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Current Affairs 2007 - Reform (90 items)
| Dec 19, 2007 | BC: Protesters Target MP's Office Okanagan-Shuswap:Okanagan-Shuswap MP Colin Mayes answered questions and took heat Monday from protesters upset about a proposed law that would see mandatory minimum sentences for drug traffickers.
About 20 protesters congregated outside the downtown Vernon office of Mayes, who emerged to tell the protesters that the guidelines would keep Canadian streets safer.
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| Dec 18, 2007 | SN: Pot Protesters Oppose Bill C-26 Saskatchewan -A group of protesters gathered at the provincial legislature Monday to protest amendments to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act proposed by the Harper government.
Bill C-26 would see the imposition of mandatory minimum sentences for possession of drugs with the purposes of traffickin
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| Dec 18, 2007 | AB: 'Cannabis Is the Least of Our Problems' Lethbridge - A pro-marijuana group took its protest to Lethbridge streets Monday.
Warmly-dressed protesters rallied in front of MP Rick Casson's office, after parading their signs through the city centre. They were opposing the Conservative government's plans for compulsory jail terms for people selling street drugs.
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| Dec 18, 2007 | BC Activists Blast Federal Anti-Drug Bill Burnaby -A string of demonstrations at MPs' offices saw promarijuana supporters handing out information leaflets at Burnaby MP Peter Julian's constituency office yesterday. The federal government's proposed Bill C- 26, which was introduced last month is nothing more than marijuana prohibition, according to organizer Adam Scriver.
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| Dec 18, 2007 | AB: Pot Bill Generates Buzz Calgary - "Legalize, Regulate and Educate," was the message protesters were trying to send to politicians yesterday during a pro-marijuana rally in front of Stephen Harper's constituency office.
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| Dec 12, 2007 | BC: Drug Laws Draconian Victoria - Protesters are set to gather Monday, December 17, at MP offices in Victoria and across Canada to speak out against proposed drug laws they say are draconian and ineffective. The Conservatives' Bill C-26 would entrench the criminalization of cannabis and require minimum mandatory prison terms for people caught with pot.
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| Dec 1, 2007 | O Cannabis! War On Drugs Seen As Flawed Echo Of U.S. As far as ideas go, the verdict on new Tory anti-crime measures unrolled over the past couple of weeks - from people who make a living studying such things - has been unanimous.
Bad idea.
"If a person is found guilty of producing between one to 200 marijuana plants, they would face a mandatory minimum of six months in prison if the offence is committed for the purpose of trafficking, which can be: 'Hi, want to share a joint with me?'" |
| Nov 23, 2007 | Harper's Misguided War on Pot Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's new package of mandatory sentences for marijuana dealers, announced on Tuesday, seems to involve some perverse incentives. Under the bill, a grower who is caught with between one and 200 plants and is found to have the intention of trafficking will receive a non-negotiable minimum of six months in prison, unless he can show that he is eligible for judicially ordered treatment under the auspices of a drug court. The maximum penalty for having a few pot plants on the premises will be increased to 14 years.
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| Nov 17, 2007 | The Dangers of Keeping Pot Illegal The benefits to Canada's justice system of legalizing marijuana would be immediate. Police would have more time to investigate real crime, including cracking down on harder drugs. The courts wouldn't be bogged down by trivial pot charges. Jail cells could be reserved for actual criminals.
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| Nov 15, 2007 | Pot Activists Hail Ruling (Invalid law) Marijuana activists are hailing a recent court ruling as the beginning of the end of Canada's prohibition on pot, but the Crown dismisses the decision as non-binding.
A trial judge in Oshawa, Ont., threw out charges of simple possession of marijuana against three young men on Oct. 19, relying on a previous court ruling that found Canada's pot law unconstitutional. In making his decision, Judge Norman Edmondson cited a decision last July by a fellow judge of the Ontario Court of Justice.
