So a few weeks ago I made a video about Disturbox and really we can only describe that video as gushing. I would say that I instantaneously became a fanboy of Disturbox and it really really showed in that video. I have since wrote blog posts about it. I did a Patreon exclusive podcast about Disturbox. I really like Disturbox and I'd actually say that I've become more of a fan of Disturbox since that video because I've learned more about it. So what I wanted to do today was kind of expand upon Disturbox just a little bit because in that video I really only talked about one use case. Now I talked about using applications and stuff like that inside of Disturbox but I really focused on being able to export a window manager that you installed inside of a Disturbox container and then run it on your host machine. That was the main purpose of that video. Today what I want to do is talk about five extra uses of Disturbox that I think kind of apply to a lot of people. So let's go ahead and jump in but before we do if you'd be so kind as to leave a thumbs up on this video I'd really appreciate it and really just help the channel. So let's go ahead and jump in. The first one and it's a simple one and a lot of these have to do with learning but we'll talk about that later. The first one is that Disturbox allows you to learn more about alternative package managers. So for example let's just say you've always been an Ubuntu guy, right? Every time you've ever used Linux or you've been using Linux for years all you've ever done is installed Ubuntu or Ubuntu based distros or Debian based distros if you want to go more broadly. And because that's true you don't have a lot of experience with other package managers. You don't know what is good about Pacman. You have never used Zipper or DNF or any of these other package managers and you want to give them a try but you don't want to leave your awesome Ubuntu installation that you've been using for years. I don't blame you so what you can do is you can install Disturbox. You can install an image of that particular distro that you want to learn about and you can go forth and learn about that package manager. Another thing that allows you to do is that it allows you to explore other distros package repositories. So for example, again, if you've always been an Ubuntu person you probably are very familiar with the Debian and Ubuntu repositories but you may not know what's so great about the AUR. You probably hear over and over again how awesome the AUR is. All these Arch fanboys are out there throwing up their pom poms talking about how great the AUR is. What's so great about it? I've never used it. Well, you can install Arch inside of a Disturbox container and then experience the AUR for yourself without having to nuke and pave your Ubuntu or Debian-based distro. You can just use it just like an Arch user would use it. It's really quite cool. So that was kind of a two-fer but the idea is that you can get really familiar with package managers and package repositories without having to leave your host system behind. So that's the first one. The second one is very related and that is that it allows you to test distros and packages. So if you are looking beyond the package manager and you want to experience how Arch truly runs or if you want to learn how, say, Gen2 actually functions, you can install Gen2 or if Arch in a Disturbox can experience at least a smidge of what those distributions are like. Now I know a lot of Gen2 users. Some of them are my dear friends and some of them are my trolls. Some of them are both trolls and friends. But I want to put this out there. Just because you've installed Gen2 in a Disturbox does not mean you've installed Gen2. You haven't truly experienced the installation of Gen2 until you've actually installed Gen2. So we just have to put that disclaimer in there. The installation of Gen2 is kind of the main point of Gen2 beyond the ability to use use flags. So we don't want to discount the fact that installing Gen2 is a task that a lot of people consider a sacred right. We don't want to, we don't want to downplay that. So we'll put that out there. But if you want to learn some things about Gen2, specifically things regarding the package management, the repositories, how you manage use flags, how you manage, how you manage the make.conf file and all this stuff post installation, installing it inside of Disturbox can get you a flavor of what running a Gen2 system would be like. Same thing with Arch, OpenSousa, whatever distro you want to try out, trying it out in a Disturbox container really can help you experience that distro or at least a taste of that distro before you go forth and install it on an actual hardware system. So that's the second one. The third one, and this one I think is the most important one, but I'm bearing it in the middle, is that it allows you to install software that isn't available on your distro. That's what I've primarily been using it for. And it's kind of similar to what I talked about in the last video I did on Disturbox where you can install a window manager that doesn't install well or at all on your distribution and then run it on your host machine. This is kind of similar only, it broadens it to literally every single application you could possibly want access to. So for example, this is my use case of Disturbox right now, my primary use case. I have become a big fan of the Vivaldi web browser. Now I know proprietary garbage and all that, yada, yada, yada, I understand. But Vivaldi has turned out to be a fantastic browser. It has some flaws in that the RPM package, which is available for Fedora and OpenSusa, is absolutely dog, okay? It's really, really bad. It always breaks every single update that RPM package just breaks. I don't know what they're doing to it, what they're possibly could do to it to make it break, but it always does. But the Arch package doesn't break updates. So what I've done is I've installed Arch in a Disturbox and I've installed Paru so I can have access to the AUR and I've installed the Vivaldi binary inside of Arch. Now one of my misconceptions in my first video of Disturbox was that I would have to run any application that I installed in a container in the container every single time, but that is not anywhere close to being true. One of the coolest features of Disturbox is a sub application of Disturbox called Disturbox-Export. Now Disturbox-Export allows you to take any application you install inside of a container and export that binary to your host machine. So what I've done is I've exported Vivaldi from Arch onto my OpenSusa machine and every time I launch Vivaldi now on my host machine, it runs like a native application on OpenSusa, but it's really still running in that Arch container. It's really quite cool.  I don't want to keep picking on the Debian users, but it's a good example. If you are on Debian stable, you're going to have a lot of stale applications over the course of the next two or three years. While we get to that next really good point release, you are going to be using older software and the longer you use Debian stable, the older that software is going to get. You're not going to get any newer stuff unless you switch to Debian testing. So by using Disturbox, you can get access to everything that Arch has to offer, everything that Gen2 has to offer, everything that OpenSusa and Fedora, whatever distro you want has to offer without sacrificing the stability of your system. If that container has stability issues, you just wipe the container. You reinstall the container or you switch to a different distro, which is literally just a one line situation for you to do. It's so awesome and it basically allows you to use whatever distro you want without any of the traditional package limitations of the past.  One of the reasons why a lot of people like Ubuntu beyond the user friendliness of it is because it has a very big software repository. The same thing for Arch, right? It has a very big software repository. That's why a lot of people choose it over other distributions. But we've always talked for years about how that package fragmentation over where you can get certain packages limits Linux to being one distro is better than any other because it has this package that I need it. Everyone thinks that this one distro is the one that I have to use because it's the one that has the software that I need. No longer is that a problem because you can use distro box to get access to whatever application that you want. Now in the B role that you're seeing, you're seeing me install an application and export it to my open Susan machine and launch it. You can do this with basically any application. I've done it with the Valdi. I've done it with Geary, which is an email application. I've done it with the Vinci Resolve, which is a proprietary piece of video recording or video editing software. I've done it with several different applications. And while I've had some issues, namely around Linux permissions, because of course Linux permissions is going to get you, you know, every time you try to do something cool. Mostly it's been a flawless experience. This is the primary use case for me when it comes to distro box. I think it's fantastic. And I highly recommend if you're on a distribution where you have some software limitations and I'm specifically talking about anybody but Arch and Gentoo. Gentoo and Arch seem to have the best ability to have access to basically all the software. Someone else kind of has to have blind spots. So if you're on open SUSE, you're going to have some software that's not available to you. If you're on Fedora, same situation, Debbie and you guys get the idea, right? By having distro box installed, you have access to any other distro and their repository. So you can just get that software, export it to your host and use it just like it was a native application. That's how cool distro box is. Now that's a normal person usage of distro box. I'm not a developer and the reason why I'm so enamored with distro box is because of that reason. But the primary use case of distro box for developers, if you're someone who is even just the slightest bit of a developer or someone who does development for a living, distro box can provide you with a lot of different features. And that is the number four point on the list. So if you are a developer by being able to access any distribution inside of a container with a single line, you're able to do any number of things. You're able to access distros that have different versions of compilers of dependencies that you're looking for. You could to test your application against those dependencies and against those compilers. You can test your application against different versions of different distributions. So if you want to make sure your application runs on Ubuntu and Ubuntu or Ubuntu, the most recent version of Ubuntu and Ubuntu LTS, that's probably a better example. The most recent version of Ubuntu and Ubuntu LTS, if you wanted to test your application in both of those versions of Ubuntu, you could do that really easily inside of two different distro box containers and make sure that your application actually will not only install but run properly while in those environments.  You can test all of your applications on every distribution the distro box has to offer and ensure that your application works on the main distros without having to do any of the old stuff that you used to have to do. So if you're a developer, you have a ton of different ways you can use distro box. And I'm sure I'm only scratching the surface, but again, I'm not a developer, but I wanted to make sure I pointed those use cases out. So the last one is, and this one here is not going to be for everybody. I guess the last one wasn't really for everybody either. But this one, I know that the idea of an immutable distribution is very polarizing in the Linux community. So if you are someone who is interested in immutable distros, distro box is an amazing tool, because basically what it allows you to do and want to actually let me put it this way, immutable distros have a significant flaw in that you don't have permanent access to your root directory. You have that lower level of the operating system that you don't have right access to now technically, there's ways around this of course, and we've talked about that before on the channel. But by default, that lower level is going to be something that is kind of containerized off from the rest of user space.  