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The aim of this inquiry into the composition and conduct of the Hamilton police force in the early twentieth century is to indicate the merit of certain historical criticisms of policing while modifying them with evidence about inefficiency and inconcistency in the performance of social control measures as well as evidence of positive activities in the area of social services. The city police were called upon to enforce moral order by religious and elite groups; they were asked to be domestic missionaries. However, their working-class origins and the temptations encountered on the beat made them inconsistent if not indefferent enforcers of morality. When required to protect private property during strikes, they did so but lacked the resources to be an effective complement to the strike-breaking measures of large concerns. Although their very presence may have deterred crime, their actual crime prevention and detection activities were ineffectual. They performed other urban functions: enforcing bylaws and statutes that dealt with everything from the regulation of trade to public health, looking for missing persons, returning lost children, operating a hostel for the homeless, and dealing with assorted situations of potential and actual violence. The police had the most varied and sensitive duties of all urban-service professionals, but were the least well trained and educated.

Canadian historians have shown limited interest in the legal development of the lower courts. The history of Calgary's police court and in particular, the administration of G.E. Sanders reveals much about the development of the office and urban society since many issues of popular concern came into focus through legal action. As fear about crime and even anarchy grew with the steady influx of immigrants, the police court assumed a special significance. Gradually at first and then with rapid strides it emerged as a powerful bulwark of conservative defence.

AbstractThe Répit-Urbain (urban respite) project offers street youth a structured vacation in the country. This vacation is designed to help the youth develop his personal skills and learn about the harmful effects of drug and alcohol consumption. During the first year of this initiative, nine partner organizations composed 17 groups who participated in the project. In this way, 148 homeless people participated in the Répit-Urbain activities accompanied by workers who were already involved with them. This study focussed on two main objectives : 1) to verify the extent to which Répit-Urbain was able to reach street youth and, 2) to document the perspective of the workers who participated in the project since, in spending time with the persons referred to them, they were obliged to work under conditions very different to those in the street.The study involved 25 workers. The results indicate that, according to the workers, the project did respond to the youths' need for “respite” and encouraged the acquisition of knowledge on subjects they considered important. In general, the program's structure was appreciated as well as the post-stay impacts, including the intensification of the relationship between the youth and their workers. The partnership model proposed offers an interesting potential for street youth, a population considered difficult to reach within the scope of services provided in a “traditional” manner. It also appears to combine certain conditions that contribute to the creation and consolidation of an alliance between homeless people and their workers.

Keywords: intervenants, jeunes de la rue, sans-abri, partenariat, mode de collaboration, workers, street youth, homeless, partnership, cooperative approach, personas de apoyo, jóvenes de la calle, sin techo, asociación, modo de colaboración

This is an essay about contemporary Hongkong cinema and culture. It focuses on the film Rouge (1987), which was adapted from the novella Yanzhi kou (1986) by Li Bihua and directed by Stanley Kwan. Ruhua, a female ghost, comes back from the underworld in the 1980s to look for her lover decades after they committed suicide together. Her search reveals the details of a type of romance which seems to have disappeared in the contemporary world. The essay examines the strong sense of nostalgia emanating from this melancholic love story from several perspectives: the filmic image, ethnography, the agency of chance, and the fantasy of an alternative community in a Hongkong caught in the crisis of its imminent "return" to China by 1997.