August General Meeting

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Monthly General Meeting
Wednesday August 8th, 7pm
At the PCAP office (#17 - 393 Water St)
ALL ARE WELCOME
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Our General Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of every month at 7pm. We meet at our office at #17 - 393 Water Street.
We can provide childcare and help with transportation if you give us a call ahead of time.
Unfortunately, our office space is not accessible at this time (up a flight of stairs).

PCAP Benefit Flim Night: 12 May, Friday - 7pm @ Cinema 379

Date & time:
12 May, 2006 - 07:00

Location:
Cinema 379 (379 George Street North)

Info on this event:

PCAP Benefit Film Night

Cinema 379 - 379 George St. N. Peterborough
Friday May 12
7:00 p.m.

$5-10 or PWYC ... All proceeds go to PCAP

A Video History of PCAP
by David Newberry (35 minutes)

Direct Action 00:17
by S.K. Hussan and Brendan Bailey (16 minutes)
(about the recent action which shut down the Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal)

Stop the Cameras Coalition

LATEST UPDATE:
Shortly after the City Council approved Lance Sherk's recommendations about the surveillance cameras, Councillor Bill Juby announced that the DBIA was withdrawing their request for City approval and their offer to pay the $85 000 for the cameras' installation. Instead, they have decided to pay the full costs to have cameras on their private property. According to Coun. Juby, the cameras will cover about 90% of the downtown area, and the images will be broadcast live on the internet.
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PCAP and STCC opposses City's move to install Surveillance Camera's:
The City of Peterborough has moved toward having several surveillance cameras installed in the downtown core, covering a span of 15 blocks. Stop the Camera's Coalition, which PCAP is part of, has organized action to stop the implementation of these cameras that will target marginalized communities. STCC has been victorious in deterring the downtown camera plan. The City is now reviewing alternatives to cameras.

THE ISSUES
Below are a number of our arguments against the installation of the cameras:

The cameras will not deter crime.

* In London, England, where there are more than 150 000 cameras in place, there has been a 40% increase in street crime.
* Charleston West Virginia and in Long Island found that their cameras made little or no difference.
* London, ON; Ottawa, ON; Miami Beach, FL; Detroit, MI; Atlantic City, NJ; Newark, NJ; Times Square, NY; White Plains, NY and Mount Vernon, NY have all dismantled their systems because they were found to be too expensive and ineffective.
* Cameras will not deter crime, but rather displace it, making it more difficult for police to do their job.
* While the crime rate in the residential areas of Peterborough has been on the rise, the street crime in the downtown has gone down 1.3%. Why use the cameras to further push the criminals away from the downtown and into the residential areas?

The cameras are an infringement on our basic civil liberties and fundamental rights as Canadians.

* In Sherbrooke, Quebec, the Privacy Commissioner of Quebec stated that the proposal of cameras was a contravention of privacy legislation and violate our Privacy Act.
* In Edmonton, Alberta, their cameras were turned off after the Privacy Commissioner of Alberta stated that they violated to Privacy Act.
* In Yellowknife, NWT, the Privacy Commissioner called the cameras "unlawful under Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act".

There is no mechanism for public scrutiny in place to ensure that the cameras and videos will not be used for the wrong purposes.

* 1 in 10 women are targeted by male operators for voyeuristic reasons.
* camera operators have been found to focus disproportionately on people of colour "black people were between 1.5 and 2.5 times more likely to be surveilled that one would expect from their presence in the population" -U.K.
* 30% of targeted surveillances on black people were protracted, lasting 9 minutes or more, compared with just 10% of white people.
* 40% of the population was targeted not for their activities but for the way they looked: minorities; homeless; panhandlers; youth - U.K.
* monitors spied on political activists.
* monitors/police officers have tracked estranged spouses or stalked women for friends or themselves - Michigan.
* used images to threaten motorists after traffic altercations.
* targeted license plates to research the background of the vehicle owners .

The costs for the maintenance, repair and monitoring, to be paid by the taxpayers, are too high.