So if let's just say for example, you're using an immutable version of Arch, those do exist, although they're not as plentiful as the ones made on Fedora. So let's say you're using this immutable distribution of Arch, and you want to mess around with your Etsy file and you want to mess around with all the stuff that you traditionally could mess around in Arch, but you're not supposed to in this immutable distro. You can install Arch in a distro box and do all the messing around that you want instead of that root directory, and never have to worry about affecting the stability of your immutable distro that's laying underneath. You can do all of the stuff that you want to do inside of that container, and it just allows you to have the freedom that you traditionally get with Linux without having to sacrifice the benefits of the immutable distro that you're running. Another thing regarding the immutable distro thing is that it allows you to install software that you would not usually have access to. So if you wanted to say for example, install a window manager or something like that, you could install it inside of a container, and you could then run it traditionally on your immutable distro without having to affect the lower level of your immutable distro. You don't have to write to any of that stuff because it's living inside of a container. Even with any other application that you'd want to install, also, because most immutable distros are highly reliant on other containerized package formats, mostly flat packs, although in Ubuntu's case it's going to be snaps, because that's true, you don't often have a lot of access to as much software as you would traditionally have on most distributions. Now you can find ways around that. If you want to install some things from the Fedora repositories on SilverBlue, you can do that using RPMOS tree, but you're not supposed to use that as your primary package source. You're supposed to use flat pack. By having DistroBox or Fedora SilverBlue's case toolbox, you can install whatever applications you want from whatever distros you want and just export them to SilverBlue and then run them as native applications. So this is basically the third point that I talked about all over again, but you can see in the case of immutable distros, that benefit gives you the freedom that you don't actually have with immutable distros, but you get all the benefits of running immutable along with all of the benefits of having basically whatever software you want to run. So those are the five awesome reasons why you should use DistroBox. Now, I know that not all of them apply to everybody, but I think that there's probably at least one or two that apply to most people. DistroBox is one of those things that make me just so happy that I use Linux. It is so freaking cool and every time that I find another use case for it, every time I find another reason to use it, I just get so happy because it's just an amazing tool. I think that it really, let me put it this way, I think that it fixes one of the primary things that has always been wrong with Linux and that is fragmentation. Now we talked about the good and bad of fragmentation many times on this channel, but people choose their distributions and then they become warriors for those distributions, right? And they develop for those distributions and they support those distributions and then they live in that silo forever and ever without ever experiencing other things and they never have access to some of the awesome tools that live on other distributions by having a tool like DistroBox you are opening up all of your potential possibilities to everything that Linux has to offer and you can get those possibilities, have those opportunities without having to sacrifice the base distro that you love. So if you are an Uber open Suza fanboy like me, I don't know if you notice it's the sticker. If you're an open Suza fanboy, you can run open Suza, let's just say you want to use LEAP, it's the stable version of open Suza. It has all of the traditional flaws of a stable release distribution. You can have DistroBox on that install and have access to literally all of Linux, everything that it has to offer and it's just an amazing tool and an amazing feeling to just kind of have complete freedom while also being able to use the thing that you love. So in the past you'd have to make a choice, you have to make sacrifices, you'd have to use your distro knowing that there are some things that you're not going to have access to. So if you were an open Suza fanboy, you'd have to use it knowing that you're never going to have the gloryness, the gloryness, the glory that is the AUR. You're not going to have access to it. You're going to have to hear those arch fanboys in the background just yapping. We got the AUR, we got the AUR bitches, we got the AUR.   Okay. Maybe there was a little bit of resentment there, I don't know. Also apparently in the closet back there, that's where I keep all the arch fanboys in their bodies. You never know. There's something back there you're never going to know. Anyways, that's it for this video. If you have thoughts on any of this stuff, you can leave those in the comment section below. I'd love to hear from you. If you haven't already, leave a thumbs up on this video. It would really help the channel. You can support me on Patreon at patreon.com slash linuscast. You can support me on kofiakao-fi.com slash linuscast. I also now have a merch shop. You can check that out at shop.thelinuscast.org that there you can find t-shirts and mugs and water bottles and hoodies and caps, all this stuff. It's all very, very cool and it all goes to help the channel. So I really appreciate that. Thanks to everybody who does support me on Patreon and YouTube because we're all absolutely amazing without you. The channel just would not be any near where it is right now. So thank you so very, very much for your support. I truly, truly do appreciate it. You guys are awesome. Thanks everybody for your support. Thanks everybody for watching and putting up with this overly glowing review, I guess, or talk about DiscerBox. I'm sure this will not be the last time I come out here and just completely fanboy over this because it's really, really awesome. Anyways, I'll stop talking and rambling now. Thanks for watching. I'll see you next time.


You've heard a little bit about Mr. Ivan Zinger, prison ombudsman. I'm going to skip over but a little bit for the people that may have not have been here earlier. He's a lawyer with a BA in psychology, graduated in 1992. What often interests me is how people got to their jobs. He went on to complete a PhD in 1999. The road he traveled from 92 to his appointment as the OCI is actually quite interesting. In 1996 he joined the Public Service of Canada in the midst of the fallout from, as they call it, certain events in 1994 at the Prison for Women. Incoming CSE Commissioner Ole Ingstrom was then asked to sort of clean up the problem and he turned to Mr. Zinger who was tasked with reprogramming corrections managers. Fun job. In 1998 Mr. Zinger was named Manager of CSE's First Human Rights Division, a division he argued needed to exist within CSE. The following year in 1999 he earned his PhD. The topic was the psychological effects on inmates from solitary confinement. How many years did it take? Mr. Zinger joined the Office of the Correctional Investigator in 2004 under former OCI Howard Saepers. He was the Director of Policy and Senior Counsel and ultimately in 2005 was named as Executive Director and General Counsel. And together the dynamic duo, the two assisted by dedicated team members, breathed life and purpose into the office because there wasn't a lot of life in the office at that time. And many important reports have flowed from his work. And he showed on the screen the different reports that had been done. In 2008 there was the Ashley Smith report. In 2012 the report entitled Spirit Matters, Aboriginal People and the Correctional, the Correctional Conditional Release Act. In November Mr. Saepers left the OCI and Mr. Zinger became the Acting Correctional Investigator. And then in January of 2018 thereabouts Mr. Zinger was appointed the Correctional Investigator. I then have as well to his right Dr. L. Jane McMillan. She is a legal anthropologist. She's the former Canadian Research Chair for Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Communities 2006 to 2016 and the current Chair and Associate Professor of the Department of Anthropology at St. Francis Xavier University. A cultural and legal anthropologist with a specialization in Indigenous justice. Jane has worked with McMaw communities for over 20 years. She's been involved in policy analysis and advocacy in support of Aboriginal rights and self-determination including community-based justice that is aligned with Indigenous beliefs. Like Ivan her path to this position is very interesting. As Donald Marshall's partner she was an eel fisher and one of the original defendants in the SEC Marshall decision 1999. I say eel fisher I think she's still fishing eels. She's still fishing slippery things. Very slippery. President of the Canadian Law and Society Association and coordinator of the Law and Indigeneity Collaborative Research Network of the American Law and Society Association. Member of the McMaw, Nova Scotia Canadian Canada Tripartite Forum Justice Committee and her most recent publication is Truth and Conviction Donald Marshall Jr. and the McMaw quest for justice. A long one. UBC Press 2018 available this November. Jane was also a PI and I always get this wrong. PI is a principal investigator not a private investigator. I thought I was a private investigator which is sort of anthropological. Right I said mad dog you went that far. On an evaluation of the implementation and efficacy of the Marshall inquiry recommendations in Nova Scotia 2011-2016 very important when you consider where we stand today and what still needs to be addressed. This collaborative community initiated research examined the outcomes transformations and disappointments stemming from the Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall Jr. prosecution with its attending Marshall recommendations. 16 community forums were held in McMaw communities across Nova Scotia. A lot of work. Focus groups were held with law students Nova Scotia Legal Aid, the Race Equity Committee of the Nova Scotia Barristers Society, indigenous members of the RCMP and the McMaw Legal Support Network again Paula Marshall's organization. Interviews were conducted with the Nova Scotia Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner, the Office of the Ombudsman, the Aboriginal Policy Analyst H Division and with a member of the Commissioner's Aboriginal Advisory Board for the RCMP. So what happened to outcomes of the policy informing work consist of three volume research report for the McMaw Nova Scotia Canada Tripartite Forum, a high-level justice symposium, support for the opening of an indigenous people's court in Gwokma. Thank you. And a number of scholarly publications. We have a, we were talking about powerhouses in the opening keynote panel. We have a powerhouse. Pam Glode de Roche is the Executive Director of the McMaw Native Friendship Center in Halifax where she's worked for almost 25 years. 