World Headlines: How police violations let guilty people walk free

First Up

By Manuela Vega

Good morning. Here’s the latest on how police are violating Charter rights and evading accountability, how Canada could be hindering vaccine access for poorer countries and an apprenticeship program aimed at social housing residents.

DON’T MISS

Court exhibit obtained by Torstar

torstar investigation

Unchartered: Police are violating people’s rights with alarming frequency

A pattern of unwarranted strip searches. Repeatedly storming into homes without adequate reasoning. Filming partially naked women using prison toilets. A Torstar investigation identified stunning cases of police brutality, callousness and ignorance of suspects’ Charter rights across Canada. Because police violations have been so egregious, judges have been forced to toss key evidence, give reduced sentences or throw out prosecutions altogether. Disturbing, previously unreleased videos, which Torstar fought in court to access, expose cops breaking the law. Here’s why, despite court rulings, some say the first step towards accountability doesn’t yet exist. (Warning: Video of police brutality autoplays.)

By the numbers: With assistance from Western University’s law school, the investigation identified 600 cases in which judges found officers committed serious violations of Charter rights and freedoms. The rulings have come down twice a week on average since 2017.
Wait, what? In most provinces and territories, there are no formal systems in place to ensure police forces or officers are notified of the rulings. Even in the worst cases, consequences appear to be the exception.
Go deeper: Here’s how Torstar found 600 cases of police violating fundamental rights when no one is tracking this national problem.

Denis Balibouse/AP Photo

vaccine equity

Canada’s position on vaccines is drawing fire ahead of a global deal against monopolizing treatment

World leaders are set to meet in Geneva next week to discuss proposals that would limit or abolish “monopolies” on vaccines and other treatments as experts say the pandemic continues to rock low-income countries. Amid negotiations, prominent Canadians and global health experts have signed a letter calling Canada out of step with the rest of the world and urging it to support poorer nations in accessing vaccines. Here’s more about Canada’s record on vaccine equity.

Wait, what? Canada hasn’t taken a firm stance on a waiver that would allow other manufacturers to produce vaccines, including those by Moderna and Pfizer, for countries that don’t have the same pharmaceutical access. More than 100 other countries have supported it.
More: “It’s not a pretension that Canada will solve all of the problems of the world at the (World Trade Organization), but it’s just coming out and saying, ‘We need to lift the patents, we need to stop privileging pharmaceutical profits over saving lives,’” said a spokesperson for the Council of Canadians.

Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press

public housing

Fear of losing their home is driving public housing residents away from this skilled trade apprenticeship

A pre-apprenticeship carpentry program that specifically recruits Toronto social housing residents keeps losing apprentices after only a year, and a local union is blaming a provincial rule that they say forces apprentices to choose between their career and affordable housing for their families. Although Ontario exempts some training programs from rent-geared-to-income calculations, this program isn’t one of them. Here’s how the government is responding to concerns.

More: The calculation exemption is for training affiliated with colleges of applied arts and technology, private career colleges and other specific educational institutions.
Watch for: The president of the Local 27 union wants to see a grace period, in which trainees can at least hit their third year of training before their pay is included in subsidy calculations.

WHAT ELSE

It’s time for Pierre Poilievre to get serious and stop giving oxygen to Conservatives’ furious fringe.

Ontario will lift mask mandates on Saturday in most places where they remain, including on the TTC.

Ontario has killed the licence plate sticker, but drivers still need to renew their plates.

An attack on a Mississauga mosque that included bear spray was an act of terrorism.

The Greens had the Tories running scared in cottage country. Here’s how they did it.

A Toronto cop was arrested and charged with sharing confidential information.

A 19-year-old man and 17-year-old boy were arrested in relation to a string of GTA carjackings.

Mayor John Tory blasted Metrolinx over its record on public consultation for transit plans.

Here’s why home prices have dropped up to 31 per cent in some west Toronto neighbourhoods.

… and why Bradford West Gwillimbury has seen a 12 per cent home price increase in just one month.

Committee hearings on the Jan. 6 insurrection in the U.S. will detail how dangerous the day was.

A city union local that was rocked by scandal has a new president.

ICYMI

Steve Russell/The Star

White supremacist violence keeps happening. Can we stop it?

CLOSE-UP

Michael Probst/AP Photo

GERMANY: A man runs along a path as the sun rises on the outskirts of Frankfurt on Wednesday.

Thank you for reading. You can reach me and the First Up team at firstup@thestar.ca. I’ll see you back here tomorrow.

If you're not enjoying these emails, please tell us how we can make them better by emailing newsletterfeedback@thestar.ca. Or, if you'd prefer, you can unsubscribe from this newsletter by clicking the first link below.