* It has been estimated that the upkeep of the cameras will cost between $100 thousand and $400 thousand per year .
* London, Ontario was paying $236 000 per annum for the upkeep of their 16 cameras, and have recently cut the cameras out of their budget because the costs were too high, especially for a system found to be ineffective.

We feel that our tax dollars would be better spent addressing the root causes of crime: level of intoxication; poverty; substance abuse; homelessness; unemployment etc. It's a better use of our money to prevent crime than just to watch it, and attempt to use the cameras to catch people after they commit it.

Possible Alternatives

* Street crimes have risen drastically since the Government of Ontario introduced new legislation allowing bars to remain open until 3am, rather than 1am. Perhaps this issue should be addressed, since it is after bar closing that the majority of the downtown crimes occur. The City of Peterborough could change the bar closing time back to 1am, at no cost to taxpayers.
* Since it is mostly the clients from the bars that are committing the crimes after bar closing, perhaps the issue of the level of intoxication needs to be addressed. The City of Peterborough should be enforcing the laws about serving alcohol.
* People act differently in the dark than they do in the light. An alternative to the cameras might be to install better lighting in the downtown.
* Put more money towards crime prevention. Address the root causes of crime: poverty; substance abuse; homelessness; unemployment etc.
* Increase policing in the downtown area

Peterborough Labour Flying Squad

Throughout the world, and at home here in Peterborough, poor and working people have met the unfolding political and economic conditions of the 21st Century with steadily growing mobilizations to fight for decent livelihoods, self-determination and peace. Underneath the official currents of globalization, the “War on Terrorism” and the agenda of multinational corporations, governments and international trade organizations; across many borders, we are the “unreported resistance”. Much of this work is being accomplished by new forms of organizing which have in common the usage of consensus or direct democracy for internal decision-making and a strategy which attacks the root causes of inequality and oppression while relying wherever possible on our own collective strength to make change, rather than appealing to a “higher power”. In recent years, groups like PCAP and OCAP have been organizing in our communities to defend, empower and advance the interests of unemployed, homeless and low-income people using these principles for organization and activity. The potential exists for a parallel network which would bring together working people from all different workplaces for mutual aid. As the economy, whether on a local or international level exists on the basis of our collective labour, it is essential for the pursuit of social justice that we recognize this and organize ourselves accordingly. Labour flying squads have existed before, often created spontaneously in the midst of a labour battle, as an effective, flexible tool able to quickly bring together workers and carry out an economic action with a very minimal amount of bureaucracy.

The Peterborough Labour Flying Squad seeks to build rank and file solidarity among workers engaged in social and economic struggles in the Peterborough area and beyond. Through the principal use of phone and email contact lists, participants will inform each other of any ongoing strikes, lock-outs, protests or other events related to social and economic justice. The Flying Squad can issue support to both labour union actions and workers defending their rights at non-unionized job sites. Calls for support and the coordination of Flying Squad intervention, will be organized over the email listserv, phone communication and group meetings, wherever interest for this exists. To maintain its’ full autonomy, the Flying Squad is not affiliated or accountable to any existing labour union, organization or political party. The Flying Squad welcomes the involvement of anyone who shares the principles of rank and file labour solidarity and militancy including union and non-union workers, unemployed and retired. The Flying Squad has held a couple of organizing meetings and will soon be joining the picket lines of local unions. Through the strength of grassroots organization, we aim to put our interests as working people, ahead of corporate profit and power.

PCAP Benefit Film Night

PCAP Benefit Film Night

Cinema 379 - 379 George St. N. Peterborough
Friday May 12
7:00 p.m.

$5-10 or PWYC ... All proceeds go to PCAP

A Video History of PCAP
by David Newberry (35 minutes)

Direct Action 00:17
by S.K. Hussan and Brendan Bailey (16 minutes)
(about the recent action which shut down the Ontario Rental
Housing Tribunal)

more info: pcap@riseup.net or 705-749-9694

Free Lunch provided by Food Not Bombs and Public Speak Out ...

