Full Professor of Criminology @uOttawa researching criminalization-imprisonment-alternatives. Member of @jpp1988 @CarceralCulture @CPEPgroup & @CappKemptville
Algonquin Territory | Ottawa
Joined March 2011
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Elections are indeed about choices.
How much affordable housing, as well as permanent and supportive housing that actually transforms lives + improve community well-being and safety could come online in #OttCity for the $233M the police chief is asking for to build a new training facility in Barrhaven (aka #CopCityOttawa) after his force has already blown $187.5M on an over-budget (first announced for around $120M) and behind schedule cop campus next door?
@_MarkSutcliffe , @LeiperOttawa, @NeilOttawa and @AlexLawsonOtt: If you were to be elected as the next mayor, will you actually work to end homelessness or fund more police infrastructure and street sweeps? If the answer is the latter, you're way #OffTheMark.
Every resident deserves a safe and stable place to call home. We’ve made real progress. Now, we need to go further. My plan will bring our community together to put Ottawa on a path to ending homelessness. See my full plan: marksutcliffe.ca/priorities/…
Another day under @TeamKerzner’s leadership. Always the cheerleader. Zero accountability. And despite all the hoopla from @fordnation about expanding jail capacity to prevent judicial decisions like this we get a continuation of more of the same - even designing crowding and cruel treatment into their new infrastructure (eg double and triple bunking new cells, prison domes, etc). Clowns.
Parole eligibility dates affected by experience of abusive conditions in remand. thepeterboroughexaminer.com/… via @ptboexaminer
A science centre without a science department. Yup. Another day in @fordnation.
#onpoli
Seeing a lot of veneration of the (violence) work of police and jail officers in Canada this #LabourDay. Despite cops and captors being able to infiltrate the mainstream labour movement, a reminder that they've always stood on the side of the state and the bosses when they've seen it fit to systematically pacify and smash fellow workers / so-called comrades in this country.
youtube.com/watch?v=iZ0QyuyE…
Justin Piché, PhD retweeted
it's not involuntary treatment, it's involuntary removal from public sight, they don't give a shit what happens afterwards
Justin Piché, PhD retweeted
In 2023, researchers studied the relationship between police spending and crime rates from 20 Canadian municipalities including @cityoftoronto.
Increased police spending was not associated with decreased crime rates.
We do not need more cops.
Fund services for our communities.
In a context of cuts across most federal govt departments, @CommrRCMPGRC thinks this is the time for a taxpayer-funded vanity project.
How much will new paint job and decals for RCMP vehicles cost taxpayers @MarkJCarney? Where's the evidence that the "new design" will enhance "officer safety" and "visibility with the public"? Did you approve this budget line item @gary_srp?
This kind of fluff stuff is not only unnecessary (who can't spot a cop car other than people who have a visual impairment?), but also diverts increasingly scarce public funds away from upstream measures that actually enhance community safety. This is an absurd waste of money, which is par for the course in policing.
#CdnPoli
Justin Piché, PhD retweeted
Ontario's jails are using an artificial intelligence tool that disproportionately places Black prisoners in maximum security
The government anticipated its AI tool would produce biased outcomes, but used it anyway
My latest @TheBreachMedia investigation
breachmedia.ca/black-prisone…
1/ Check-out my new op-ed with Mackenzie Plumb on @fordnation's plan to keep open aging jails (that he originally sought to close) and to reopen pre-Confederation era gaols (that his government won't release the feasibility studies for), all while his Solicitor General @TeamKerzner claims they're "modernizing corrections".
#CloseTBJ
#KeepTheGaolsClosed
#BuildCommunitiesNotCages
Opinion: Trump wants to reopen Alcatraz. Ford seems to like that idea theglobeandmail.com/opinion/…
2/ And if you're wondering what we're proposing that @fordnation do to alleviate jail crowding and enhance community safety in the short-term (which building new and bigger jails years from now doesn't achieve), check-out our op-ed published last month by @tvo entitled "A quicker, cheaper, and faster route to protect Ontario".
