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Current Affairs 2006 - Government (89 items)
| Oct 28, 2006 | Mayoral Candidate Charged With Pot Possession One of the candidates for mayor of Thunder Bay has been charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.
The Chronicle-Journal has learned that Douglas MacKay, 53, was charged Sept. 11 after police seized almost nine kilograms of marijuana.
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| Oct 18, 2006 | US Begins Air Patrols On Alberta Border The "longest undefended border in the world" is becoming anything but.
Jets and helicopters began continuous patrols of the airspace above the Montana-Alberta border starting on Mon, Oct 16, coinciding with the opening of the Great Falls Air Branch at the airport in Great Falls, Montana by the US Customs and Border Protection, part of the US Department of Homeland Security.
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| Oct 14, 2006 | The Folly Of Anti-drug Laws History is supposed to teach us lessons. But when it comes to drug use and abuse, two professors are arguing we as a society have failed to learn from the past...."The debate hinges far less on the scientific evidence than deep-rooted moral schisms . . . and there's a tremendous financial stake in prohibition. There's a lot of jobs on the line."
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| Oct 14, 2006 | What Are They Smoking? Legalization advocates arguing the cannabis issue are often greeted by complaints from the anti-drug set, and from jittery physicians, that the medical benefits and hazards of marijuana are too poorly researched to permit widespread use. This is a remarkable claim in many different ways. Where, for instance, was this shining precautionary principle when Vioxx was being handed out like Halloween candy to patients at risk of cardiac complications? A PubMed search for "marijuana" reveals more than 10,000 published, peer-reviewed articles on the subject; surely some of these discuss the effects and risks of pot?
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| Oct 13, 2006 | Electoral-Law Edict Boosts Small Parties An Ontario judge has struck down an electoral law that permitted large federal political parties to fill their coffers with public money at the expense of smaller parties.
Superior Court Judge Ted Matlow ruled yesterday that the law is undemocratic, unequal and stunts the growth of small parties for no valid reason.
The money will be awarded retroactively to 2003 and, including interest charges, brings the total the parties will share to approximately $500,000...The coalition that challenged the law includes the Marijuana Party; the Christian Heritage Party; the Canadian Action Party; the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada; the Green Party; the Progressive Canadian Party; and the Communist Party of Canada.
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| Oct 13, 2006 | 'Poor' Pot From Only Legal Grow-Op Pot activists are blaming the federal Tories for wasting potential research dollars by extending a contract with Canada's only legal grow-op, just weeks after slashing funding for medicinal marijuana studies.
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| Oct 12, 2006 | 600,000 Reasons Why Pot Policy Doomed ...last week's report on marijuana use in B.C. from the University of Victoria's Centre for Addiction Research should be a reminder of the need to overhaul our policies on pot.
And it should be a special warning to the Harper government that tougher enforcement, longer sentences and hardline rhetoric are doomed to be costly failures. In B.C. especially, an effort to wipe out marijuana use - and by extension production and sale - has about the same chance of success as banning alcohol. Governments concerned about the negative effects of marijuana use need to come up with a smarter approach.
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| Oct 6, 2006 | Out Of Jail And Into Politics Michel Ethier walked out of the North Bay courthouse, stood in the afternoon sun and celebrated his freedom in a style befitting a pot activist.
"This tastes good. I love it," he said, savouring a joint offered by a supporter after being released from custody Tuesday.
Ethier filed his papers from jail to challenge incumbent Joanne Savage and newcomer Claude Arcand for the mayor's job in West Nipissing during the Nov. 13 municipal election.
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| Oct 5, 2006 | Column: Harper's No Sage Socrates believed that the unexamined life is not worth living, and last week's budget cuts by the Harper government to the Law Commission of Canada, the Court Challenges Program and the medical marijuana research fund show that this administration is committed to unexamined ignorance in governance. I may not be interested in having philosopher kings run this country, but it would be nice if those in power at least had the desire to develop public policy based on information, debate and analysis.
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| Oct 4, 2006 | Cannabis Users Confused
The medical marijuana issue has become even more confusing as a conservative budget cut of $7.5 million meets mixed response from concerned parties across the country.
A prominent AIDS organization condemned the cut as "impeding" timely access to appropriate care for its members, while the Canadian Cannabis Coalition ( the largest organization of its kind in the world ) points to the private research being done and says the cuts are essentially a non-issue.