Wednesday February 28th, 2007
1pm
Confederation Park

with members of PCAP, Marion Burton - President of the Peterborough and
District Labour Council, and Linda Slavin - member of Ontario Needs a
Raise Campaign, Ontario Coalition for Social Justice, and the Mayor’s Task
Force on Poverty Reduction.

March to MPP Jeff Leal’s office to demand accountability from the MPP who
gave himself a 25% raise while his government continues to deny people the
means to get by.

Social assistance rates and minimum wages are dangerously inadequate - so
low that many people are forced to choose between paying the rent or
putting food on the table.

Contact PCAP at 749-9694 or pcap@riseup.net for more information

The 25% Raise equals an extra $22,000 annually for MPPs – their raise
alone is $15,000 more than a single person received from welfare in
Ontario in 2005. Meanwhile, the Liberals have only provided measly amounts
to Ontario’s lowest earners. A 5% raise to OW and ODSP rates is sorely
short of the 40% required to meet basic necessities – hardly a ‘raise,’
forty percent would only restore the 21.7% Tory cut to welfare while fully
compensating for cost of living increases.

At 40 hours of work per week minimum wage earners are still below the
poverty line and $2 short of earning the $10 per hour required for a
living wage. Their 3.2% raise to $8.00 on February 1st means that the
lowest paid workers in the province settled for a 25 cent raise while some
of the highest paid get a 25% raise. Without a commitment beyond the
February 2007 increase to raise the minimum wage, the working poor will be
once again be stranded in poverty. We demand that MPP Jeff Leal support a
40% raise to social assistance rates and the passage of the private
member's
bill (150) to boost Ontario's minimum wage to $10.

The Ontario Liberal Government, which was elected on a platform of change,
has done little to reverse the Tory’s anti-poor agenda and has done almost
nothing to improve the living conditions of poor people. The Liberals
have made miserable token gestures when serious action was called for.
They cut the Special Diet Policy under which huge numbers of social
assistance recipients were obtaining relief from poverty and hunger. Any
they still haven’t kept their promise to end the clawback of the National
Child Benefit Supplement. Now, to add insult to injury, the Liberals have
passed a 25% raise for MPPs.

We face a government reaching the end of its term that has raised
assistance rates and minimum wage by an insulting fraction of what it
would take for the rates to be livable. We face government at each level
that intentionally denies people the means to get by. But the government
faces communities that refuse to go back to the old choices between
dignity or rent. They face people who have joined the fight for a decent
income, who are demanding it from their welfare workers, their city
councillors and their MPPs. They face people willing to fight for
what they deserve.

PCAP and our allies across Ontario are organizing in a major way to get
the rates raised. We know the liberals have the money – the 25% MPP pay
raise proves it - but we will have to fight to get it. We know that we
won’t get a raise unless we come out in record numbers and put continued
pressure on the Liberals to stop padding their own pockets and give us
what we deserve. We will be heard!

