mercredi 16 novembre 2011

crime law

Crime has always been something people needed to deal with. In Canada, when people go against the law, they get consequences. For the minor cases offenders get fines or need to do community work. For the bigger crimes people go to prison.  The purpose of the Canadian justice system is to always find new ways to lower the criminality and to find better ways to deal with criminals. The Canadian government is now trying to pass a new law called the bill C-10.


The conservative government wants by passing the bill C-10, to have inmates stay longer in prisons by having tougher laws concerning crime. This law is meant mostly for young criminals who, according to the government don’t have proper punishment for their actions. The bill also predicts that we would have to expand prisons in order to have more room for the new inmates the law is going to the Canadian prisons.


This bill would cost lots of money because housing criminals costs lots of money. In fact, the average annual cost of detaining an adult in a prison is $50,375. Having a young offender in a prison is estimated to cost annually $100,000.[1] A 2,1 billion dollars has also been planned to expand the prisons in order to have more cells since the law would make criminals stay longer in prisons.[2]



I believe it is alright to toughen the laws concerning the sexual predators and the drug criminals because even though for the past twenty years, the crime rate hasn’t stopped decreasing, the drug crimes and child sexual abuse has gone up.[3] I think for this reason it is normal that the punishment for those crimes get more severe in order to discourage people from doing those crimes.

                             

I think that putting young offenders in prison won’t fix the problem. In fact I believe this is going to make matters worse. I believe that people’s behaviors are influenced by the people they are with. When you take criminals and make them live with criminals in prisons I don’t think this helps them. By investing in rehabilitation and by making criminals live with good people and by trying to help them fix their problems. For example, I think making them do community work instead of going to prison is more beneficial to them. It would also cost less to the state to have them see psychiatrists or teachers than to put them in jail. The best way for people to change is by giving them a good example, giving them the resources they need and by giving them encouragement. Putting someone in a positive environment rather than a negative one would help very much I believe. I think someone who is occupied won’t have the time to get in trouble. A good way to prevent youth crime is to keep teenagers occupied. The government could give more funding to sports and activities for teenagers instead.



The state of Texas has changed it’s way of doing things. They have invested money on community programs for young offenders and the results are astonishing. The youth inmate population has dropped from more than 4,000 in 2006 to about 1,400 today. The state has even closed prisons.[4] They are saving money and they have reduced crime rates. The C-10 bill should maybe be inspired more out of the success the new way of doing things has had in Texas. The ideas are good but unfortunately, the changes would probably not bring the expected results.


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Group Story :D

In one of our english courses we had to write a group story. This is how it worked: the first person had to write a sentence on a sheet of paper and give the paper to the next person. The next person had to write a sentence to add to the previous one and than fold the paper so that the next person could only see the last sentence and so on until the sheet of paper is filled completly.

This story was writen by:
Jonathan Bouvette, Emily Marcotte, Alexandra Bachand, Anika Va Kooten and Nicolas Bouliane

This creaky flooring reminds me of

My sister when she practices violin. It’s terrible! It sounds like

Nails scratching across a chalkboard. It makes me feel

So happy! It’s the best feeling I have ever experienced

Next to when I won third place at a hot dog eating contest

But I found out the day after the contest I had gained 15 pounds and I also found out that

I was pregnant

When I saw Ricky Martin because

I felt like his hip movements were calling me ; I had to

Dance with him but I couldn’t because

I am in a wheelchair and I have no legs. This made me cry

Because I will never have louboutin shoes.
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Just Be true to who you are - Jessie J



This mid-October, Jamie Hubley decided to end his own life because of the bullying he had to bear because he was openly gay. This fifteen year old high school student’s story is unfortunately not an isolated case. According to the Canadian Children's Rights Council, « [i]n Canada, suicide is the second highest cause of death for youth aged 10-24. Each year, on average, 294 youths die from suicide. Many more attempt suicide. Aboriginal teens and gay and lesbian teens may be at particularly high risk, depending on the community they live in and their own self esteem. »[1] Jamie Hubley’s story affected Rick Mercer, a comedian who has a popular show on CBC, and he made a rant saying that all well-known gays should be openly talking about their status and become role-models for the young gays of Canada. I believe all the well-known homosexuals of Canada should be public about their sexual orientations and be proud to defend and become role models for teenagers.