The piece discusses permanent and supportive housing that transforms lives by providing housing, mental health care, and addiction recovery supports that are cheaper, quicker to bring online, as well as more effective, just and humane than jailing.
tvo.org/article/analysis-a-q…
The Thunder Bay Correctional Complex was first announced in May 2017 by @Kathleen_Wynne & was later reannounced by @fordnation as a project that would *replace* the Thunder Bay Jail (TBJ) & Thunder Bay Correctional Centre (TBCC) to "modernize corrections".
More than 9 years later @ONsafety gives the world this video update using the wrong facility name and with the site still roughly a year away from opening under @TeamKerzner's watch, who as of a few weeks ago now plans to keep open the death trap that is TBJ (est. in 1928) and the TBCC (est. in 1965, with parts of the facility dating back to 1911).
Yup... when it comes to planning and execution in the name of "modernizing corrections", these guys sure know what they're doing (in contrast to the Liberals who still made the wrong choice by building new jails in Windsor and Toronto, but delivered them in less than 6 years and actually closed the facilities they planned to replace with new infrastructure).
The very least Ford and Kerzner can do is #shutdownTBJ as a recent coroner's inquest into the death of Kevin Mamakwa recommended.
Construction at the new Thunder Bay Correctional Centre has reached a new milestone – the main building enclosure is now complete.
The new state-of-the-art facility will modernize corrections in Northern Ontario.
news.ontario.ca/en/release/1…
Justin Piché, PhD retweeted
The heat is on in many parts across the country. The is no A/C in most Canadian prison cells and units. Take a minute this week to contact prison authorities (via the link in our bio) to ensure imprisoned people have what they need to survive the heat.
Justin Piché, PhD retweeted
A huge behind-the-scenes look at the destruction wrought by local Ottawa capitalists and the power of independent, working class organizing.
"it was the uncertainty created by tenant resistance that helped derail the Bank Street project."
ottawacitizen.com/feature/bo…
Police leaders, populist politicians & their go-along counterparts are again painting a mad max inspired portrait of Canada besieged w/ lawbreaking + disorder, piecing together unrelated events to construct a moral panic. As @FlavorFlav used to say "Don't Believe The Hype".
Justin Piché, PhD retweeted
📢#OttCity EVENT ALERT/SAVE THE DATE📢
Are you concerned that a number of Ottawa cops are using police databases to target, harass & sexually assault women?
Join us for the "No Pigs BBQ & Roast: A Community Gathering to Demand the Terminations, Not Resignations of Ottawa Cops"
1/ One can sympathize w/ how the @OPPCommissioner is feeling in the wake of the three recent deaths of police officers in Hearst, Toronto and Montreal. One can understand the grief & even share it. But leaders shouldn't be given a free pass to use tragedies to stoke moral panics.
Our policing family is once again facing the unthinkable. Today, we stand united with the Montreal Police Service (SPVM) after one of their officers was killed, and another officer was seriously injured while protecting their community.
Since June 9, our policing community has been confronted with unprecedented and deeply troubling violence. On June 9, OPP Provincial Constable Tarun Bali was struck and killed while on duty in Hearst. Only two days later, on June 11, Toronto Police Service Constable Marc Pinizzotto was shot and killed while executing a warrant. Yesterday, a Peel Regional Police officer was shot at in Mississauga, and overnight, two RCMP officers were seriously injured during a shooting in Melville, Saskatchewan. Now, we are mourning yet another fallen officer in Montreal.
On behalf of the OPP, I extend our deepest condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of these fallen heroes. Their loss is immeasurable, and we will ensure their service and sacrifice are never forgotten.
Our officers continue to stand in our communities, protecting the public in the face of danger, and responding with courage, professionalism and unwavering commitment. But they cannot, and should not, stand alone. They need the full support of the justice and social systems, our partners and all Canadians. We owe it to every officer we have lost — and every officer who continues to serve — to do everything in our power to protect them.
Today, we remember. We stand together. And we remain resolute in our mission to keep communities safe.
ALT Statement: Recent violence against police
7/ Also, symbolism aside, according to insurance companies the rates of people who die for a living in the fishery, mining, oil and gas, forestry, construction, transportation and a number of other industries is higher than in policing.