by the end of 2016. In the first nine months of this year, 1,675 noise complaints were received. The same period in 2015 saw only 1,472 complaints, 12 per cent less than this year.

Any noise complaint will first bring 311 bylaw officers to assess the situation. Those officers can issue a warning or ticket. If they find a crowd is out of control, or that violence is occurring, police are called.

sandy-hill-party
A St. Patrick’s Day party in Sandy Hill in March 2016. (YouTube)

The concern that calls are not being taken seriously by police is one the community is constantly grappling with, said Mathieu Fleury, councillor for Rideau-Vanier.

“They never took noise calls seriously to be honest, which was unfortunate. Or they would never get to the calls,” he said.

Fleury, at age 31, has spent six years in office. He has long dealt with his ward’s issues with noise, which majority of the time are related to music or shouting.

 

The councillor also sits on the Sandy Hill Town and Gown Committee, launched in 2012, to ensure that there are better relations between all parties-Students, residents and landlords.

He said relations between these different groups have improved, with the help of student union involvement and constant communication with residents.

“In September we do a walk about. We knock on all the doors to give everyone a warning about what the rules are so that everyone’s on the same page,” he said.

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3181031-Report-Town-and-Gown-Item-PROGRESS-of-the-SANDY/pages/3.html

Calls that come after 3 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays may be ignored as officers are only on duty for noise until 4 a.m., said Fleury.

“I would like Ottawa police services to have longer hours. There’s a wave of calls often when the bars close, and they don’t get to every call,” he said.

Fleury said more police involvement would be ideal — as police can use the criminal code to shut down noisy parties.

“Police have right of access in the building. Bylaw just doesn’t have the authority,” he said.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Coun. Mathieu Fleury. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Last year the town and gown committee launched a noise complain registry allow residents to file their 311 complaints in an accessible website, for landlords to view.

Landlords are now able to bring tenants to the board if they are frequently disturbing neighbours. Before this, landlords were never made aware of complaints, he added.

“We know that people are using it. Beyond that we want to see in the next few months how landlords are using it,” he said.

In the last three months the number of complaints filed on the website has increased significantly, said John Dickie, chairman of the Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization.

“We’re getting I’d say a dozen complaints a week,” said Dickie.

At a town and gown meeting this summer, Dickie mentioned the website again to a crowded room, mentioning that not many were using it. This gave the website some uptake, he said.

There’s still a lot to be done, but many are happy the overall complaints have gone down over the last few years, he added.

“You’d still like it down to the city average. But, that’s progress.”

The graph above indicates Rideau-Vanier’s noise complaints are higher than any other ward. 

Guilty verdict not often reached in Ontario sexual assault trials

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Only one- third of all sexual assault charges in Ontario have resulted in a guilty verdict when brought to criminal court between 2009 and 2014, according to data from Statistics Canada.

For all other criminal court cases in the province, almost 60 per cent of those charged were found guilty during the same period.

Recent Toronto trials involving Mustafa Ururyar, who was found guilty of sexually assaulting PhD student Mandi Gray and the case against former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi who was acquitted on all charges of sexual assault, have put nature of sexual assault trials under a microscope.

Between the 2013-2014 period, more than two-thirds of sexual assault cases heard in criminal court resulted in either acquittal, or sexual assault charges were dropped before trial.

The number of cases that make it to trial in the first place are a sliver of the number of sexual assaults likely happening in Canada each day, said Sara Dunn, a manager at Statistics Canada.

The above chart shows the number of guilty verdicts in sexual assault trials in court in Ontario, versus the number of guilty verdicts for all criminal offences in court.

“Sexual assault is inherently difficult because of underreporting. We know there’s more cases of sexual assault occurring in Canada,” said Dunn, who examines the uniform crime reporting survey that calculates the number of sexual assaults documented by police.

The most recent Statistics Canada report titled Criminal Victimization in Canada, estimated accurate sexual assault figures in 2004, noting that only eight per cent of women report sexual assault to police.

Statistics Canada could not provide specific court information for Toronto. However, the rate in which sexual assault level 1 cases-which the organization defines as at most minor physical injuries are made to the victim- are cleared without charges, is 12 per cent.

