On Saturday a woman died in her tent at Occupy Vancouver and Vancouver's mayor has responded, not by questioning how the city is failing people in need of essential services such as food, housing, mental and physical healthcare, but by threatening legal action to end the encampment. Down the street, witnesses at the Missing Women Inquiry are recalling the deadly failure that resulted from the city using the courts to move other vulnerable group -- sex workers -- out of sight: a move now seen as escalating harm and contributing to deaths.

Can Mayor Robertson invoke safety and security to move the vulnerable residents of Occupy Vancouver to out-of-sight locations where they will again be denied the services they are receiving at Occupy Vancouver?

The decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Omar Khadr case, which implies that remedies to prevent torture and punish perpetrators are a privilege to be granted or withheld at the pleasure of the Prime Minister, is wrong.

Why bother doing this? It's a question that is often asked of efforts to have George W. Bush barred from Canada or prosecuted for torture once he arrives. It’s not the quality of the overwhelming evidence of Bush’s involvement in torture (and other war crimes and crimes against humanity) that is being questioned, but rather the power of Canadian law to either prevent or punish torture and other crimes committed by the Bush administration.