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| Oct 4, 2006 | Output To Increase As Pot Deal Extended Health Canada has awarded Flin Flon's famous grow-op a one-year extension that calls for a significant jump in medicinal marijuana output.
The $2.1-million deal requires contractor Prairie Plant Systems to supply 1,712 lbs of pot throughout the year, up 85 per cent from the previous annual total.
Brent Zettl, Prairie's president and CEO, said his Saskatoon-based company will spend nearly $500,000 in upgrades to accommodate the increased production.
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| Oct 2, 2006 | Editorial: Democracy Is Inclusive The Reverend ( we assume ) Michel Ethier must be given top marks for persistence. He wants to become His Worship the Mayor of West Nipissing, and none shall deny his right to try, try, and try again.
He is also minister in the pot-promoting Church of the Universe, so it must be assumed he is entitled to some reverence.
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| Sep 29, 2006 | Nurses Lash Out At Spending Cuts Ontario nurses are lashing out at recently announced spending cuts by the federal Conservative government.....
They also take aim at money cut from the medical marijuana, Health Canada policy research and court challenges programs.
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| Sep 28, 2006 | Feds' Wily Weed Cash Ruse Bouzanis confirms that only $2 million was ever doled out of the original $7.5 million earmarked for reefer research, while about $5.5 million remains to be spent. Vancouver NDP MP Libby Davies has requested that Auditor General Sheila Fraser look into the accounting of all money spent on the program.
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| Sep 27, 2006 | Green And Legal Feds Won't Tell Grow-Op Busters Who's Got A Licence
It's a budding problem cops wish they could weed out.
Officers with the Edmonton Police Service-RCMP Green Team are occasionally raiding marijuana grow-ops that turn out to be operated by growers licensed by the federal government to cultivate pot for medicinal reasons.
[So many "problems" would not exist if prohibition did not exist. Then we could see what real problems may be associated with cannabis. |
| Sep 23, 2006 | Pot Activist Settles VANCOUVER -- An American pot activist who launched an intense legal fight against extradition to the U.S., has quietly settled her legal and immigration issues.
After negotiating a plea agreement of simple possession of marijuana with U.S. prosecutors, Renee Boje dropped her extradition appeal in B.C. and returned to California from B.C. last month.
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| Aug 31, 2006 | Personal Data Bylaws Assailed VANCOUVER -- The Privacy Commissioner in British Columbia is urging municipalities to show restraint and stop enacting what he describes as "surveillance bylaws."...Chilliwack wanted to enact a bylaw earlier this year that would require hydroponic stores to detail all purchases of legal products such as seeds and light bulbs, as well as personal data about the customer and send it electronically to police. After receiving negative publicity, the city said it would wait for the Privacy Commissioner's report before deciding what to do next.
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| Aug 31, 2006 | BC Hydro Bills Point to 17,900 Possible Pot Grow Ops Nearly 18,000 homes in B.C. -- about the same number of residences as in all of West Vancouver -- use suspiciously high amounts of electricity, often a telltale sign of a marijuana growing operation.
Under provincial legislation introduced last spring, municipalities can request a list from BC Hydro of all addresses with abnormally high power consumption -- making it easier for police and city inspectors to target growing operations. Abnormal consumption is defined as any residence that uses more than 93 kilowatt-hours ( kWh ) of electricity per day. The average home uses 31 kWh per day.
Big brother gets closer and closer... |
| Aug 25, 2006 | CN BC: Pot Eradication Teams Storm The Island Police officers from the RCMP's outdoor marijuana eradication team took to the skies in Canadian Forces helicopters as they began their annual search and destroy mission on Vancouver Island.
...using the military to look for plants? Everyone's okay with that? |
| Aug 25, 2006 | Health Canada Cuts Off Sick Man's Pot Supply Tom McMullen ran out of the medication that gave him his life back about two weeks ago, and he can't get more.
The Prospect Bay man is an authorized medical marijuana user and buys his drugs directly from Health Canada.
But the bill for the 90 grams he's allowed each month is 80 per cent of his monthly Canada Pension, his only source of income.
Mr. McMullen, 42, owes the agency more than $1,000 and has been told he won't be sent more marijuana until he clears the debt.
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