[ See: http://thepotlawhasfallen.ca/, especially if you have been charged with possession of cannabis ] |
| Nov 12, 2007 | Legalize Pot, a Key Drug Fuelling Gang Wars Policy of Prohibition Only Helps Organized Crime Pocket the Profits From a Multi-Billion Dollar Industry ...The rise of gangs in this province is due primarily to the immense profits to be had from B.C. bud.
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| Nov 11, 2007 | 'Legalize It, Control It And Tax The Livin' Hell Out Of It Larry Campbell has seen the effects of Canada's marijuana prohibition laws first-hand, as an RCMP drug officer for eight years and as chief coroner of B.C. before his election as mayor of Vancouver in 2002.
He figures the drug should be legalized, controlled -- and taxed like tobacco.
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| Nov 1, 2007 | Let's Rethink Drug Discourse In grade school we get the this-is-your-brain-on-drugs lecture and learn many ways to say no. But what's missing is how to say yes in moderation. People of all ages are doing drugs, and it's time to recognize that information based on abstinence does more harm than good.
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| Oct 31, 2007 | Politicians And Professors Debate National Drug Policy CANADA'S NATIONAL DRUG policy is in a state of flux. The former Liberal federal government made moves towards decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana and instituted a medical-marijuana program during its last session in power. The current Conservative government has taken a tougher stance towards illegal drugs by taking steps to increase both the prosecution of drug offenders and penalties for drug offences
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| Oct 30, 2007 | Promoting One Of The Deadliest Drugs Of All A glossy brochure recently dropped out of my newspaper: "Discover your taste for whisky," it advised. As it happens, I discovered my taste for whisky long ago and so was not in need of this advice. But it struck me as surpassingly odd that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario is spending a considerable amount of money to persuade the uninitiated to try potent forms of a psychoactive drug whose known risks include addiction, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disorders, liver cirrhosis, several types of cancer, fetal alcohol syndrome and fatal overdose.
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| Oct 24, 2007 | Party Has High Hopes A user of medicinal marijuana in Regina has joined the race for a seat in Saskatchewan's legislature to push for a greener society -- and he doesn't mean the environment.
Tom Shapiro, 51, has let his name stand as Saskatchewan Marijuana Party candidate for the riding of Regina Coronation Park.
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| Oct 23, 2007 | Europeans Know Drug Abuse Is an Illness, Not a Crime Europe has a drug problem, and knows it. But the Europeans' approach to it is quite different from the North American "war on drugs."
I spend 120 days a year in Europe as a travel writer, so I decided to see for myself how it's working. I talked with locals, researched European drug policies and even visited a smoky marijuana "coffee shop" in Amsterdam. I got a close look at the alternative to a war on drugs.
Europeans are well aware of the North American track record against illegal drug use.
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| Oct 22, 2007 | Pro-Pot Protest Nets Just 60 People Police were out in full force for a contingent of mostly teenagers protesting to decriminalize marijuana during Saturday's pro-pot rally.
About 60 people marched up Pitt Street to Domino's Pizza near Tollgate Road for the first-ever Walk 4 Weed demonstration.
It was a far cry from the hundreds who were expected to attend, but that didn't stop organizers from forging ahead with the peaceful demonstration.
[So does police intimidation work?] |
| Oct 22, 2007 | A Criminal Mind: Juries Can Nullify, Just Don't Tell The common law recognizes the jury's power not to convict when a law is unfair, or when it would unfairly impact upon the accused. This is known as jury nullification. The trilogy of Canadian cases from the Supreme Court of Canada that have dealt with this are R. v. Morgentaler ( 1988 ), R. v. Latimer ( 2001 ), and the recent case of R. v. Krieger ( 2006 ).
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| Oct 19, 2007 | Choose Your Poison On the farming side, any policy that successfully reduces the production of marijuana to a significant degree will utterly crash the economy of most of the interior of British Columbia. Mining, fishing, forestry and food farming, the mainstays of the interior economy, home to two million, have all been in inexorable decline for decades. The only thing keeping most families afloat is production of marijuana or jobs in retail and other industries supported by the proceeds of sales of marijuana by the growers.
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