Entry #4, February 29

Serial killer Robert Pickton pens book in prison

CTVNews.ca Staff
Published Sunday, February 21, 2016 10:10PM EST 

Overview: 

This article talks about the notorious Canadian serial killer- Robert Pickton, who happened to have published a book about himself while locked down in a high security prison. Pickton was prosecuted for second degree murder against six girls who were found on his farm in Port Conquitlam. Subsequently, he confessed to an undercover security guard placed in his cell, that he killed 49 and got "sloppy" on his fiftieth. Pickton apparently got his written copy of his book out of the prison by giving it to his old inmate Michael Childress who got credited for author of the book. The book is now being sold on Amazon.ca for 20$. Many people are wondering how this man, who committed a gruesome crime could be able to write and publish a book about himself when hes supposed to be doing time in a high security prison. Pickton's book titled; "Pickton in his own words" talks about his life and argues about his innocence and how he should be claimed innocent. This news was seen as outrageous for people all over Canada and who could even imagine how the family members of Pickton's victims feel about this. The book supposedly has many typos and grammatical errors. Releasing a book from prison was not just introduced by Pickton, it previously happened in Canada as well in the 90s with a man named Paul Bernardo, he also released a novel straight from his prison cell. People in Canada are wondering whether publishing novels should be a right that the prisoners have, or should it be not allowed? A threat poses of prisoners like Pickton and Bernardo gaining money from their books and hiring an attorney to get them out of jail.

Serial killer Robert Pickton listens to the guilty verdict handed to him by the B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007. (Felicity Don / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Opinion:

In my opinion, the prisoners should not be allowed to publish books from prison. They could be able to write for pleasure and share it with inmates but publishing is a different story. When in prison, the prisoners are supposed to be serving time as a consequence for something bad they have done, they should not be making money. In addition, having books written by prisoners who are in prison read by the public could cause problems such as riots or plans to help an inmate escape. This could be compared to a different situations that has happened in a prison in Texas where a prisoner created a key to unlock his cell in wood shop (a daily activity they could participate in). In my opinion, some activities such as wood shop or writing and getting a book published should not be allowed in prisons due to dangers that could cause future problems. Seeing both sides of this situation, I could see Pickton making this book for a couple of reasons; he wants to make money, he wasn't to prove his innocents or, he just had nothing to do. I feel that he did this because he wants to make money and try and prove his innocents, he would not have tried to get it published if he wanted to do it for fun. I feel that this could have been a good idea from Pickton until I heard a passage from the book where Pickton explains that one of the blood stains on the bed was simply some fallen wallpaper glue. I see this as a preposterous excuse because the police would have been sure it was blood before convicting him, plus they found the dead victims in his barn as well. Overall, I believe that prisoners in high security prisons, such as Pickton, should not be able to publish books and make money or be recognized by others, when they are supposed to be doing time for something horrible that thy have done.

Entry #3, February 16

Victoria proposes rules for regulating illegal marijuana dispensaries

ANDREA WOO

VICTORIA — The Globe and Mail

Published Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016 7:09PM EST

Last updated Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2016 9:45PM EST

Overview:

In this article, Andrea Woo from the Globe and Mail talks about how Victoria, Canada is trying to regulate marijuana dispensaries around their city. There are about 30 current businesses in Victoria selling marijuana and 26 of them are store-front retailers, according to the city. In response to these numbers the city has proposed 14 regulations, such as an annual licensing fee of 4-5 thousand dollars.  A spokesman for a dispensing chain- Alex Robb who is located on Vancouver Island, stated that he wholeheartedly welcomes the new licensing regimes that were set up. Other proposed regulations include being prohibited from participating in the business if under the age of 19, health signs must be posted as well and no-one is permitted to consume marijuana in dispensaries. The Mayor of Victoria-Lisa Helps notes that she is still working to establish ground rules and is keeping in mind the fact that it may to years for the federal government to legalize marijuana. Helps also brought up the subject of how dispensaries are popping up much too quickly and that it is creating an unbalanced playing ground for other businesses. This could relate to the economical status of these suddenly occurring dispensaries for marijuana.  Helps finally stated how the city will have an open house meeting on the 22 of February  and she hopes to see the regulation set in as soon as possible. Last year Vancouver became the first city in Canada to regulate dispensaries however thirty thousand dollar fees will be given if it is used where it is not permitted. Helps said that she wanted the fees to be higher but the Victoria regulations fall under the same as B.C  and Vancouver on the other hand has its own regulations set apart. 