Along with a low reporting rate, a low conviction rate indicates the nature of a sexual assault trial, where stigma is attached to the victim, said Cynthia Ingram, a Toronto-based lawyer.

“There’s a lot of cases that suggest absolutely they are treated differently,” said Ingram, who specializes in employment law and sexual harassment.

Recent cases like the March decision against Brock Allan Turner, a Stanford University student and athlete who was sentenced to two months for the rape of an unconscious woman is an example of how sexual assault cases are treated, she said.

Knowing that the trial process carries stigma and involves personal exposure as well may deter those from reporting, she added.

Toronto trials like the recent case this month against York University PhD student Mustafa Ururyar, 29, saw Justice Marvin Zuker sentencing Uruyar to 18 months in prison for sexually assaulting Mandi Gray.

Zuker said in his decision that rape myths- the perception that victims are at fault for their own assaults- need to be dispelled.

“Rape mythology continues to inform us about sexual assault, and women’s reactions to [assault],” said Jane Doe, a Toronto sexual assault activist.

Doe is well known for her pseudonym after her civil case against the Toronto Police in 1998. She sued the police for negligence for failing to warn the community, after she was raped by serial assaulter Paul Callow.

She was awarded $220,000 at the time and her case was considered to be a historic win.

This month Doe has spearheaded a travelling art show in Toronto dedicated to change how sexual assault survivors are viewed.

Jane Doe
Jane Doe (right) and artist Lillian Allen (left) organized the Sexual Assault Roadshow.

Attending any rape trial in Canada will quickly show that rape myths continue to be applied, she said.

“These myths maintain that women lie, that they want to get revenge, or because they are angry,” she said.

Rehabilitation programs are not properly in place and deter victims from reporting sexual assault to police as well.

“This keeps women in private spaces. It maintains the status quo.”

B.C still won’t include First Nations group in oil and gas interests on their land

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As a child, Harry Deneron remembers his parents burying his grandmother at the north shore of the Maxhamish Lake in British Columbia.

Except as a member of the Acho Dene Koe (ADK) First Nations peoples, Maxhamish Lake was only known as Sandy Lake to Deneron and his family, as a part of their people’s territory. He was taught to see their land as one whole area— not broken up by three colonial boundaries. The ADK territory now spans across the Yukon, Northwest Territories and B.C.

ADK land on the B.C side, where Deneron and 200 other ADK peoples live, may be of interest to Suncor Energy and the B.C government, according to documents obtained via a freedom of information request.

The documents, in the form of a briefing note to Aboriginal Relations Minister John Rustad, state that the Horn River Basin — where ADK live — is where oil and gas company Suncor has retained oil sand extraction rights.

But the ADK won’t be able to benefit from oil and gas development in the area as the province continues to shut them out of treaty negotiations to affirm their claim to the land they have resided on for centuries, said Deneron, chief of the ADK.

“That’s the rights that need to be settled. And that should happen soon,” he said. “We’re tired of being ignored.”

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2774956-Suncor-Doc-1/pages/1.html
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2774957-Suncor-Doc-2/pages/1.html
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2774958-Suncor-Doc-3/pages/1.html

Deneron and the ADK have been looking to re-negotiate their treaty with provincial governments in all three provinces their territory crosses, as well as with the federal government.

The ADK previously signed Treaty 11 in the early 1920s, but it does not extend into B.C. In 2002 the ADK began the process of negotiating a new one within each province and territory they had claim to, with B.C’s Treaty Commission accepting the claim at the time.

Today, B.C is the only party that has not come to negotiations for a new treaty, with the Yukon, Northwest Territories and the federal government all at the table, said Bob Reiter, lawyer for the ADK.

“This isn’t a matter of asking for a huge share of anything here. It’s just they were on record as wanting to negotiate, and now they’ve been avoiding my clients since 2002,” said Reiter.

But without B.C’s involvement in the negotiations, the ADK residing in the province will live in uncertainty to whether they have official rights to the land, said Reiter.

Reiter and the ADK are prepared to go to court over the land claims, but it’s an expensive process that could take years, he said.

“This is not a legal issue. It’s pretty straightforward, they have to negotiate. It’s a political issue that I think is front and centre with respect to oil and gas,” said Reiter. “The stakes are so great.”

