MLI Newsletter
Vol. II, No. 3
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MLI Creates Debate over Canadian Crime Statistics | |
 Crime and how to deal with it has become a topic of major political controversy in recent years. That debate always took as one of its starting points the annual Juristat Report from StatsCan. That report seemed to establish clearly that, year after year, major crime was declining in Canada. But no one ever asked whether the methods by which StatsCan reached these conclusions were well-founded.
In a project that demonstrated conclusively that good think tank work changes the terms of public debate and results in better policy, our report, written by former Crown prosecutor Scott Newark, showed that there were strong reasons to question StatsCan's conclusions about crime.
The reaction of StatsCan to our report has been, on balance, constructive. Advisors to StatsCan's Juristat have already spoken to Newark about how they can work together to reach a higher standard of crime analysis and reporting.
Click to read:
Newark's report
Some of the media attention:
Crime Stats on CBC's The Current
National Post, Feb 10
Crime Stats in the Sun
The Crime Stats Debate
Scott Newark talks crime stats on the radio
Crowley and Newark reply to the critics |
| First Annual Macdonald-Laurier Soir�e | |
Our First Annual Macdonald-Laurier Soir�e on Feb. 15th saw some 200 guests mingling and munching as they listened to former Prime Ministers the Right Hon. Jean Chr�tien and the Right Hon. Joe Clark, House of Commons Speaker the Hon. Peter Milliken and the shades of former PMs Sir John A. Macdonald and Sir Wilfrid Laurier praise and debate Canada's political tradition.
From left to right: Peter Milliken, Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Wilfred Laurier, Right Hon. Jean Chretien, Right Hon. Joe Clark, Brian Lee Crowley
Sir Wilfred Laurier and Sir John A. Macdonald strike a pose
Click here to see video from the Soir�e.
Be sure to mark your calendar for next year's Flag Day Soir�e - February 15, 2012. |
Don't let Radicals Subvert Canadian Prisons | |
Prison Radicalization in Canada: More needs to be done, released as a Commentary by MLI on February 21, 2011, deals with the increasingly important and contentious issue of how we handle terrorists in our penal system. Following on last October's groundbreaking MLI publication, From Rehabilitation to Recruitment, Alex Wilner and Brian Lee Crowley target the continuing overall lack of preparedness to deal with convicted terrorists in Canadian prisons.
The authors focus on four areas that continue to plague Canadian security officials and which should be drawing the concerted attention of the Government of Canada.
The 'big four' concerns for Canadian prisons are:
(1) distinguishing between religious and radical behaviour
(2) dealing with opportunistic religious conversions
(3) hindering the promotion of extremist views, and
(4) getting the right religious leadership into the prison milieu.
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Keeping the Border Open | |
Trading in Superstitions, by Institute Managing Director Brian  Lee Crowley, takes aim at harmful superstitions Canadians and Americans hold about one another that interfere with effective cooperation on trade and security.
Based on a speech to the National Strategy Forum in Chicago, the Commentary advocates concrete steps like an agreed-upon set of security standards to apply to all points of entry into North America, expanding trusted shipper and trusted traveler programs, 24 hour a day access and border services at major crossings, an integrated "single window" for entering all border-related importing and exporting data, streamlined regulatory procedures, a new treaty on continental security and a common external tariff, a new joint commission on border management, a new joint committee of Congress and Parliament on Canadian-American issues and a joint tribunal on issues that arise under our various cross-border agreements. |
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Canadian Manufacturing: Clear the Track and we can Beat the World! | |
 There are no magic bullets that will ensure the health of Canada's traditionally strong manufacturing. Buffeted by economic dislocation and recession on a global order, Canada's factories and mills have suffered along with all other sectors of the economies of the developed world.
Manufacturing Competitiveness, by Martinrea International Chairman and Chairman of the MLI Board Rob Wildeboer, lets politicians and public policy decision-makers know precisely what is needed to allow Canadian manufacturing to flourish in the future. As Wildeboer notes, "... the fate of manufacturing depends on more than the actions of individual firms and entrepreneurs. It depends on our governments meeting the challenge of competitiveness. That's where our future lies... or doesn't."
Wildeboer's plan and challenge for governments at all levels would see tens of thousands of Canadians re-engaged in the workforce of tomorrow. He says, "Get these things right and opportunity will drive results." |
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