Welcome to the People's Voice Podcast. Visit us online at www.peoplesvoice.ca

As the Executive Policy Committee of Winnipeg’s City Council rushes to pass its 2021 budget, it’s hard not to see this document as a direct rebuke to community health and a show of deadly complacency against a growing social movement to defund the police. This movement extends in two important and related directions – against the active role and behaviour of the Winnipeg Police Service, and against the ongoing and deepening depletion of funds for essential services throughout the city, while the police budget only grows.

This dynamic – of overfunded security forces and underfunded communities – is too typical. Police-Free Schools Winnipeg has been talking about this for months, where Winnipeg School Division alone spends almost half a million dollars on nine armed police officers, while scrambling for substitute teachers, remote learning resources and protective equipment in a pandemic. Schools cut back on nurses, a necessity for student health, whilst investing in the appearance of safety. This is to say nothing of the direct, negative impacts of police presence on racialized, newcomer, low-income and disabled students. The Police-Free Schools Winnipeg campaign commenced from the acute reality and firsthand experience of funding shortfalls in classrooms, while police budget and presence expand with enthusiastic approval from city council.

Read the article in full.