The Horn Plateau area is exclusively occupied by the ADK, he added.“They have cabins there, they have villages there,” he said.

Scott Fraser, the NDP critic for the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation said he has questioned Minister Rustad about the ADK many times over the last few years.

Earlier this month he met with Rustad to discuss the ADK again, in which the Minister declined to visit the ADK’s B.C territory, said Fraser.

“He’s dismissing an entire group of people in a very colonial way, I’d suggest,” he said.

Suncor could use their claims to oil sands in the area as an opportunity to work with the ADK, which the province has failed to, he said.

“Maybe they can show the government and this Minister how it should be done,” he said. “This could be the push necessary for companies working on the land to adhere to the spirit of the UN declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples.”

Government of Canada Access Request 

City of Vancouver Request

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2774954-Screen-Shot-2016-03-23-at-5-45-04-PM/pages/1.html

Government of British Columbia Request

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2774953-Screen-Shot-2016-03-23-at-5-11-21-PM/pages/1.html

Access to a previous request 

Questions:

What is the information?

The information in these documents contains briefing notes to Minister John Rustad of the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation. The purpose of the notes are to brief Minister Rustad on an upcoming meeting with Suncor Energy in October 2014.

From which department did the pages come from?

These pages came from the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation.

Why was this information helpful?

The information was helpful as it gave me insight into what the Minister was told prior to the meeting with Suncor. Information about where Suncor’s tenures are was important because where Suncor has holdings became the main part of the story. I would not have known about the ADK people without first knowing where Suncor has oil sands.

 

Increase in sexual harassment complaints due to Ghomeshi, public awareness, says experts

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Jian Ghomeshi’s public firing may have encouraged more City of Toronto employees to report sexual harassment, according to a report from the City’s Human Rights Office.

Data from the Office has shown a steady overall increase in the number of formal complaints made to the office about sexual harassment since 2001.

Between 2013 and 2014, complaints increased by 132 per cent, up to 58 from 25, the highest amount of complaints the office has seen. Ghomeshi was fired in the fall of 2014.

Data from 2015 has not been compiled yet, said Jackie DeSouza, director of communications for the City of Toronto.

 Although Ghomeshi is not the sole reason for a spike in complaints, it’s a factor to consider, said DeSouza.

“With the Jian Ghomeshi case, the interest goes up and the awareness goes up, and people feel that there’s a better or more conducive environment to complain,” she said.

The case has brought much public discussion on instances of sexual harassment in the workplace. A verdict for Ghomeshi will be announced next week.

http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2764797-2014-HRO-Report-10.html

The document above is from the Human Right Office’s Annual Report from 2014. 

More than a quarter of Canadians are sexually harassed at work, according to an Angus Reid online survey conducted in November 2014.

According to a 2012 presentation by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, sexual harassment in the workplace is underreported, and key data is not being collected.

The commission stated the last time data was collected was 1993 by Statistics Canada. The report indicated about 400,000 women was being harassed at work each year.

A steady increase in City of Toronto employees reporting may be the result of more awareness and knowledge of the organization’s process in handling sexual harassment along with media attention, DeSouza said.

The numbers may indicate that workers feel more comfortable reporting, said Simon Lapierre, a professor of social work at the University of Ottawa.

“There is something much bigger than Ghomeshi happening,” he said. “Over the last two years, we’ve seen with traditional media, with social media, people are starting to talk about sexual violence and taking it seriously.”

“They feel they can report and have enough trust in the office or the system,” he added.

Lapierre was a member of the University of Ottawa’s 2015 Task Force on Respect and Equality that addressed sexual violence issues at the school.

Most incidents of sexual violence remain unreported, with less than 10 per cent coming forward, Lapierre said.

“The issue of trust is a central issue,” he added. “Survivors have to trust the institution or organization that they will get an appropriate response if they report.”

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2764796-2014-HRO-Report-12/pages/1.html

The document above is from the Human Right Office’s Annual Report from 2014. 

New legislation titled Bill 132, passed on March 8 of this year, makes major amendments to Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, to deal specifically with sexual harassment in the workplace.

The law emphasizes that all employers must investigate all sexual harassment complaints and must review annually their harassment policy to create an environment that supports those who report.

