AMHERST – Brian Skabar is well aware of how people in this part of Nova Scotia feel about the loss of the area’s lone correctional centre and he’s working to try to minimize the impact.
The Cumberland North MLA said he is as disappointed as everyone about his government’s decision to build one new correctional centre to replace aging jails in Amherst and Antigonish, and he’s working with Justice Minister Ross Landry to put something in place that will handle the immediate demands of the system.
“I have spoken to the minister about concerns with the maintenance of the justice system in the Amherst area after the jail is gone and have been given every assurance that arrangements will be in place,” Skabar said Wednesday.
“There should be a press release from the minister’s office soon on that.”
Skabar said a remand centre is something he is hoping the province will commit to so that offenders don’t have to be shuttled across northern Nova Scotia between court appearances.
Soon after the province announced its plan to build a new jail somewhere between Truro and Antigonish, the local legal community and law enforcement agencies expressed concern with the administration of justice if offenders had to be shipped back and forth to another part of the province.
Skabar has made those concerns known to the justice minister and feels a remand centre in the area would alleviate those problems.
Since Landry’s decision, Skabar has taken a lot of heat from his constituents. Skabar understands the frustration, adding that as much as he understands the decision, it hasn’t made it easier to accept.
The MLA said that during the spring election campaign, he advocated making the jail decision on the best business case. At that time, he figured the plan was to build two jails and that Amherst would probably be an economical choice over the previous government’s proposed jail in Springhill.
But now that the province’s financial picture was clarified, he understands the decision to build one jail instead of two. That doesn’t mean he has to like it.
“Do I support the government's position on this matter? I do. Do I like it? No,” Skabar said.
“As someone from Amherst and the Cumberland North MLA, I don’t like the decision, but as a Nova Scotian I have to support saving over $5 million to build it and saving over $1 million a year in operating it.”
Skabar, who has yet to see the business plan on which the decision was based, said he has had several discussions with Amherst Mayor Robert Small, but could not attend a news conference held last week by area municipal leaders because he was not notified about it until the night before.
dcole@amherstdaily.com
Source:amherstdaily.com/i
Showing posts with label Disabled students. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disabled students. Show all posts
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Disabled students form union for lobbying, social events
Tired of dealing with inaccessible buildings, overworked counselors and an administration disabled students say is too slow in addressing their grievances, students are banding together to create a group they say will advocate on behalf of the university’s disabled population.
The tentatively named Disabled Students Union will serve as a venue for both disabled and able-bodied students to air their concerns on the university’s disabilities provisions. It will also serve as a social outlet, said women’s studies graduate student Angel Miles, who is spearheading the student group’s creation.
“This is not going to be just an advocacy group but a social one as well, where people can come in knowing that they are welcomed,” Miles said. “I want this to set a model for the rest of the community of what inclusion looks like.”
The club will also focus on raising university awareness of disability issues, advocating for student needs and helping the administration prioritize problems, she said. One pressing issue raised earlier this year was the need to create an improved emergency preparedness plan for disabled students in buildings with limited access.
The group, which Miles said will be all-inclusive, will focus on problems facing students with mobile, psychological and learning disabilities. While the exact number of students with disabilities on the campus is unknown, more than 1,000 students are registered with the Disability Support Service.
Administration officials said they hope the group can help bridge the gap between them and the disabled student population. Though it is unable to actively help, the President’s Commission on Disability Issues is supportive of the creation of the Disabled Students Union, Chairman Gay Gullickson said.
“I would be very happy to see a student group form that would raise the university’s consciousness of disability issues,” Gullickson said. “It could be a great way for students with disabilities to have direct communication with the administration.”
Miles and others in the disabled community said it’s about time the university had an advocacy group for disabled students — other minority student groups such as the Black Student Union, Chinese Student Association and Latino Student Union are well established.
“This group is a superb idea because other minority groups have organizations on campus, and according to the United Nations, people with disabilities are the largest minority group, so this is something that is really needed on campus,” said junior American studies major Aaron Kaufman, who has cerebral palsy and usually uses a wheelchair to navigate the campus.
Part of the union’s mission will be to provide disabled students with an alternative to the Disability Support Service, while also making it more difficult for the administration to discount disability problems as individual problems, Miles said.
“[Administrators] say, ‘Oh that’s Angel’s problem’ or, ‘That’s Debra’s problem,’ and don’t see it as a problem with the system,” Miles said. “If we voice our issues as a collective, the university will hopefully start seeing things as an instructional problem, an institutional problem or an attitude problem
Source:diamondbackonline.com/
The tentatively named Disabled Students Union will serve as a venue for both disabled and able-bodied students to air their concerns on the university’s disabilities provisions. It will also serve as a social outlet, said women’s studies graduate student Angel Miles, who is spearheading the student group’s creation.
“This is not going to be just an advocacy group but a social one as well, where people can come in knowing that they are welcomed,” Miles said. “I want this to set a model for the rest of the community of what inclusion looks like.”
The club will also focus on raising university awareness of disability issues, advocating for student needs and helping the administration prioritize problems, she said. One pressing issue raised earlier this year was the need to create an improved emergency preparedness plan for disabled students in buildings with limited access.
The group, which Miles said will be all-inclusive, will focus on problems facing students with mobile, psychological and learning disabilities. While the exact number of students with disabilities on the campus is unknown, more than 1,000 students are registered with the Disability Support Service.
Administration officials said they hope the group can help bridge the gap between them and the disabled student population. Though it is unable to actively help, the President’s Commission on Disability Issues is supportive of the creation of the Disabled Students Union, Chairman Gay Gullickson said.
“I would be very happy to see a student group form that would raise the university’s consciousness of disability issues,” Gullickson said. “It could be a great way for students with disabilities to have direct communication with the administration.”
Miles and others in the disabled community said it’s about time the university had an advocacy group for disabled students — other minority student groups such as the Black Student Union, Chinese Student Association and Latino Student Union are well established.
“This group is a superb idea because other minority groups have organizations on campus, and according to the United Nations, people with disabilities are the largest minority group, so this is something that is really needed on campus,” said junior American studies major Aaron Kaufman, who has cerebral palsy and usually uses a wheelchair to navigate the campus.
Part of the union’s mission will be to provide disabled students with an alternative to the Disability Support Service, while also making it more difficult for the administration to discount disability problems as individual problems, Miles said.
“[Administrators] say, ‘Oh that’s Angel’s problem’ or, ‘That’s Debra’s problem,’ and don’t see it as a problem with the system,” Miles said. “If we voice our issues as a collective, the university will hopefully start seeing things as an instructional problem, an institutional problem or an attitude problem
Source:diamondbackonline.com/
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