Liam Michaud

So, the takeaway is that habitual offender laws did not emerge from the tough on crime era in the late 1900s, but instead from the eugenics movement in the early 1900s. The Howard Law Journal published my research on this last month.

City claims Vancouver has hit a 23-year low in violent crime | News The City of Vancouver and Mayor Ken Sim are celebrating a reported 23-year low in violent crime, dating back to 2022, when records began.

VPD has zero credibility in reporting violent crime statistics. By selective & sensational use of stats, they helped their friends get elected to city council. Now Task Force Barrage is out of gas & VPD wants more money. dailyhive.com/vancouver/va...

A new research paper shows that an inability to access health and social services, as well non-fatal overdose, was a positively tied to street sweeps.

Read the report : www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The last time the Liberals proposed bail reform their justice minister admitted they had no evidence to back it. Curious what's changed. - www.reuters.com/world/americ...

Capitalism & Disability: A Symposium on the Work of Marta Russell The modern disability rights movement has been primarily oriented around seeking labor inclusion through the expansion of civil rights statutes. Despite this, few disability theorists have approached…

@avierkant.bsky.social and I also did an amazing symposium on Marta Russell with @kmtani.bsky.social for @lpeblog.bsky.social in 2022, featuring contributions from @nhold.bsky.social, Ruth Colker, Jules, @deanspade.bsky.social & Liat Ben-Moshe

two scandals here: VPD fuelled panic over stranger attacks even as they fell dramatically in 2022, and then refused to release records about them for 14 months, which is against the law

Ontario misled the public on crime data to justify closing supervised consumption sites. Evidence shows these services save lives & improve community safety. #HarmReduction tinyurl.com/ybuhw3hf

This Canadian think tank is claiming ‘victory’ over anti-trans legislation | Xtra Magazine The Macdonald-Laurier Institute routinely publishes material targeting trans rights

The Macdonald-Laurier Institute is a top Canadian think tank—here’s how it got involved in opposing trans rights.

Alberta government reveals drug jail locations in procurement document The Alberta government has issued a request for interested parties to participate in the procurement process for two forced abstinence detention facilities, to be located in northwest Calgary and…

Alberta will "award $180 million for the construction of 'Compassionate Intervention Centres.'"

"The drug jails will each detain up to 150 people [..] under Alberta's new forced abstinence legislation, which eliminates the right to due process."
#Alberta #Canada #Drugs #Healthcare #Incarceration

Drug User Advocacy Groups Challenge ‘Recriminalization’ in Court | The Tyee Foes of decriminalization wrongly conflated it with poverty and the rise of homelessness, lawyer argues.

thetyee.ca/News/2025/07...

Alberta recovery programs require private 'coaches,' emails show As one recovery centre admits that recovery coaches supplied by Bowline Health are now mandatory to access its residential services, it is unclear if the Province will mandate its coaches across the r...

Exclusive: Alberta Recovery Model

A private company with its hands in most stages of Alberta's abstinence-oriented drug strategy has evaded public scrutiny.

Here, I show how its 'recovery coaches' are becoming mandatory to access publicly funded recovery centres.
drugdatadecoded.ca/substance-us...

the decades long fight to get needle access in prisons is also a helpful tool of how rights-based approaches, while limited, can be critical tools in fighting for material resources & basic dignity.

uptake on the program is extremely low, especially among women, because of lacking confidentiality protections & risk of reprisal. several prisons hosting a program have ZERO people accessing it. canada is an outlier internationally with its high barrier and security-oriented approach.

needle distribution, in community and in prison, began through impacted communities and healthcare allies engaging in unsanctioned practices — defying 1-for-1 exchange policies, smuggling, creative professional disobedience.

established measures like needle distribution that have been around since the 80s are facing renewed attacks; in ontario, established agencies are being barred from distributing them under new draconian funding agreements.

eligibility is effectively determined by prison wardens. close to 1/3 of applicants are deemed ineligible based on a ‘threat risk assessment’. imagine the health fallout if we subjected people in community to the same process just to access sterile equipment.

Securitizing carceral health: a realist review of Canada’s prison needle exchange program - Health & Justice Background In 2018, in response to a lawsuit and years of civil society advocacy for prison-based syringe distribution due to elevated rates of injection drug use, HIV, and hepatitis C virus among inc...

canada’s prison needle exchange program is a helpful case study in how crucial reforms can be undermined through bad implementation, punitive barriers, conditioning entitlement, or policy sabotage. it provides helpful lessons for other areas of drug policy & law reform-open access in Health&Justice

Police in Ontario Increasingly Obstruct Harm Reduction Service Delivery

"Members of the research team heard about frequent unannounced police visits to local [Ontario] harm reduction programs."