Bill 132 was passed just months after being drafted, which is considered to be incredibly fast, said Cynthia Ingram, lawyer at Rudner Macdonald LLP.

“The government focus really came in as a response to the Jian Ghomeshi matter,” she said.

Ingram said she isn’t surprised the City of Toronto has seen increased reports of sexual harassment and those rates may continue to spike.

“You’re going to see an increase in the number of formal investigations now because it’s mandated by law,” she said. “You’re going to see an increased focus and attention put on this by employers. It will be interesting to see what impact that has on reducing this trend.”

Partner Assault Unit: Police must do more to combat domestic violence, experts say

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The number of people killed violently by family members in Ottawa between the mid 1980s and early 1990s could fill several neighbourhood blocks.

Most victims were women and lived in the same homes as their perpetrators.

After finding few charges were laid against domestic abusers, the Ottawa Police create a specific domestic-dispute squad in 1991 that aimed to charge more and encourage more women to report abuse.

Twenty-five years later, experts and members of police advisory groups on violence against women find the force has a long way to go to combat domestic violence successfully.

By 1991, Ottawa Police reported responding to hundreds of domestic abuse-related calls each week, according to reports by the Ottawa Citizen.

It was in February of that year that Police deputy at the time Brian Ford would work to create the force’s first Partner Assault Unit—one that still exists today— to change how police were responding to house calls.

City police were not charging many attackers even when they had evidence, said former deputy chief of operations and Ottawa police chief Brian Ford, who retired in 2000.

“There were a number of deaths over the years that were directly related to that and the escalation of violence when we weren’t charging was significant,” he said.

Click below for a 1991 Ottawa Citizen report about the squad

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2724272-ProQuestDocuments-2016-02-27/pages/3.html

Ford said the newly created Partner Assault Unit incorporated charging even if a victim states they do not wish to press charges. The assailant is charged regardless if there is enough evidence, he said.

Between 1991 and 2000 the Partner Assault Unit handled over 10,500 cases according to a 2001 report by police on domestic homicide.

The report said the introduction of the squad decreased domestic homicide by 33 per cent in 2000.

Click below for graphs from the 2001 report on homicide rates

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2724270-Homicide-rates-and-spousal-homicide-rates-1976/pages/1.html

The Partner Assault Unit continues to mishandle some cases of domestic abuse despite calls for improvement, said Leighann Burns, executive director of Harmony House women’s shelter in Ottawa.

“We have not made very impressive gains in all that time,” said Burns, who was a member of the Violence Against Women Police Advisory Committee, a group made up of people who work directly with women affected by domestic violence.

She said University of Ottawa criminology Professor Holly Johnson’s 2014 report on how police handle domestic violence is an indication the force must improve.

Johnson surveyed 219 women who had phoned police to report violence on domestic abuse, sexual assault and harassment.

Through access to police data about the number of incidents and number of charges, it was found 54 per cent of partner abuse cases resulted in a charge over five years of data.

Charging at a rate of half or less than half are the same rates that existed prior to 1991 on an annual basis, according to Ottawa Citizen articles from that year.

Five recommendations were made for Ottawa police in Johnson’s report, including monitoring more closely complaints that come in and are dismissed and to implement better training, to combat embedded societal and cultural perceptions that women should be blamed for their abuse.

Burns said police consultations within the advisory committees centred on focusing on better police investigations in order to gather more evidence that could help lead to a charge.

“It’s a very difficult system to change. Fundamentally, at this point, I doubt they will willingly make the changes that are necessary,” she said.

Ottawa police are currently undergoing a strategic review to examine their organizational structure and how resources are developed, said acting Supt. Joan McKenna.

Police are also working to create a case manager position review cases where charges aren’t laid and work to ensure a person’s safety even if there’s no charge, she said.

“Everyday when we come to work, there are people in our cell block for domestic violence, 365 days a year,” McKenna said.

“Creating awareness for domestic violence is not just a police issue, it’s everyone’s issue,” she said.

Click below for a 2014 Statistics Canada infographic on family violence

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2724281-Family-Violence-PDF/pages/1.html

QUESTIONS 

Document 1: 1991 Ottawa Citizen article

This document refers to the creation of a domestic-dispute squad and establishes why the creation of a squad was necessary. It refers to a study out of London Ontario that showed the benefits of charging even when a spouse does not wish to press charges. It indicates that prior to 1991, police viewed spousal abuse issues as within the family and not as a straight criminal matter. This began to change at this point.

