Year in Review: JFCY and the PLE Team!

Both JFCY and the PLE Team had a great year in 2012.

JFCY's work in 2012

JFCY lawyers assisted hundreds of young people this year with various legal issues, ranging from defending youth on charges under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, representing youth in family court in making claims for financial support, advocacy around entitlement to social benefits like Ontario Works, negotiations and defending youth facing school expulsions, representing youth victims of crime in applications to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, and many other types of cases.

In addition to direct representation at court and tribunals in the Toronto-area, JFCY lawyers also provided legal advice and brief services to young people across the province.

JFCY intervened in two important cases at the Supreme Court of Canada, including one about children's rights to appropriate special education supports.  To read more, check out our related blog post here.

JFCY lawyers also conducted legal education workshops and seminars for other lawyers, social workers, teachers, guidance counselors, front-line support workers, social service professionals and, of course, youth themselves.  These sessions focused on a variety of issues, from youth criminal justice to school education law and were conducted across the province, including as far away as Thunder Bay.

JFCY did all of this despite a small staff of only six people!  A special thanks to our dedicated crew: Mary (Acting Executive Director), Samira (intake lawyer), Andrea (litigation lawyer), Johanna (street youth legal services lawyer), Karien (office manager) and Marie (admin).

Finally, a VERY big thanks to JFCY's many volunteers, from our Board of Directors to our law student interns to our committees, including the PLE Team, featured below.  The work of our volunteers is crucial in allowing us to be able to fulfill our mandate, while keeping connected to the communities that we serve.

The Public Legal Education Team ("PLE Team")- 2012 Year in Review

Launched in the summer of 2010, the PLE Team has grown and improved in the past two years.  Led by our litigation lawyer, Andrea, and supported each academic year by a law student volunteer from U of T's PBSC program, the PLE Team is responsible for this blog, as well as JFCY's Facebook, YouTube and Twitter presence.  Additionally, the PLE Team regularly publishes print and online newsletters, zines and other special projects. To read the Bullying 'Zine that we published in 2012, click here.

2012 saw JFCY's blog stats increase significantly, thanks in large part to the consistent and high-level effort of the PLE Team volunteers, who include high school students, post-secondary students, law students, lawyers and others. To read our most popular blog post written in 2012, click here.

The YouTube subcommittee of the PLE Team produced and uploaded four videos in 2012, including topics such as Leaving Home and Fake ID.

Thanks to the 20+ active volunteer members of the PLE Team, including 8 high school students, our PBSC law student voluntreers Leora Jackson (2011/12) and Lauren Grossman (2012/13), our YouTube coordinators Arif Hussain and Bianca Thomas and our video editor Terence Chen (a grade 12 student who was recognized as JFCY's Volunteer of the Year at our 2012 AGM.)

  


The PLE Team in 2013?

Around the corner in 2013, stay tuned for a new YouTube video on school expulsions.  We are also in the process of creating an interactive game that will be used at JFCY workhsops.  The Youth Action Committee members of the PLE Team have several plans up their sleeve, including some awareness raising initiatives and events to help encourage young people from diverse backgrounds to consider future careers in law. We are looking forward to another fun and successful year of PLE in 2013.

Police Carding

You’re walking home after a long day at school and from the corner of your eye you notice a police cruiser approaching you. You think nothing of it, as you haven’t committed a crime.

Not too long after you hear a whistle, or a “hey you”, from the direction of the cruiser and find the officer inside motioning at you to approach his vehicle. Upon approaching the driver’s side of the car, the officer asks you questions like, “where were you going?” or, “do you have any illegal substances on you”. They continue with justifications for the stop, “you matched the description of a suspect in recent residential thefts”, or “we’re looking for an individual who matches your description”. Finally, they end by asking for your personal identification card, or information like your name, age, and address. 

This policing practice is called “carding”, and is named after the requesting of ID cards that are stored in police records. The Toronto Police are also now calling these types of stops ‘street checks’.  Carding or street checks are an unfortunate reality for many youth, disproportionately so, for young males belonging to ethnic minorities. When an individual is approached by an officer and asked for personal information, the individual can decline to answer as his or her rights are protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, however in reality, failing to answer, or “not cooperating” can lead to greater problems over simply complying with the officer’s demands.  

Also, sometimes the officer has a reason to stop you and the authority to find out who you are.  For example, if there are a number of factors that lead the officer to suspect that you are involved in a particular criminal activity, or if you are being issued a ticket for an offence like trespassing or riding your bike without a bell, the officer has the authority to find out who you are.  If you don’t identify yourself, the officer could take you to the police station to find out who you are.  It is important to find out if you must stay in the presence of the police by asking, ‘am I free to go?’  If you are not free to go, you should also ask ‘why are you stopping me?’  It is up to you if you want to share more information with the police officers but most lawyers will give you the advice that beyond identifying yourself, you have a right to remain silent and say nothing else, regardless of whether your are doing anything wrong or not.  

Why do officers collect personal information from the public?