1994 Ms. Glode de Roche was a person in, well this is the interesting part, she was a person in need no different than anybody else that comes up to the steps of the Friendship Center and the center's door opened and the years passed and she was healed by her community and they helped her grow and flourish. I actually asked her what she meant by her community when she kept saying well my community helped me and her answer was the Urban Indigenous Friendship Center Movement. Just picked her up and as you know one point I said well then you were forged from all of this. I mean you became their fiercest advocate, their fiercest warrior because you never left and she never left. Empowered by her culture its teachings and the knowledge of what it can do. Ms. Glode de Roche became the center's executive director and set to work in addition to working on the issues that plague urban Indigenous people such as homelessness and hunger and addiction and more. Pam sits on five boards, she sits on the National Association of Friendship Centers, the NAFC. She spends considerable time in Ottawa involved in consultation and advocating on behalf of Indigenous people and in her role as executive director Pam has spearheaded as the executive director of the Friendship Center she has spearheaded the development of a new Friendship Center idea, a building that she hopes to see built on land in half a 70,000 square feet for healing and programming and teaching and she has gotten further than any of her opponents could have guessed. Asked what her vision was for the building's appearance, Pam's answer was I want to make sure that when you look at it people get a real understanding of the territory that we're on. The Mac Mac are still here and they're not going away. Which I thought was great. So these individuals, the way I want to sort of look at it is I've got some you know questions that I wanted to ask but really it's a conversation and I've got different slides that Ivan Zinger has prepared. A good government person always has a power point. Could you? In a blackberry. So what's very interesting, I talked about this September 5 release of this mandate letter from Ralph Goodale which is very very interesting and interestingly and Kelly the new commissioner responded as I said equally publicly and Anne Kelly has been around for quite a long time but ultimately here she is in charge and he is welcoming her with this mandate and importantly he says I acknowledge that some of these initiatives that I'm looking to propose may require new policy authorities and or funding. It's a key issue which we can work on together. I also want to applaud the progress already made in certain key areas such as reducing the use of administrative segregation. I'm sorry to interrupt but I sat through a previous panel that ended up having no indigenous people speaking on it and I'm now sitting and there are two indigenous people whom I would really like to hear from. Could we move on to the panelists? Yes I just wanted to start with all due respect to Mr. Zinger not start with Mr. Zinger. Yeah that's great I just wanted to put this out and please move on to the panelists. Okay so in terms of I think you've all had an opportunity to review the commissioner's mandate letter but first what I would like you maybe each to do and I will start with maybe Jane McMillan I'll ask you first. Maybe it would help us to sort of contextualize your answers to different things and your comments if you could just give us an overview of where you're coming from your perspective on changes with respect to CSC and how it deals with indigenous offenders. Okay thank you thank you all for being here. It's a really a wonderful privilege to be gathered here in Mi'kmaqi the unceded and ancestral territory of the Mi'kmaq nation. Thank you for last night that was super refreshing. I hope everybody has a very good equinox moving on. I would like to say just a few comments thanks Ivan. Systemic discrimination is persisting despite volumes of recommendations emerging from royal commissions and national inquiries and while there's been a movement to address and remedy the effects of colonialism through bail and sentencing reform restorative justice and culturally appropriate initiatives indigenous communities social scientists legal professionals all agree that the Canadian justice system is not working for indigenous peoples. Indigenous communities call for the reinvigoration of their traditional legal principles and practices as the best way to address the problem of overrepresentation systemic discrimination and racism to decolonize the justice system and to legitimize indigenous legal institutions and what those practices are and what are the best applications today and what resources are needed are to sustain them and to make them efficacy to improve their efficacy or key areas in inquiry. I just want to remind you of what was said in response to the Royal Commission on the Donald Marshall prosecution by the Union of Nova Scotia Indians and by the collectivity of the Mi'kmaq Nation in 1990 the Union took the lead and they said you know the inquiry has opened new doors it has created new opportunities so that fostered new hopes in our people's aspirations for self-reliance and self-determination and this is 1989-1990 the Union put forward a statement of principles and it offered an alternative reading of the recommendations by dividing them into two groups those that deal with improvements to the justice system outside of Mi'kmaq communities and those that pertain to the development of a justice system within the Mi'kmaq Nation and two main threads emerged in that discourse the first was a rights discourse centered on treaty constitutional and human rights arguments for self-determination including the right to control their own justice system and the second thread focused on the cultural necessity to control a separate justice system in which disputes could be meaningfully managed using Mi'kmaq legal concepts Mi'kmaq leaders submitted that it's all but inevitable that the Mi'kmaq will continue to interact with the outside system and that they were committed to working with both the federal and provincial governments to implement changes to the justice system they welcomed all efforts to indigenize the system an indigenized system of the present system though will only serve to improve the administration of a non Mi'kmaq form of justice law enforcement and incarceration on the Mi'kmaq they cautioned that this approach was not a solution for the Mi'kmaq Nation who wanted to design operationalize Mi'kmaq justice on their own terms and to this day the Mi'kmaq continued to abide by a system of social control that is unique in their communities it operates upon different principles of fairness and justice the key question is not whether it exists but rather how do we harness these Mi'kmaq concepts of justice to design and to develop an acceptable and effective justice system in Mi'kmaq communities I'm not going to go on I'll come back to some of the key points that I want to make but I have some quotes for some chiefs that I think are very insightful to where the Mi'kmaq Nation is on and the desire for their self-determination in governance of their corrections programs. Pam? So I don't have any papers and nor will you see that I I do tell a story that's traditionally how we do things and we have the ivans of this world to do the work to find those numbers and all those great things we have great people that we truly partner with to make a difference in how we move forward I first want to start by saying that our communities actually have the answers we have them the problem is is quite often we're seen as not being legit we don't I I don't have a master's I don't have a PhD and nor do I wish to what I do have is true experience from my community and I know it and I know it well the reality is is that I'm alive today I'm here today because of the movement the Friendship Center movement I was picked up dust off many times by the way I was blessed to find some of the great elders that have since passed on the Diamond Nicholases of this world the Emmett Peters who left great impacts on our communities the reality is we are the experts in our self there is nobody else out there that's an expert in us there's nothing any worse than I have when I I'm sitting and I listen and somebody said well I'm an expert in our communities well the reality is the only ones who are experts in our communities are us there's a real opportunity here for me to tell you that at the end of the day the Paula Marshalls of this world myself and many other community members we don't get to go home and walk away from our communities lots people do and most of you probably can walk out of here and never have to deal with one of our community members ever again the reality is I don't get that luxury sometimes I do wish I could just walk away because when you hear the heartaches and the breaks that happen within community it has destroyed us to the core quite often however we have the answers to fix it we need to be allowed to do what we need to do being being self sustainable being able to determine for ourselves where we go in the future is key and how we heal I want true partners and when I say true partners I want somebody to stand next to me I don't want somebody standing behind me in front of me above me under me I want somebody to stand next to me and truly recognize that we do have the answers and I have seen that happen and wonderful things happen when people are there for the right and true reasons I encourage each and every one of you as you go through life if you the reality is with the with the amount of people we have in institutions you're all going to run into one of my community members anyways do yourself a favor come to our communities understand who we are and what we are build a relationship before you have to the best thing I can tell you is come into our communities and experience who we are and what we are don't sit back and go I'm gonna wait till I have to you know the letters you know there's nothing any worse when I see letters that are mandating people to do things for our community shouldn't be a mandate we should want to do it we're human beings we're good people and yet the only time we ever seem to be in the media is when there's something negative I'm gonna tell you we've got great people in our communities who are doing wonderful things whether it's a friendship center or another organization like mlsn you know quite often we're doing 20 30 different things off the side of our desks the reality is I may be the ed of the friendship center however I'm gonna tell you I've cleaned toilets a matter of fact that not long goes up on our roof and heels by the way with a tire with tire fixing a hole in the roof you know that's a reality we do what needs to be done and I'm quite happy and I will do it till I can no longer do it but that goes back to you know the mention of the new friendship center and the ability to take that to the next level that friendship center is not just bricks and mortar it is a building make no mistake but it's so much more it's going to give us the ability to become self-determinant and self-sustainable and then I can decide for my community and my community can make recommendations as to what programs and services we need that we're not being dictated to or that I'm not trying to figure out a year here in a year there pilot projects kill us they kill us they set us up for failure time and time and time again community members come in and they all of a sudden there's this great service that's there that has been created by community for community and then all of a sudden the funding ends so all of a sudden they're left with nothing and we're trying to fill the gaps we're trying to fill fill those pieces seven sparks was a great program that we once had it worked with our community members who were incarcerated we worked with them on the inside and we built them a plan on the outside and we worked with them and they were successful and we were able to fill some of those gaps whether it be employment and training housing whatever that may be friendship center has over 28 different programs it's wraparound services it is about making sure our community members have the supports and kicking them out the door sending them without a real plan in place