Know your Rights Guide for Psych Survivors

This is a really fugly copy an paste of a pdf called Psyc-SurvivorBrochure

A Short Survivor Guide - Your Rights in Ontario's Psychiatric System
General Comments - Many psychiatric prisoners
(involuntary psychiatric patients) and survivors in the
community are not aware they have a few rights in the
Ontario psychiatric system. While locked up in a
psychoprison (any psychiatric facility), you have very
few rights (most are conditional or restricted) such as
the right to wear your own clothes - Right to refuse
psychiatric treatment like "medication" and electroshock
("ECT") (You can be forcibly treated if judged
"incapable") - Right to appeal involuntary committal -
Right to appeal doctor's judgment of "incapacity" - Right
to make phone calls, receive mail and have visitors -
Right to a copy of your psychiatric record or medical
chart (it can be challenged) - Right to contact an
advocate or lawyer.
There are a number of ways you can
be locked up in an Ontario psychoprison:
Apprehension by Police - Any police officer can take you
in for assessment if they observe you behaving in a manner
that in a normal person would be considered disorderly.*
*Brian’s Law” (passed by the government of Ontario
in 2000) removed the requirement that the cops actually
observe your disorderly behavior for themselves,
leaving open the possibility of you being locked up
based solely [on the word or opinion] of a third party.
Form 1 - Psychiatric Assessment Under Ontario's Mental Health Act. Form 1 (a legal
document) gives any doctor the authority to lock you up for 3 days or 72 hours in any
psychiatric facility including a ward or unit in a general hospital - without a hearing or trial.
The alleged reason is to see if you need psychiatric treatment or hospitalization for your
alleged "mental illness". This "period of observation and assessment" is actually the first
phase of involuntary committal. Before signing a Form 1, the doctor must examine you, it's
called "mental status examination" and generally lasts 20-30 minutes. While locked up, your
psychiatrist can restrain you but not treat you - a useless distinction. At this time, you can
call or see a lawyer, but can not appeal or start legal action.
Consent and Capacity Board Hearings - This board [usually] consists of
3-member panels and holds hearings in various psychoprisons across Ontario.
Each panel consists of a lawyer-chair, a psychiatrist not involved in your treatment
or hospital, and a lay person. After the Board receives your Form 16 application, it
notifies you of the date and time of your hearing which must be held within 7 days.
For more info, contact your advocate or lawyer. Your appeals must be addressed
to the Consent and Capacity Board or the Ontario Superior Court (see sections
below).
Power of Attorney - A Power of Attorney (POA) for Personal Care and Property
is a legal-government document, it's also called a "living will.” In the Personal Care
section, the main purpose is to make sure your treatment wishes are protected and
carried out if you are ever judged "incapable" to make treatment decisions. Fill out
the Personal Care section while capable as soon as possible. Be sure to write
down the name of your substitute decision-maker or person you want to make all
treatment decisions for you. Also write down the medical-psychiatric procedures
you want AND don't want. If your POA is challenged in court, a judge generally
respects it but may not. (See this site: www.icomm.ca/psaao/poac.html).
Further information on Brian’s Law or other provincial legislation can be obtained
from a provincial government bookstore, your local legal clinic or from the Ontario
Legislature’s website at www.ontla.on.ca.
Remember - you have the right to be treated with dignity and respect at all
times, and the right not to be abused, harmed or tortured. The challenge is
to exercise these rights.
Recommended Lawyers and Advocates
Anita Szigeti ph: 416-504-6544
Email: lawyers@hslaw.ca
Sue Fraser ph: 416-703-9555
Email: fraser@fraseradvocacy.com
Lora Patton ph: 416-736-5029 x33999
Email: lpatton@osgoode.yorku.ca
Parkdale Community Legal Services
ph: 416-531-2411
Legal Aid Office Toronto: 416-598-0200
375 University Ave. M-F, 8:30am-3:30pm
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)
ph: 416-925-6939 http://www.ocap.ca Produced by OCAP's Accessibility Committee
Restraints - During these first 3 days of incarceration, the psychiatrist can restrain
you with powerful, mind-damaging psychiatric drugs ("medication") and/or physical
restraints. Under the Mental Health Act, a doctor has the authority to forcibly subject you
to 2-point, 4-point or 5-point restraints - leather straps or cuffs tightly wrapped around
your arms and legs and/or waist making it hard [or impossible] to move. Or, the doctor
can order you to be kept for hours or days in "[locked] seclusion", a form of solitary
confinement. Every ward or unit has a "seclusion room". While restrained or in