Also known as the “208” card, the index-size-card is used to gather information about community members. It is often justified as a method to reduce crime in high-risk communities across the city. Police are asked to document their daily practice, and are to be as detailed as possible, which includes taking detailed notes of incidents as they happen, and documenting their interactions with the members of the public. This information is collected on contact cards, and is gathered in the large quantities in communities where the incidents of crime are likely to occur. Also, filling out these contact cards is regarded as good police work; the cards have been used to obtain search warrants, identify witnesses, and even sometimes aiding in trials. The information of these contacts cards are than entered in to large databases that the police use to search for connections, persons of interest, and bystanders of previous crimes. These contact cards will also later be used for reference to future crimes.

Another justification for this practice is that if the job is done right, and all the ‘bad guys’ are removed from the neighbourhood, you will be less vulnerable to victimization. This also means officers will be needed in the neighbourhood, meaning individuals will no longer be carded.

The police have been under heavy scrutiny in Toronto, as well as other large cities such as New York and London, after recent research showing that the police had a tendency to stop racial minorities much more frequently. In Toronto, this practice lead to the Toronto Police Service Board asking the Chief of Police Bill Blair to collect statistics on the rates of different groups being stopped, and to address discriminatory practices. The Board will also soon require police to give out ‘receipts’ or copies of the card stating the purpose of the stop to each individual carded.  

On November 14^th, 2012, Justice for Children and Youth made a written submission and presentation to the Toronto Police Service Board about Toronto Police Service discrimination and carding practices.  See the written submission here and link to video here.

This post was written by JFCY volunteer Shawn Malik, a member of the PLE Team.  JFCY's Street Youth Legal Services lawyer, Johanna Macdonald, added some info and expertise.

Staff Profile: Johanna Macdonald

Street Youth Legal Services lawyer Johanna MacDonald in her office at JFCY

Johanna Macdonald is one six lawyers working for the JFCY at the Toronto office. She has always been interested in law and completed her undergraduate degree at Carlton University in Ottawa. On behalf of the JFCY blog I asked her the following questions:

Why the interest in Youth?

While studying Criminology, Johanna read many statistics about the high peak of criminal behaviour for young men. She also learned that the likelihood of someone committing a crime can be predicted as early as age four. She has always thought the best way to reduce crime is to prevent it, and by providing support at an early age. At Carlton, Johanna volunteered with a Rowing programme for at-risk youth. From this she realized the necessity for increased support for older youth, such as teenagers and those in their twenties.

So what do you do as a Street Youth Lawyer?

Johanna represents high-risk and homeless youth between the ages of sixteen and twenty four. She visits shelters to see if there are youth in need of legal advice or to give seminars about employment rights, police interactions, and family law. Johanna loves being a youth lawyer because she deals with many areas of law such as, immigration, housing, and criminal, to name a few.

What Issues are Street Youth faced with today?

Johanna acknowledges that at-risk and homeless youth are heavily stigmatized and often have a negative view of the law. She says this is often because the primary interaction these youth have is with law enforcement. Johanna is working hard to educate youth on the opportunities that the law can provide them, for example in cases involving sole custody of a child or applications for compensation.

Should the law be reformed?

Johanna says the law does provide support to youth, but that there is still much to improve. In her opinion the law often treats at-risk and homeless youth as simply an “emergency problem”.  She thinks youth need better continued support, especially because there is such a high population of homeless youth who have been Crown Wards or have left child welfare. She said that the while the average youth receives financial support from parents or guardians up to age twenty seven, the maximum age a Crown Ward can receive financial support to is age twenty one. She would like to see the law changed so that the eligibility for financial support to Wards of the Crown is extended to age twenty four.

What’s next for Johanna?

On February 29^th she is hosting a meeting at Queen West Community Health Centre with police and law enforcers about better ways to effectively interact with Youth.  She hinted that the name may involve ‘Hot Shot’, which is a Police term for a situation that demands all officers drop what they are doing and immediately head to the scene of the crime! Keep reading the blog for updates on the great work Johanna and the rest of the JFCY lawyers are doing for Youth.

PLE Team Member and Volunteer Danielle Skuy interviewed Johanna and wrote this post.  

Youth Leaving Care Hearings - Nov. 25, 2011

On Fri. Nov.25^th, at 10:15 a.m., JFCY lawyers will make submissions at the hearings at the Provincial Legislature, proposing recommendations for child welfare reform. 


JFCY's efforts are led by Staff Lawyer, Niamh Harraher and Street Youth Legal Services Lawyer, Johanna Macdonald.


Niamh and Johanna will be joined by young people who are former Crown Wards and kids who lived in foster care.  


These youth will be sharing their experiences and ideas for how to improve Ontario's Child Welfare system, specifically with respect to the law and issues around youth leaving care as they get older. This is the first time that Canada has had youth-led hearings on these issues.


For more info, check out the official event website, produced by youth organizers from the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth. 


Also, check out this article from the Toronto Star, where some of the young people involved share their stories.