boy oh boy are you ever setting them up for failure let's be honest the institutions are designed to keep us in the institutions and I know lots people get very offended when I say that but they're not there to actually support us to get out and many of our kids that start in foster care and you think we've got a problem now with residential schools boy we got more kids in care now than than ever and they're all going right straight through the system from beginning to end there is no out for them there is no off-ramp for them but we have the answers to some of that we have the answers friendship centers and other organizations communities have the answers we have the supports and we have the ability to do what needs to be done to support our community members you know the reality is we're not just dealing with one side we're not just dealing with the offender we're dealing with the followed on the other side too we're dealing with you know spouses and family and you know children quite often we're trying to find that balance and the reality is you can't treat it separately you can't treat it separately it's a family unit it's it's that's what it is and family is everything to our communities so I you know I just I know I only was supposed to just ramble for a few minutes but go go go go go as always I tend to ramble and and I try to tell a story in a way that I want you to remember that we have the answers and we know we can make an impact for our community but I will tell you this I don't want to do it alone I can't do it alone I've tried to do it alone and you get tired you know you look at poor Paula and I and I I know she's not here and quite often she is pulled in 10 different different directions and that program works MLSN works and it doesn't even have core funding Paula doesn't know from one day to the next whether or not she's going to have her job like let's be honest here how do you actually how do you move forward and actually offer a program and service that is sustainable and reliable when you don't even know if you're going to get a paycheck you know whose responsibility is that the problem is is that nobody wants to step up to the plate nobody wants to do something a little different and sometimes I and I I question I sometimes wonder does anybody really want our communities to move forward there's jobs attached to us there's money attached to us and those are tough conversations those are really tough conversations I often think you know tomorrow the friendship center didn't exist where our community members would be we have over 5 000 people that come through our door on a yearly basis what happens to them where do they go I know you know the fact that you know Paula's had four suicides in the last week too it affects me deeply because there are community members they are our community members and they are real people and they deserve so much more and I know it personally my nephew committed suicide three years ago so I know the impacts those have on us as human beings and again most people get to go home at the end of the day I don't my phone rings all hours of the night I take emails whenever I I can evenings weekends whatever it may be you know the reality is my community in the urban context is real it's tangible and our communities are real and tangible and if somebody would just sit back and listen to our elders to our communities we can do something magnificent and we can change the output and the input that goes in through our communities because quite often we're seen as dollar signs let's be honest you know there's probably not one person here that hasn't said oh you know that's silly little status card that I have you know oh that's great you don't pay taxes you don't do this you don't do that oh my gosh it was somebody would tell Revenue Canada I don't pay taxes you know like come on like we are so back sometimes we're so stuck way back there that little card has been no favor for me let me tell you it's probably causing me more headaches than than anything and yet I've been determined by somebody else that this card is my number and when I go and I go to for services or whatever I may need well what's your number how about what's my name you know our people that are institutionalized they're good people they've many of them have gone through trauma that most people don't even understand or recognize or care to understand or recognize we know that knowing who you are and where you come from is often a very big piece of what's missing I have I'm very fortunate I have two beautiful boys who are married and I have grandkids and I'm gonna tell you my boys I didn't I they did not have it easy growing up I was on them like you would not believe I was terrified of some of the things happening to them that happened to me and I made conscious decisions with them and the reality is our young men are lost they don't have a role anymore they don't know where they fit and we need to be looking at that we need to be dealing with our young men and women together not separately not doing a program here for this and a program there for that needs to be incorporated together we need to understand who we are and where we come from and what our roles are there's nothing wrong with knowing who you are because boy oh boy once you know who you are you don't know where you'll end up I know I'm very very thankful to be here today I'm thankful that you know the reality was I wasn't sure I was going to be here and I hesitated about coming and I know you didn't sleep and I know I didn't sleep and that's a reality there are things that there's moments in time that you can go okay I can just not do this and I don't want to do it but the reality is this is a gift and I'm going to take it and I'm going to run with it the gift is is that I get to speak to you guys and if I can change one person today it's a gift worth having there are challenges in life that I I wish I could change that I've done some of the choices I've made in my life however I'm not sure I would actually do it if if the great creator came to me in sepan we're going to change some of the stuff that you've done in in life not sure I would do it now maybe if you had asked me as my kids were small maybe I would have but the reality is is those decisions I've done those experience that that I've gone through I now have a voice that I can truly say I know what I'm talking about I can tell you that whether it's under it you know the royal commission the TRC you know what I the reports that I'm sure and eventually 20 years from now I'm sure TRC is going to be sitting on a shelf somewhere and I hope I'm wrong but I'm gonna tell you time and time and time and time again there's listen we've been studied to death and I and I've been interviewed a thousand times and I'm gonna tell you and I and I always laugh because we do do a lot of research and I always say you know it's community owned that's the only way I'm involved in research but the reality is as a kid you know you know we were always doing research and we were always given that 20 I think was 25 bucks back then gift card but I'm gonna tell you I lied through my teeth so much on those things like and it wasn't just me that was the best of it right like we lied we just wanted that 25 dollar gift card or whatever it was they were giving us you know you get tired of of having those conversations and you think you're doing good for our community but unless the community is the driving force behind it don't do it don't do it make sure that the community is the driving force you make sure that community understands what you're doing I'm gonna tell you most community members want you as partners I want you come into my center and I want you to come in and understand who we are and where we come from what we have to offer but don't quite often when we get people who show up and they have a little letter from judge or somebody says oh I have to be here pardon where was the where were we in that decision making so you know when when those things happen you kind of step back and you go and and you look at it and you think okay so they know the friendship center exists but do they really know what we do as community members do they know what's really out there and I don't I don't think people really know what's out there in community and the problem is is quite often it's not with a phd it's not with a masters it's not with all that good colonized way of doing things and trust me that will help us move forward in ways but there's so much more to knowledge it's not just that kind of institutionalized knowledge that you need to make a difference in community so I'm going to leave it that because I can talk all day yes so what is your vision of a real partnership if you could say right now what is your vision what do you need tell us what you would need what would work for you right now we're talking about corrections even if I ask you know Ivan and I say well okay from his perspective he's looking at it in a completely different way and he's saying well this is what I think should be done mandate letters useless right so in the end what just tell us what you need what would work for you what would be a real partnership if I can intervene I think it's okay with you yes absolutely I think that's that's exactly what in my experience happens to indigenous communities and other communities when you go and say tell us what you need um when in my experience when they take the time to tell us you me it doesn't always happen and so I would say we should be saying what we can provide and in this context when it comes to corrections you may hear from um from Ivan he's done a lot of great work in this area that one of the things that can't be provided there are provisions in the act sections 80 81 and 84 of the federal legislation that say indigenous communities can and in fact the legislative intent was to have indigenous people in their communities and have resources to go with it corrections has limited those provisions by having very narrow policies as you know Paul was working on some of those others are and instead of saying to the community how would you what would you want for this to work and when that's happened it's worked very well it's very rare mostly those are being attached to other contracts now other house contracts and that sort of thing those are all well intentioned but I to my experience from you know the work I've done with indigenous communities is you're not being asked how do you want to use these resources what resources do you need in the first place and how do we assist that process it's great to me that's the first thing we need to be doing and the legislation allows that policy doesn't but that's part of the reason and I'm I had offered to Alina because we didn't get the chance to talk in the last session some research has been done around what the legislative intent of those provisions was and the fact that it was partly designed to reduce the number of indigenous people in prison in 1992 when the legislation came in so it strikes me that we should be talking about how do we assist in getting those boards and if you're interested and if others are interested there is some material that's been developed about that legislative intent and how to go about putting in letters to the minister to request individuals from your community to come to your community and start building the case for those resources and we're working on some legal factor which you know all the but basically take those to court when the minister says no because we anticipate the minister will say no and I just saw a very interesting quote from Moana Jackson and and many of us know from from from New Zealand who said we need to start moralizing the community not talking about decolonizing and I would say in this case we need to start it as well so I just want to thank you very much for your contribution and it's very very helpful and offer and on behalf of there's a number of us but if I can assist with that process there are resources available and I think we should be I agree