seclusion, staff will probably deny your right to visitors and access to a phone. When
released from restraints or seclusion, you should immediately contact an advocate or
lawyer.
Form 2 - Like form 1, this legal document orders you to be locked up in any
psychoprison. It's ordered and signed by a justice of the peace. This form is issued after
another person in the community makes a complaint against you in front of a justice of
the peace. If the justice decides you need psychiatric treatment, the police have the
authority to take you to any nearby hospital where you're locked up for 3 days. [When
you arrive at the hospital, the doctor must admit you.] Again, you have the right to
contact an advocate or lawyer.
Form 3 - This form gives the doctor authority to keep you locked up for 2 more weeks
as an involuntary patient. Two doctors must sign Form 3. Within 24 hours of receiving
this form, a Rights Advisor from the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office must see you
to explain involuntary committal, the reasons(s) you're locked up, and inform you of your
right to appeal this committal to the Consent and Capacity Board (see "Informed
Consent/Right to Refuse " section below). Keep a copy of Form 3 and give one to your
advocate-lawyer.
Form 4+ - This document extends form 3, it's called a “certificate of renewal." This
certificate authorizes the psychiatrist and hospital to keep you locked up and/or treated
for 1 more month or longer. Your psychiatrist must sign it and give you a copy. You can
appeal the psychiatrist's decision by applying to the Consent and Capacity Board for a
hearing. (see "Form 16" and "Consent and Capacity Board Hearings" sections below)
Any licensed physician (it doesn’t have to be a psychiatrist) can initiate the
involuntary committal process if (in their subjective opinion) you “are suffering from
a mental disorder that makes you a danger to yourself or others, or makes you
incapable of caring for yourself.” “Brian’s Law” (passed by the government of
Ontario in 2000) provided yet another opportunity for doctors to commit [and forcibly
treat] you if they feel you are ”likely to show deterioration in the future if not treated
[and if they believe you're "incapable".]
Community Treatment Order (CTO) - If you have been a voluntary or
involuntary patient in any psychoprison on two occasions for 30 days or longer
within the last 3 years and currently meet the criteria for involuntary admission, a
doctor can issue a community treatment order (CTO) - whether you're in hospital or
the community. A CTO forces you to undergo treatment (usually psychiatric drugs)
in your community. The CTO "treatment plan" must be signed by you and the doctor
to be valid. If you refuse to sign a CTO while in hospital, you'll probably be locked
up longer. If you refuse to see a doctor or "take your meds" in the community, a
nurse, social worker, psychologist or psychiatrist on an Assertive Community
Treatment team (ACTT) will probably visit and pressure you to take the ordered
drugs, and/or call the police to take you to hospital where you'll be locked up again.
A CTO lasts 6 months, and can be renewed indefinitely. For more info, call an
advocate or lawyer. (see phone numbers on the back of this pamphlet)
Form 16 - To appeal your CTO, involuntary committal, treatment or judgment of
"incapacity", you must fill out and sign a Form 16. This form is your application for
a Consent & Capacity Board hearing. If the doctor labels you "incapable", your
decision-maker can help you fill out this form but you can still fill it out yourself. (see
"Power of Attorney" below). This form must be given to you whenever you request
it. Copies are available at the nursing station on your ward or unit and from a Rights
Advisor or Patient Advocate. Once you sign Form 16 and it's received by the Board,
you must be given a hearing within 7 days.
Informed Consent and Right to Refuse Treatment - Ontario's Health Care
Consent Act gives you the right (in theory) to be fully informed about any treatment
a doctor or psychiatrist prescribes, and your right to refuse any treatment. If you're
prescribed an antidepressant or neuroleptic ["antipsychotic"], for example, the
doctor must give you this information before you consent or refuse the drug(s).
Many psychiatrists violate one or more "elements" of informed consent as listed
below: - nature of the treatment - its major effects (physical & psychological) -
immediate side effects and risks - expected benefits of treatment - the likely
consequences of no treatment - alternatives. While giving you this information, the
doctor or psychiatrist can not threaten, pressure or coerce you to consent. Your
consent must be completely voluntary and informed.
If you do not want "medication", for example, and have not been labeled
"incapable" to make treatment decisions, you have the right to refuse the drug(s). if
the psychiatrist orders you to "take your meds" or labels you "incapable" after you
refuse, immediately contact your advocate or lawyer and tell them what happened.