I obtained this document through a search on the Canadian Newsstand Complete database, searching for Ottawa Citizen articles published in 1991.

This document was helpful because I was unaware the Partner Assault Unit at the Ottawa police was created 25 years ago. It also explained which people were involved in the creation of the unit as well as circumstances surrounding the creation.

Document 2: Graphs from a 2001 police report

This document shows rates of spousal homicide as well as homicide rates in general from the 1970s to the end of the century. It shows in comparison how many homicides are a result of spousal abuse, and it indicates that more often than not females are the victims, not the perpetrators. The way the data is laid out also indicates what police believed to be important in 2001 which was to understand whether spousal abuse rates and an increase in murders in 1999 were related.

I found this entire document here via Google searches during my research.

This document was helpful because overall the entire document explains the progress made since 1991 and figures that I also included in my article. It was an indication of where police believed they were at in terms of combating domestic abuse by that time, which was 10 years after the squad was created.

Pandora Media posts higher losses amid competitive market

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Internet radio service Pandora Media posted a 4143 per cent increase in net loss at the end of 2015, amid higher operating costs, in order to compete with music streaming heavy-hitters currently dominating the market.

The loss jumped from -$2.03 million USD in its 2014 third quarter to -$85.93 million USD in October 2015.

Competition from streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify have challenged the company’s ability to innovate a market it was once at the head of, said Ken Wong, marketing professor at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business.

Pandora’s third-quarter financial statement indicated that operating expenses in developing their service had increased 63 per cent between 2014 and 2015, from $13.3 million USD to $21.8 million USD.

Overall expenses to operate as a business, including sales and marketing costs, increased 43 per cent from 2014 to 2015.

Within the statement, Pandora said substantial risks and uncertainties may impact current predictions made in the report, and these risks are predicated on factors such as operation in an emerging market, the ability to attract and retain advertisers and competitive factors.


Pandora was first launched in 2005 in the United States, one of the first services to make online radio streaming popular, building the foundation for the current streaming market.

The company also acquired Rdio in 2015, a competitor in internet radio services in order to move into on demand streaming services. But the introduction of Apple Music left the company with increase vulnerabilities when attempting to jump-start their streaming capabilities.

Although Pandora posted increased revenue in 2015, the cost of operating has increased, meaning that revenue is not enough to grow, said Ken Wong, marketing professor at Queen’s University’s Smith School of Business.

Wong said as Pandora’s sales began to decline, the cost to attract and retain paying customers increased.

“So even though sales may go up, profits are dropping because these fixed costs are climbing faster,” he said.

Pandora’s inability to differentiate itself from its competition- offering consumers nothing unique to other companies that offer the same services-has left it behind in an industry that continues to grow, even though it was first to the gate a decade ago, Wong said.

Spotify offers custom playlists and access to exclusive celebrity music sessions. Apple Music is backed by their company’s deep pockets and delivering of exclusive content- like Taylor Swift.

“When you’re first to the market, you get a certain reception predicated on the fact that you are the innovator. And if you’re not careful, you can start believing your own press,” he said.

“Start thinking your made in the shade, until someone says ‘hey, I can do that and I can do that better’, and that’s what happened with Spotify and Apple Music,” he said.

Pandora is currently in third place when it comes to streaming, which is an extremely vulnerable position to be in, said Toronto-based technology analyst Carmi Levy.

“There’s a limit to the number of services that most consumers are willing to carry and pay for at the same time, and that number is certainly less than three,” he said.

“On the one hand, it cleaned up its backyard in 2015, but by that time, the waters in which it swims had become much more shark infested”, he said.

Pandora has lost a lead it once had and don’t have the resources to fight off competition, and with a falling out in the market, there might not be room for the company, Levy said.

“It needs to find new ways of delivering a unique music consumption experience, and as 2016 dawns were not really seeing any signs of that yet,” he said.

Pandora Media Inc. Stock Prices 

Pandora Media Inc. Stock Prices by oliviabowden on TradingView.com

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