In Canada, suicide accounts for 24 percent of all deaths among 15-24 year olds and 16 percent among 16-44 year olds. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Canadians between the ages of 10 and 24 compared to the eleventh cause of deaths in Canada all ages combined.[2]Men are four times more a risk than women. Unfortunately gay teenagers are way more at risk than the rest of the teenagers.



It is important for adults to show the example and treat everyone with respect and see the world through other people’s eyes. Everyone has something to bring to the world but when someone takes away their own lives, it is someone who would have contributed to making the world a better place we lose.


As Jamie Hubley said before taking away his own life, he was tired of being the only openly gay person in his school.[3] It is hard to feel different and to feel alone. I believe gay teenagers feel bad about who they are because they feel different and not normal. This is why adults and well known people of Canada should be public about their sexual orientation to become role models for the gay teenagers but more importantly to not make them feel alone and different. Teenagers who get bullied because of their differences often feel like they need to change and like it is their fault if they are not like the others. They need to feel like they are not alone and they didn’t do anything wrong.


If more adults would show that they are gay, it would be more common to talk and see homosexual people. This would also discourage the bullies because they wouldn’t be bullying someone who is different because in fact they aren’t. 


Everyone is different and no matter how different someone is, he needs to be respected for who he or she is. No one deserves to be bullied and as so many people have said before, it does get better.


As Jessie says the song ''Who you are''

Seeing is deceiving, dreaming is believing,
It's okay not to be okay...
Sometimes it's hard, to follow your heart.
But tears don't mean you're losing, everybody's bruising,
There's nothing wrong with who you are!


[1] http://www.canadiancrc.com/Youth_Suicide_in_Canada.aspx
[2]  Canadian Psychiatric Association (2002). Mental Illness Awareness Week fact sheet.
[3] http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/10/18/ottawa-teen-suicide-father.html
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Tuition fees

According to the government, the universities don’t have enough money to operate. The tuition fees are already increasing more than the inflation. The inflation in Quebec is about 2,7 % per year but the tuition fees have gone up of 4,3 % last year.[1] This means the fees were already increasing more than inflation. The Quebec government has announced it would within five years double the tuition fees.  As it was widely reported, tuition fees should go up from 2,200$ a year to 3,800$ in 2016-2017.[2]


This will have an impact. I am sure people will be more oriented towards less long education degrees in order to have less debt and to have a job faster. For example, the tuition hikes will probably lower the amount of people going to universities mostly the ones getting a masters or doctorates degree. People will be more oriented towards DEP’s or technics since they will cost less and get them a job faster. In other words, Quebec will lose professionals and have less people with good education. People will be less oriented towards studying. I find already too many people don’t go to school after high school but I am sure this won’t help. People will probably need to take a year to work before going to university in order to be able to pay all their expenses and to avoid accumulating large debts.


In 1888, the universities were funded at 87% by the Quebec government. The rest was assumed by at 7,5% by the students and at 5,4% by the private sector. In 2009, the universities are funded only at 65,8% by the Quebec government. The rest paid at 22% by the students and at 12,2% by the private sector.[3] The students went from paying 7,5% of the universities fees to 22% in about twenty years but the actual government thinks this is not enough and wants to double the cost of going to university. I think the tuition hikes will, instead of giving more money to the universities, give the opportunity for the government to lower even more it’s contribution to the education.



Before asking even more money to the students. Universities should try to cut on their expenses. On average Quebec’s university rectors are paid 358 000$ per year.[4] Instead of asking all of the money to the students the universities could try to cut on the expenses this way the amount they are asking the students could be lowered a little bit.



For my part the tuition hikes will not have an impact on whether or not I am going to go to university or not but it will have an impact on how much I spend during my studies. I will have to check more how I spend my money in order to finish studying with least debt possible. I know I will probably need to have to keep a job during my university studies to be able to pay all my expenses. Increasing tuition fees will have an impact on how many hours people work while they go to school. Everyone know that working while going to school lowers grades. The increase in tuition fees might have an impact on grades since probably the majority of students will have to work more to pay everyting.

Even though Quebec universities are amongst the least expensive universities in Canada, they should start by finding ways to lowering their operating costs before asking more from the students. Also, I think it is alright to increase tuition fees but I believe that doubling them within five years is a little too much. Things should go a little more gradualy. Who gets double their salary increased within five years?






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