they should be being made available so I I think there's there's probably several several things one is we're one of 125 friendship centers across Canada so you have access to an urban context period some friendship centers are just starting some of them have you know we've been here for 46 years other friendship centers are around for 60 years one way or another we're all dealing with with justice issues so you you have a network to be able to consult with hands down to get and really get the the the piece for urban the other piece is when you're talking on reserve you have to go to communities please please don't ignore communities please engage them in a good way have somebody from community do that work for you don't you know the reality is there's good community members that can do that work secondly I know for us that's been a huge sticking point for us around the urban context and part of that new friendship center is about having that healing lodge the reality is we should not have to send our community members away every community should be a community member should have a choice of where to stay and sending them away you're just re-traumatizing everybody you're re-traumatizing the family you're re-traumatizing the individual it's like you know when when you're taking our kids when the system takes our kids you know you're re-traumatizing them for whatever may have happened you know I'm a firm believer and listen my brother has adopted two boys that have been in the system and so thankful for that but I also know that know that there's a need for for women who are incarcerated to the the opportunities around needle exchange and methadone opportunities like those things are never really looked upon they're not I'm gonna say they're not sexy right probably the worst thing to say in a room full of lawyers but they're not people don't want to have those conversations having a healing lodge in your backyard people don't like that they're criminals they're this they're that you know we we're working with the chiefs right now and I'm I am very fortunate because I do have I consider myself very lucky I have a good working relationship with the chiefs and actually one of the old CSE halfway houses that they're looking to get rid of the chiefs have approached me to see if it's something we would like to take on and it certainly is because it's a real need within our community to provide housing for people looking to get out of institutions and that's really being able to ride those wraparound services that support those people healing lodges are huge I'm not saying that they shouldn't be done within CSE which I've heard that seems to be the path I I I don't know enough about it what it needs to be is in community it needs to be where the community is where they can get the supports that truly are required and that's where you will thrive that's where you will see huge changes in community members you know the reality is and I hate saying the reality but it is my reality I live every day I don't know when my phone rings what's on the other end nobody does however on my phone it seems to be the worst of the worst calls we're quite often the last call that somebody can make and being able to bring seven sparks back would be probably the biggest impact that you could have seven sparks was successful and it was so seven sparks we were very fortunate I think it was actually a five-year funding pot that we had received it's been quite a while now my memory is not as good as it used to be and some corrections it was from corrections and we had a lot of people pushing for that at the time because five years was unheard of apparently however the seven sparks program actually work with offenders while they were inside when they came out and of course we were fortunate because we have all these other wraparound services so we had access to housing child care daycare services employment and training so all of the other services addiction services was there as well worked with the seven sparks and we were so fortunate we had Emmett Peters at the time who was a wonderful wonderful elder he unfortunately has passed and he he literally followed these guys around made sure they get to appointments and the reality is there's one in particular person and I will not say his name because I didn't ask if I could do that who actually was so successful with seven sparks we were able we kept him he we had his employer loved him we found an employer to take him on and he was so successful seven sparks stopped existing and then all of a sudden those supports we we do the best we can we still do section 84s and and that off the sides of our desks but the reality is is when that stopped those supports were no longer there and I do believe that they have been there he would never have gone back inside he's now out again but again he had to go away to get the help he needed because we didn't have those resources here anymore and the reality is we know our communities and we know them really well we know where they're going to go we know who they're hanging with we know all of that so I think if you were to ask me what you could do for me support organizations like friendship centers like MLSN make sure that make sure MLSN is core funding seriously like I I just my mind just gets so ball and I happen to sit on the board of MLSN so I know the challenges that they have seen you know when you when you have community members working side by side with other non-indigenous community members doing the exact same job and them getting paid you know twenty thirty thousand dollars more than what you're doing because you're from an indigenous organization it's wrong really really wrong there's something wrong with that and make sure they're funded well make sure MLSN has a voice and make sure that they have some sustainability those pilot projects kill us like honestly I every time I see a call for proposals and there's a pilot project opportunity I am always so hesitant now to actually do a pilot project because they do hurt us they actually hurt us I'm sure the intent was never meant to do that I like to think that because I think that's what keeps me saying but the the piece is is that when we do pilot projects it sets us up for failures we we we set people up we get them here and then all sudden they're back down here same seven sparks right we had five great years we did great things the evaluation was phenomenal for it and it was touted right across canada we did presentations on it right across canada and yet government changed and it was no longer a real priority so whether and listen I'm I'm very fortunate in what I do because I do get to build relationships in Ottawa and I do get to build relationships with all levels of government and that's a lot of work it's really not my job because I really should be doing doing my day-to-day work and I'm fortunate that I have great staff but I also recognize that I need to be able to be building those relationships finding the warm fuzzy people out there that really want to make a difference for my community the jay mcmillan's of this world the Ivan's of this world we all play a major role in what we do but I need everybody to be a partner with me and a true partner and that means working with us listening to us recognizing us for what we have to say listen to us listen I'm telling you the answers are there and and you won't look far for them because they are there Ivan what are the chances are what are the chances of csc being able to actually engage in true partnerships given its history no pressure right yeah you know what when I when I became a civil servant more than 20 years ago I had the the real delight to meet and work for a couple of years with the late Maxwell Yaldon he was the former chief commissioner of the canyon rights commission and a couple of years before he retired in that role he had publicly said that the number one issue dealing with human rights in canine society is the over representation of indigenous people in prisons and jails as well as how we treat indigenous people let's move you know forward into the future little about 20 25 years later the rate in terms of over representation has doubled he described at that time as being a crisis so I don't know what happens when you double you know and you up to 28 percent of indigenous people now are in federal corrections how do you classify that and we actually also reach a new milestone for women we're up to 40 percent can you imagine 40 percent of all incarcerated women are indigenous background so you know I know one thing is that in in terms of the in social science when you typically you never ever get a trend that year after year so systematically gets worse it doesn't happen usually things move up and down and so on and this is one where we have a perfect linear relationship for the last 30 years as far as we can go back in terms of counting the over representation things have got worse no government has actually been able to slow down stop it or even better reverse it so when I hear that there's you know now we are you know just to give you a sort of a different take on it if we were magically able to match the incarceration rate of indigenous people in this country to their proportionality in the community we would have an incarceration rate like you know Finland Sweden and we would be at the top of the world in terms of of our ability to you know to you know to basically have citizens that are you know I you know I guess the use of imprisonment at one of the best rates in the world so we're not there I am skeptical about any time that I hear about investment basically in the criminal justice system and you know you know let's focus on CSE which is at the tail end of the criminal justice system to try to fix the problem that is way more upstream and glad you used the same thing glad you for me is a band-aid it's arm reduction it doesn't go to the cause root root of so do we want to do more glad you do we want to spend a bit more money do we want to do you know give CSE more awareness training or competency training or so I think we have to do something bold I think it is time to do something bold like what because upstream the issues in my views that flows are human rights issues since the inability of the Canadian society to have made a society where where indigenous people can benefit from socioeconomic rights equal opportunities equality you know political rights indigenous rights so is this applied to me so I am just okay it's okay so we you know these are are the things that that needs to be addressed so so when I hear you and you're you know and you're skeptical about about the future well with that trend I would be skeptical too unless something bold happens Kim is absolutely right in my role as a correctional investigator I'm mandate to you know I'm part three of the corrections and conditional release act and I have to look at the act for compliance and for fairness and I think absolutely they are wiggle room in the existing law and basically I would argue that section 81 section 84 and the focus on community corrections have not been implemented as it was intended by the legislature back in 1992 so that's more than 25 years ago so we could do a huge shift in resources existing resource I'm not talking about spending more money because we're spending about $115,000 per inmate per year and it's over 200 for women and we could reinvest this in community alternatives and community alternatives means to partner with the community and I ask you a question and I would see a big budget of CSC being just like a program department where they hand over a significant okay you have to remember I'm an ombudsman I have no binding acts but these are the kinds of bold things within corrections I I don't know what we need to do in society but within correction they are things we can do but I have a very specific question that is there's talk of AUC's five regional centers being set up and they'll be running by the end of the year and I'm not sure what they sound like but they sound