http://www.langaravoice.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Screen-Shot-2015-02-18-at-12.32.30-PM.png

Vancouver Dispensary

Opinion:

My opinion on the whole topic of the legalization of marijuana is that I still believe that it is not a good thing as it is a drug, not usually being used for medicine, but the fact that there are much worse drugs out there that make marijuana look like nothing. For example drinking is not illegal but it could make you do some very bad things when you get drunk, similarly to being high on marijuana. These effects are often compared and in my opinion pot is no worse than alcohol. My thoughts on the economic impact of the current situation is that, yes people will be more attracted to the marijuana dispensary in the outlet than the dry cleaning store right beside it. I can understand how the businesses feel in Victoria and I see how this could be unfair since the other businesses could be receiving less publicity. In my opinion the solution that the government could come up with for this economic issue is that the dispensaries can only be opened in certain remote areas. They must be separated evenly from each other dispensary in the area thus causing less eyes to turn in every outlet. The controversy between how Victoria is regulating marijuana apart from the rest of Vancouver, who has not yet done so interests me. I have noticed that many areas or regions are starting to act more independent now a days from there nation such as Quebec to Canada. This is a similar idea with what Victoria is doing from the rest of its nation which is Vancouver, the Victoria municipal government is taking an illegal drug (marijuana) and is creating regulations for it which is a complete foreign subject to the rest of Vancouver. In my opinion this is a good thing because when cities such as Victoria begin major actions such as these, it gives a chance for the rest of the province or even county to see how it works out. If the situation works out well, then maybe other cities or even provinces in Canada could begin to create regulations, and it could row from there at a slow, measurable pace that is safe. Overall, from a civics point of view, I believe that pot could have some regulation and be sold at dispensaries non-illegally, but to an extent. If the guidelines given by the government of Victoria are followed, in my personal opinion, I feel mediated dispensaries could work and spread all over Canada.

Entry #2, February 8th

No timeouts, reward charts or taking their toys away. So how do we get our kids to behave?

JOELENE HUBER

Contributed to The Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016 1:09PM EST

Last updated Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016 1:14PM EST

Overview: 

This article by Joelene Huber talks about different people's methods of punishment and discipline towards their children. Many people are giving their kids timeouts these days but this method is apparently a very poor solution. Huber interviews Vanessa Lapointe who wrote a book on ow to handle your misbehaved child and she explains how spanking is a thing of the past. Lapointe describes how you must use methods that will help you connect with you child and give them a sense of knowing how they feel. Lapointe states that punishments have evolved over time and that physical punishments are not the solution to "teach them a lesson" , letting them reflect and speaking to them calmly will help the issue. Lapointe also stated that when kids are growing up, it is the frontal cortex of their brain that allows them to learn and choose whats right from wrong. To let the children learn soothingly but also have consequences will mature their brain and being firm but kind and the am time will make the child know that the relationship is the core foundation, and that is what you care about in the approach. S we can see that one side of parenting values to teach their kids a lesson by making them lose privileges or by spanking them (harsher version) , but the other side,that  the Scientists have helped Ms. Lapointe learn is that thoughtfuly you can teach them a lesson.

Image shows mother trying to disciplin child with "timeout" method.

http://5keysparenting.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/mother-child-discipline-small.jpg

Opinion:

This article has spoken about a subject that I am able to relate to. Since I was once a young child, I remember my parents punishing me in different manors, some more old fashioned than others. I have noticed that the way to talk to our kids that Lapointe talks about is very interesting to me due to scientific research over numerous years it must work. However, this does not mean I completely agree with these approaches towards punishing your child by reflecting alongside one another. In my opinion, for some cases children will not want to cooperate with the action of telling them you know how they feel because kids are quite ignorant. I believe that you must teach your children in a more abrupt way that they will remember, (this does not mean spanking by any means). Certain ways such as making the child lose a privilege such as watching TV or using their gaming device for two weeks appeals much more to me because this is something that they are quite attached to. I do take into consideration the points of Lapointe but I just cannot see such a mature action to a young child being consistently effective. From my own point of view which is quite bias, I feel that the losing privilege punishment worked on me and this could be why I feel this is more effective when handling children, besides, I couldn't last a day without TV when I was a kid so I would always be scared to do something wrong. I know the object is not necessarily to scare the child into not doing something because this could hold them back from opportunities in the future, but sometime I feel that this is the most effective and consistent approach to handling a child when they are misbehaved. From a civic point of view, many people around the world treat their children differently when they are misbehaved, unfortunately some are more brutal ways than others and as time goes on and we advance into the future and as one's civility evolves, punishing children will become less and less harsh as now a days kids are committing crimes everyday. My final judgement and response to this article would be that kids must always been treated sternly and learn their lessons when needed to prepare them for the future. I see some ways people use to be more unnecessary than others (spanking/violence) but in the end their must always be a barrier for each child set up firmly by their parents.

Entry #1, February 1st 2016

The new threat

WENCY LEUNG AND IVAN SEMENIUK
The Globe and Mail Last updated: Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016 9:31PM EST


Overview:
This article speaks briefly of th recent outbreak of a new virus being spread called the "Zika virus". It is said that the mosquitoes- (Aeges Aegypti) can survive in many different environement as long as their is a somewhat warm climate support. This vi
rus can be spread sexually and through other blood transmissions. The mosquito will infect your blood with the virus and symptoms are unable to be seen unless you have a confirmed infection. Symptoms of an infection include, rashes, inflammation of the eyes, red eyes and headaches. A problem occurring is that some babies are being born with abnormally small heads and the people are being asked to avoid pregnancy until at least 2018 as a researcher from the University of Notre Dame has said there could be a 4-5 year wait until a vaccine is created. Scientists have discovered that the virus inside your body will not last very long as your immune system will eventually fight off the disease in approximately 1 week.

It is stated in the article that the virus has been confirmed to have spread in most of the warm climate south american countries such as Brazil. Many African countries are also affected by this as well as southern Asian countries. As for confirmed population sightings of the aeges aegypti  many countries including the U.S contain the mosquito. Countries such as Canada and Chile have supposedly not been hit with mosquitoes due to harsher climates but are speculated to be in the presence of the insect in the future. In Washington there have been reported populations of the ages aegypti even in the cold climates. Scientists are saying that the mosquitoes could be hiding somewhere deep such as a subway until the see a warm, wet spring weather in Washington so this could occur in countries such as Canada as well.

Map of affected areas of the virus and areas known to have the aegis aegypti

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-zika-virus-and-itscarrier/article28403924/

There are many events occurring in affected countries such as the Brazil Rio carnival which is very popular and well known worldwide. Government officials are saying they should cancel this event this year due to the wide spreading outbreak of the Zika Virus. In my opinion they should cancel this festival or even postpone it until vaccines or a stop of the spreading of the virus occurs. The carnival hosts near 2 million people on the streets per day, and with this virus on the loose it could spread into millions of people in the country having a huge economical effect on lifestyles. Many people could pick up this virus during the festival forcing the virus to spread to regions and amounts of poeple it would not have been able to before. Many people in Brazil could be home sick or needing a doctor meanwhile there would be an insufficient supply of doctors to care for this many patients. Also, people will not be able to go to work forcing businesses to have no employees and the stores will be unable to sell important resources. Overall there is a possibility that the Zika virus could cause an economical and social crisis in Brazil of this festival were to occur soon, this is why my opinion would be to postpone the festival. On the other hand doctors and researchers in other countries are saying not to have babies until 2018 due to the abnormal birth defects occurring in new borns due to the virus. I believe that it is the citizens choice whether or not they want to take this risk by having a baby during this time even though not every baby is born with a defect. I feel that a final solution for the government to handle this issue could be to start creating a vaccine immediately and spread awareness of the danger of the virus throughout there country because this could cause less people to be inclined to have babies and this would contribute to a much slower spread of the virus.