"[P]olice would enter the premises, search clients' belongings, interrogate staff, and at times arrest service users."
#Ontario #Canada #Drugs #Healthcare #Policing

The situation also underscores urgent need for public health and municipal leadership to reign in excessive and abusive enforcement practices that violate the right to health & access emergency care.

Police in Ontario Increasingly Obstruct Harm Reduction Service Delivery Police surveillance and interference block life-saving care as the province becomes more hostile to harm reduction, our study shows.

Police interference w/ harm reduction services is a growing crisis. Surveilling services, arresting clients & other abuses cause service avoidance, violate peoples right to healthcare & highlights urgent need for binding non-interference policies. @filtermag.bsky.social @hivlegalnetwork.bsky.social

In Baltimore's drug war, 'public safety' comes before public health. Nearly everyone impacted is Black At first glance, it may seem that the War on Drugs has all but disappeared in Baltimore. The decades-long campaign decimated Black neighborhoods and fueled mass incarceration in the city under the gui...

As public officials post about Juneteenth...

Remember that @baltimorebeat.bsky.social published articles just this week detailing how the War on Drugs almost exclusively impacts Black residents, and how the BPD just killed a beloved arabber.

baltimorebeat.com/in-baltimore...

Episode 54: Get Sober or Get Dead — Crackdown Podcast Alberta is the involuntary treatment capital of Canada. Since 2006, the province has encouraged parents to waive their children's rights and force them into detox as part of the Protection of Children...

per usual—as the political class creates spectacle from the toxic drug crisis, @crackdownpod.bsky.social shows us the intimate realities. important new episode: www.crackdownpod.com/episodes/epi...
ft. @momsstoptheharm.bsky.social @4bharmredux.bsky.social

BREAKING: Canada exported $18.9 million of military goods to Israel in 2024, despite the Liberal government's "pause" on new export permits. international.gc.ca/transparency...

Canada’s sovereignty is facing an existential threat over disproven allegations that illicit fentanyl, originating from Canada, is significantly contributing the American drug poisoning emergency.

This Bill is a dangerous and unfounded admission of guilt

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#cdnpoli

www.canada.ca/en/public-sa...

Emergency Management Modernization Act, 2025 Bill 25 from Parliament 44 Session 1 of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario: Emergency Management Modernization Act, 2025.

This is bad: the Ford government's Bill 25 gives the Minister of Children, Community & Social Services new powers to issue directives to ministry-funded entities.

Bill 25 can be used to force government ideology into community services under threat of defunding. www.ola.org/en/legislati...

Revealed: Oregon spent funds meant for addiction services on prosecutors and police gadgets As the state abandons decriminalization, treatment grants are going to sheriffs and district attorneys: ‘that might be two or three case managers’

Compassionate approaches quickly shifted to more punishment in Oregon, as treatment funds were used to fund the wages of more prosecutors and acquiring police gadgets and vehicles.

There's limited funding for treatment and harm reduction, but for police..!

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

B.C.'s first involuntary care beds for incarcerated men open in Surrey Ten beds are only for men being held in the custody at the Surrey pretrial centre

I missed this: BC is holding involuntarily hospitalized people - by definition among the most vulnerable - in solitary confinenent. This runs counter to Mandela Rules and, going by prior court rulings, Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. www.mapleridgenews.com/home2/bcs-fi...

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CRIMINALIZING DISSENT? The Truth About the BUBBLE ZONE Bylaw The City of Toronto has proposed a BUBBLE ZONE bylaw that would restrict protests near so-called “vulnerable” institutions. Join us for a community teach-in exploring its potential harms, featuring leading local voices in law, labour, housing, feminist activism, and disability justice. May 20th, 5:30pm Location: Toronto Metropolitan University, PD 457 Brad Evoy, Disability Justice Network Ontario Dreddz B.L., Voices for Unhoused Liberation Sid Jackson, Voices for Unhoused Liberation Irina Ceric, Law Union of Ontario Robyn Maynard, Another Toronto and Author of Policing Black Lives Judy Rebick, Feminist, Activist, Journalist, Author and Educator

Criminalizing Dissent?
Toronto: join me, @policingblack.bsky.social, @judreb.bsky.social & others for this community teach-in about the city's proposed bubble zone bylaw.
Tuesday, May 20, 5:30pm at TMU. Info & RSVP: communityteachin.rsvpify.com