like operational stuff do you know anything about this because well they're in operation already they're in operation so it's basically and I told the senior deputy commissioner as well as the commissioner on this in order to respond to the auditor general of Canada criticism about failing to provide indigenous people with programming on time and and making them ready for their first eligible parole they created these centers at during the inside the intake admission units to try to fast track and the only thing that I said to to to the senior deputy commissioner and the commissioners well finally you're applying the law you're applying the law specifically to the indigenous because you're actually doing good case management and getting people quicker through the the hoops when they get there they get right away enlisted in program they fast track their program once they got the program right away there's a review to see whether we can cascade them to a lower level security so and it's actually working so in the past year they have been able to make a bit of movement but the whole initiative for me is simply doing what their law requires them to do for all offenders but of course if they do it for all offenders then the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous will not you know everybody will benefit and there will still be the same gap so they're they're being strategic on how they're they're prioritizing these things they're not envisioning reaching out horizontally to communities at greater intake well for me it's the the shift has to be way more than doing what you're supposed to do under the law and you know making sure you don't have wait lists and making sure people enter into program and that the programs are actually meaningful and and and responsive to the unique needs but i have talking too much maybe i should give you an opportunity okay yeah yeah well it's it's uh you know i can't you know i'll tell you i they're putting a lot of efforts the issue and a lot of money and the issue for me is whether looking from the outside inside whether they're they're getting the best value for their efforts and money and my answer to that is no because if you look at correctional outcomes on indigenous they are more likely to be released later in their sentence they're more likely to be segregated you know subject to use of force they're more likely to self-harm etc you know suicide attempt so the government is there any sense of are they receptive to some of the things that you're proposing well the mandate letter is truly exceptional in terms of i think it's the first time in keen history that a mandate letter to a deputy has been publicly released and i'll tell you that on on two counts the the first count is that historically the mandate letters are part of a deputy head compensation so deputy heads deputy minister received a base salary and then they receive a mandate letter and if they accomplish certain objectives that assist the government they get a performance bonus and the bigger the poor performance bonus it means that they have achieved a lot of tick marks on those mandate letters so this is why it's very unusual that this letter is actually published and the second point is that you have to ask yourself why did it publish this well i think after almost three years into their mandate and maybe kim you can correct me i think the shift between what happened under the harper government ten years of very entrenched line order approach csc has been has been having difficulty to get clarity on on their marching order and the directions that this government wanted to go to so by publishing that letter it makes it clear to the rank and files and all employees of the correctional service of Canada here's what we expect of you so this is a very very unusual so that we look back to kim's idea which is is the time for community action now well i was just gonna one other thing you asked what else just having been up north with the number of indigenous communities a concept that not most of them had no idea about was guaranteed little boy comfort and art eglinton is just released a book evelin for jay is about to release one there's a move afoot to look at a federal initiative and to free up social workers to no longer police people in the way that in comparable parole officers police individuals on on conditional release and to allow communities to actually have people with resources to be able to go out on the land to learn from the elders to contribute in ways instead of being trying and pretending like they're looking for non-existent jobs every day and to actually move through into a different place and there's a very strong case for investing in the resources up front the auditor general has made as well and so i think all of us here you may think what does that have to do with prisons it has a lot to do with prisons it's upstream and so it really is about starting to look at how we can be pushing and doing the intercepting work that needs to happen because if you're working in prisons you're working with poverty you're working with racism you're working with all kinds of discrimination and seeing the end result of every system that fails because the abandonment is the only one that can't produce people so i think it is something that should be looked at so Julie has to put a question in the house those are the most dangerous so i think you spoke to the need to redirect our existing resources and Pam you've got some really great ideas okay i think they were living in resources need to actually be for them to be effective so who needs to be i mean who needs to be told to get over here and sit down with Pam and start being her partner to actually make this happen because she sounds like she's never been talked to really well i'm asking why then and Pam who needs to be sitting down in that room to actually bring together the commitment that you're that you're downstreaming to to realize what Pam in the community knows needs to happen well you know i i'm a bureaucrat so i will you know initially and i will tell you that now we do have this mandate letter so now it's clear that the government has made it crystal clear that we need to move in that direction and that that mandate letter reflects certainly a lot of things that are in my annual report and my upcoming annual report and reflects also the the call for action so now i think it's yeah you can wait for the commissioner to give you a call but now you can also you know you can yeah exactly you can contact the commissioners okay now you've got clear directions from the government how can i help you what can i do to make this work and let's start discussing if it doesn't work then you obviously you go stop above and then you say minister you you wrote to your deputy head saying that these are the expectation this is directions and i'm not getting any traction so i think this is why that mandate letter is important in a bureaucracy you know i'll just say you know like any other government department so you know i i think that that's the so this is why there's a bit of hope here but again i i'm cautious about this hope because i showed you the the data seems to be going the wrong direction and i think something bold got to happen you know obviously in corrections there are things that we can do but corrections is you know is at the end of the line and that's not you know for me we have to talk about you know all sorts of things upstream to uh so that it doesn't become just a a a band-aid solution chain any comments there's an announcement last week of a new jail opening up in Cape Breton but there's been no inclusion of consultation with the migma nation on on what that looks like as of yet and so these are the mandate letter hasn't filtered through clearly in the actions of people and the burden shouldn't be put on the migma community at all and i worry about section 81 84s and the imposition of the the way the contracts work for for community and the criteria in which they they get negotiated or not and if it becomes tough to have that conversation or that tough conversation they're abandoned and it's the inmates that suffer as a consequence of that so there is an awful lot of correction that has to be done on the engagement with community absolutely can do you want to yeah i and that's a good point there is a lot of corrections that need to happen but i will challenge each and every one of you and and i know this just close your eyes and take a leap of faith with community just close your eyes and take a leap of faith i know it works and i know community has it the ability to to rise to the occasion what do you get to lose i know we have nothing to lose at this point you know we continue to see the numbers go up you need to try something different unique and something that yeah you're right it may not even fit within a guideline that you may have right now but take a leap of faith do something different that's the only way it's going to change and you need to you know i've had conversations with people we've had the same conversation 10 years ago 20 years ago 30 years ago people are having the same conversations the numbers keep getting worse the only way to change it is to change what we're doing you know we're doing the same things over and over we're putting different little tags on it little you know i always laugh you know government changes and all of a sudden that no longer exists so we're going to reinvent that program and we're going to change the name and but it's really the same program so the reality is you need to really take a hard look and say okay we're going to stop it here and we're going to create something new that we know works and we do know what's working in community we really do so take a leap of faith with us i've always been intrigued why your office doesn't hold investigative hearings why you've never been an intervener and why you know what your staff does not file with the correctional service or the board i need the pro board of canada of finding the fact i realize you're an omniscient and you can't direct the service to do things but you can make findings of fact give me a lot more aggressive about the situation than historically your office has been and i go way back to when football guy was the chair of your agency and he was stealing people of canada and the convicts he was supposed to serve um well thank you for the the the question the question was asked yesterday and i didn't answer very well so this is great that i have another kick out the can so i guess i have to tell you that there's a provision in the act which is in in provision of any ombudsman act that the the person who holds the office does uh is not competent before any legal uh it is not uh uh comparable nor competent before any legal proceedings so that's why i'm not anywhere to be found and every time that somebody is trying to get me to come and testify i said i'm sorry i'm not competent which i i love to say i'm incompetent so it's a it's part of the scheme to protect the confidentiality and and and the the fact that one of the pillars of successful ombudsmanship is to maintain confidentiality and to resolve the matters informally so the hearings for me makes it more in the realm of of lawyers and the formal system and i am and will remain an alternative to that formal system that uh isn't uh i'd say we were created because that formal system has too many barriers in terms of when you've got lawyers and time and money and so on if you want a hearing uh and we i'd say i will always consider it but it's got it i i don't quite see how because it it it it would it would happen because it is so i would say uh so formal uh requires lawyers and and it goes a bit against the values of an ombudsman trying to resolve matters informally when everybody is lawyered up that can happen through the inquiries act if you want an inquiry my time is up so so anyway happy to uh thank you everybody thank you and my apologies


This talk is about constant ciphertext rate non-committed encryption from standard assumptions. I'm Pedro, and this is joint work with Zvika Brackersky, Niku Dotlin, Sanjam Garg and Julio Malavota. Non-committed encryption is a special type of encryption which has two modes. In the first one, which we'll call the real mode, NCE behaves essentially as a standard public key encryption. Here we assume two parties, Alice and Bob. Alice starts by generating a pair of public and secret keys using random coins S. Bob generates a ciphertext using the encryption algorithm for message M and random coins R. Finally, Alice can decrypt the ciphertext using the secret key. The transcript of this protocol is composed by the public key and the ciphertext. This transcript is committing to M and can be explained by the random coins S and R. That is, given the transcript, the message and the random coins, we can re-run the key generation algorithm with random coins S and check that the public key is well-formed, run the encryption algorithm with random coins R to check that the ciphertext is well-formed and finally run the decryption algorithm to check that the secret key is well-formed. In the second mode, which we'll call the ideal mode, we have two additional algorithms. The first one, SIM1, creates a transcript composed by a public key and a ciphertext without receiving any message as input. Later, a second algorithm, SIM2, receives any message as input and outputs random coins that explain the transcript with respect to this new message. That is, we can run the key generation algorithm, the encryption algorithm and the decryption algorithm as before and check that the values are well-formed. We additionally require that the coins generated in the ideal mode are computationally indistinguishable from coins created in the real mode. One of the main reasons to study NCE is its applications in the design of multi-party computation schemes which are secure against adaptive adversaries as shown by Canary at all. Recall that an adaptive adversary is a type of adversary that can corrupt any number of parties at any point of the protocol and is usually considered the most realistic notion of security. One of the measures of efficiency for NCE is its communication efficiency that is the size of its public key and ciphertext. This has a direct impact on the complexity of the resulting NPC scheme. In this work, we focus on improving the ciphertext rate of NCE, where the ciphertext rate is defined as the ratio between the ciphertext size and the message size. Specifically, we show how to construct non-committed encryption with constant ciphertext rate in the plain model from standard assumptions such as learning with errors, decision of the fielmen and quadratic residuality. To achieve our result, we first introduced a new cryptography primitive which we call packed encryption with partial equivocation, or PEP for short. We then show that rate 1 PEP implies constant ciphertext rate non-committed encryption. Finally, we present constructions of rate 1 PEP along the hardness of LWB, DDH or QR. Our result improves upon a long line of works on the ciphertext rate of NCE. This line of work is installed at polylogarithmic rate from assumptions such as LWB or DDH. I'd like to mention that we can build rate 1 NCE in the CRS model if we consider the non-standard assumption of IO. Interestingly, in a concurrent work accepted at this year's Asia Crypt, Yamada et al. proved an identical result to ours, however using completely different techniques from the ones we used. Before presenting our construction, let me recap the construction of Hem and Way et al. or HORR, which achieves polylogarithmic ciphertext rate from the LWB assumption. The key generation algorithm of the AOHR starts by generating a public key of the PECT-REGF scheme, composed by a matrix A and vectors VEI. A random subset of these vectors is created together with a trapdoor. The remaining ones are chosen uniformly at random. To encrypt the message M, we first encode it using a properly chosen error-correcting code. This code needs to correct almost a half fraction of errors. We then choose a subset IS, and we consider the modified string W that agrees with Y on positions on IS, and it is uniformly random otherwise. We then encrypt W using a noisy version of the PECT-REGF scheme. To decrypt the message, we note that the receiver has the secret key for the positions in IR, so it can recover the true encrypted value WY. For the remaining positions, the receiver sets WY to be a uniformly random bit. We can then use the error-correcting code to recover the message M. Correctness holds because the intersection between the subsets IS and IR is non-ante except with negligible probability. Thus, the number of errors will be slightly smaller than one-half, and the coding succeeds. To generate a public key in the ideal mode, the simulator starts by sampling a matrix A together with the Gaussian sampler trapdoor. This trapdoor will allow to equivocate some positions of the ciphertext. To simulate a ciphertext, the simulator simply encrypts a random string Z using the encryption algorithm. To open a message M, note that the encoding Y of M and the encrypted string Z agree on approximately 50% of the positions. For the remaining ones, we will be able to use the Gaussian sampler trapdoor to reprogram some of the components of the ciphertexts as encryptions of YI instead of ZI. This will allow us to obtain the right statistics over the encryption random coins for a message M. Our first contribution is the definition of a new cryptographic primitive which we call packed encryption with partial equivocation, or PEP for short. This primitive essentially captures the main ideas in the age of our construction. Namely, it allows us to encrypt a message M using random coins R E and later find different random coins R E prime such that the encryption of a different message M prime coincides with the encryption of M. This holds conditioned on the fact that M prime and M differ only in some predefined positions. Formally, a PEP has a key generation algorithm which receives a subset of indexes I and the bit B and outputs a pair of public and secret keys on either the real mode if B is equal to 0 or on the ideal mode if B is equal to 1. This algorithm has the following properties. If the secret key is set on the real mode then it allows to decrypt some positions of an encrypted message. On the other hand, if the secret key is set on the ideal mode it allows us to equivocate some positions of an encrypted message. Finally, public keys set in different modes should be computationally indistinguishable. PEP has also an encryption algorithm which simply outputs a ciphertext and the decryption algorithm which outputs an encrypted message for the positions in I. One might think that PEP directly implies NCE because this new primitive already supports some form of equivocation. However, there are huge differences between both primitives. In PEP, only a subset I of positions can be equivocated and this subset is chosen at key generation time. Moreover, the subset I cannot meet the set of all coordinates otherwise we lose both the encryption and the encryption functionalities. On the other hand, NCE should allow to equivocate the full message and not just part of it and this needs to be done while preserving the encryption functionality. Despite their huge differences, in the next slide we show how to bootstrap a PEP into a full-fledged NCE. We show that PEP together with a properly chosen error-correcting code implies non-committed encryption. The construction follows the AGO-RR construction with the following replacements. The PEPT-REGF scheme is replaced by our PEP encryption. The real and ideal mode key generation of the AGO-RR is replaced by the PEP key generation algorithm. The Gaussian sampling used to equivocate ciphertexts in the AGO-RR scheme is replaced by the PEPA equivocation algorithm and finally the use of the error-correcting code is identical in both constructions. The rate of the resulting NCE depends on the rate of the error-correcting code which we know how to instantiate with constant rate and on the ciphertext rate of the PEP scheme. For the rest of this talk, we'll show how to construct rate 1 PEP from several standard assumptions. We'll start by the LW case. In fact, the AGO-RR construction immediately gives us a PEP scheme. As we mentioned before, the ciphertexts of this scheme are PEPT-REGF ciphertexts which originally imply the polylogarithmic ciphertext rate. Now, using the compression technique recently introduced by Brackersky at all, we can compress such ciphertexts down to asymptotically rate 1 ciphertexts. We thus obtain a PEP scheme with ciphertext rate 1 from LWE. We now show the underlying ideas of our DDH-based construction. In the following, let G be a generator of a cyclic group of order P. Recall that the DDH assumption states that given G to the A, where A is a uniform random ZP vector, the distribution of G to the WA for a uniform random ZP value W is computationally indistinguishable from the distribution of G to the U for a uniform random vector U. Our DDH-based construction shares some similarities with the LWB case. Here, to generate a public key in the real mode, we first sample a vector H composed by N-group elements chosen uniformly at random. The public key is composed by the vector H and vectors ZEI. These vectors are such that we know their D-log value with respect to H for positions in I. Otherwise, they are obliviously sampled at random from the group. The secret key is composed by the D-log values for the positions in I. To encrypt a message M, we simply perform a packed L-gamal encryption. The resulting ciphertext is composed by L-plus-1-group elements, and in this work, we show how to compress such ciphertext down to rate 1. We believe that our new compression technique might be of independent interest, which achieves perfect correctness and preserves the linear homomorphism of the L-gamal encryption scheme, unlike previous DDH-based compression techniques. The caveat of our compression technique is that it only achieves expected polynomial running time. In the ideal mode, the public key is set in such a way that the simulator knows the D-log of all the components of the public key. We set H to be G to the A for a uniformly random vector A, and the vector Zi to be G to the Vi, where Vi is either Si times A for some positions, or uniformly chosen at random for the equivocable indexes. The public key is composed by the vectors H and vector Zi. The secret key is composed by all the D-log values. To equivocate the ciphertext at some positions, we simply replace the use of the Gaussian sampling used in the LWKs by solving a linear equation system. This can be done since the simulator knows all the D-log values of the public key and of the ciphertext. Concretely, given a ciphertext where C1 is G to the D and Wi is equal to G to the Ki, encrypting a message M, we simply need to find the vector R bar that will open to a new message M' The indexes for which we can solve such a linear system are the indexes where Vi was chosen uniformly at random. Finally, we show that this system has solutions except with negligible probability over the uniform choice of Vi. To wrap up, in this work we introduced a new cryptographic primitive called packed encryption with partial equivocation, or PEP. We show that R1 PEP plus a properly chosen error correcting code implies constant ciphertext rate non-committed encryption. Finally, we showed how PEP with R1 can be constructed from LWE or DDH. We conclude this talk with some open problems. All the LWE based NCE constructions, including ours, HORR and the recent work of Yamada at all, assume the hardness of the LWE in its super polynomial modulus to noise version. So, can we build NCE with constant ciphertext rate from LWE in its polynomial modulus to noise ratio? Another open problem left in this work is the problem of the true rate of NCE. Concretely, can we achieve ciphertext rate 1 NCE or is a constant rate as achieved in this work the best we can hope for? That's all. Thanks!


Hello everyone welcome back to another session in dentistry and more today we have a necrosis in pathology. So necrosis as we all know it is a death of cells in an organ or a tissue due to various reasons it could be due to disease could be an injury or failure of the blood supply. So ultimately there will be death of cells in an organ. So let's learn the types of necrosis and its features. So there are two features which are present in all of the types of necrosis that is cell digestion by lytic enzyme cell digestion by lytic enzymes. And the second one is protein denaturation. So this happens in all the types of necrosis but the reason is different and their clinical appearance is also different. So cell digestion by lytic enzyme and protein denaturation is invariably present in all the types of necrosis. So what are the types of necrosis? So we have basically five types. The first one is coagulative necrosis, then liquefaction necrosis, quiesus necrosis, fat necrosis and fibrinoid necrosis. So we will start with coagulative necrosis. So coagulative necrosis it is the form of tissue necrosis in which the component cells are dead but the basic tissue architecture is preserved for at least several days. So if this is the organ, so the structure will be intact but the inside cells will be dead. So that is coagulative necrosis. The inside cells tissues will be dying but the structure will be maintained. So the affected tissue take on a firm texture and the injury, denatures not only the structural proteins but also enzymes and so blocks the proteolysis of the dead cells. So what is happening? The injury, denatures not only the structural proteins but also enzymes. So since the enzymes are dead, the proteolytic enzymes, so these enzymes are not working, it blocks the proteolysis of dead cells. So it is maintaining a structural shape, that shape is not lost. So as a result, the cells that is esophilic and nucleate cells may persist for days, two weeks but ultimately the necrotic cells are removed by phagocytosis of cellular debris but initially the organ will maintain the structural integrity that is the feature of coagulative necrosis. The structural integrity will be retained for a period of time. So most common type of necrosis is, it is the most common type of necrosis and the reasons are one is ischemia, ischemia is nothing but the stoppage of blood flow and it is very rarely this happens due to bacterial and other chemical agents. So in infact, so infact, so infact is nothing but area of ischemic necrosis. So it is a characteristic of infact in all solid organs except brain. So in brain the liquefaction necrosis is happening, so in all solid organs where the infact is present, coagulative necrosis will be there except the brain. So the most common organs affected by coagulative necrosis is heart, kidney and spleen. So in gross morphology the coagulative necrosis foci is present in early stages are pale, firm and slightly swollen with progression they become more yellowish and microscopically we can see tombstone appearances. The normal cells will be converted to tombstone appearance. So that is about coagulative necrosis. Now we have liquefaction or collicative necrosis. This is due to ischemic injury and bacterial or fungal infection. So bacterial and fungal infection is there along with ischemia. So this is most common type and ischemia is a main reason of coagulative necrosis. This is liquefaction necrosis where the degradation of tissue by the action of powerful hydrolytic enzymes. So if the hydrolytic enzymes are very powerful it will completely destroy the area. Here the hydrolytic enzymes were not active so the structural integrity was maintained. So the common examples are in fact cavity of brain. So all the solid organs where coagulative necrosis except brain in brain the liquefaction necrosis is happening. So in the liquefaction necrosis what is happening it completely digest the dead cells resulting in transformation of the tissue into a liquid viscous mass. So there is no structural integrity it becomes a liquid viscous mass. That is the difference between coagulative and liquefactive necrosis. So if this is the structure or this is the organ means it will be completely disorganized and becomes a liquid viscous mass. So if the process was initiated by acute inflammation the material is frequently creamy yellow and there will be pus formation. Okay so the appearance will be the affected area will be soft and liquefied with lots of necrotic debris and later a cyst wall is formed. And there are microscopic features such as cystic space contains necrotic cell debris and macrophages and also the phagocytic material also will be there. Next one is the third one is caseous necrosis. This is found in center of foci of tubercular infection. Okay in tubercular infection at the center the caseous necrosis is there. It combines the feature of both coagulative and liquefactive necrosis. It is a combined one okay the caseous necrosis. And why this name is called caseous it means the cheese like okay cheese like appearance. So it has this peculiar necrosis looks like yellow white appearance of this area look like yellow white cheese like appearance that is why it got that peculiar name caseous necrosis. So the gross morphology is there will be foci of caseous necrosis and it resembles a dry cheese and are very soft and granular and yellowish in color. And microscopically there are isophilic structure less necrotic foci and other epithelioid cells present. So that is caseous necrosis which is a combination of coagulative and liquefactive necrosis.    So these combines calcium to produce a grossly visible chalky white areas which is known as fat saponification. So what is happening? So pancreatic enzymes which are leaked out of this as in our endex cells. So these enzymes liquefy the membrane of fat cells in the peritoneum. Peritoneum is the cavity and the lipase enzymes they split the triglyceride esters which contains within the fat cells. So it becomes fatty acids and these combine calcium to produce a grossly visible chalky white areas and which is known as fat saponification.   So this is a chalky white appearance. Okay. The last one is fibrinoid necrosis. Fibrinoid necrosis is characterized by deposition of fibrin like material which has a staining properties of fibrin. Okay. So it is encountered in various examples of immunological tissue injury such as immune complex vasculitis, arthritis reaction, peptic ulcer, arthritis reaction, peptic ulcers, autoimmune diseases and arterioles in hypertension. So in microscopically this is like a brightly isnophilic hyaline like deposition in the vessel wall and there will be necrotic focus which is surrounded by nuclear debris of neutrophils and there will be local hemorrhage. Okay. So these are the basic five types of necrosis. The common one is coagulating necrosis and the liquefaction, cashews and fat and fibrinoid. The most important one is coagulation and liquefaction. Coagulating is the important point is the structural integrity is maintained for a period of time because that enzymes were not active at the beginning phase at the end of the at the latest stage of acosidus happen and it lost. Liquefaction necrosis is a different one. It is completely destroying and becoming a liquid mass. Cashews is seen in the tuberculosis cavity, achieves like appearance and fat necrosis commonly seen in pancreas and breasts and the fibrino necrosis in peptic ulcer and arterioles in hypertension. So that is the most common five types of necrosis. Necrosis is nothing but the death of cells. And the two features which are the common in all necrosis is protein degeneration and cell digestion by lactic enzyme. So these two implies that the cell is death and it is denatured and necrosed. These are very important for essay question like coagulating and liquefaction could be asked as a separate short note. So I will come up with a new topic in pathology. Thank you.