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Current Affairs 2007 - Police (105 items)
| Jul 12, 2007 | Walking Backwards Into A Wall If politics is supposed to lead the nation in debate, we're being taken for quite a ride when it comes to pot and the law.
Discovering that, in 2006, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Halifax experienced up to 50-per-cent increases in cannabis-related arrests, is like walking backwards into a wall.... It's about time that we get over the stigma associated with many of the false assumptions that dominate this debate, and pragmatically move forward on eliminating pot prohibition.
As someone who has both walked the streets as a member of the RCMP's drug squad and examined legislation for passage into law as a Senator, I have a sharp understanding of what constitutes a criminal.
Those that use pot just don't fit the profile.
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| Jul 9, 2007 | An Apology Required WINNIPEG police officers were understandably dismayed that the man accused of shooting the officers in December has been released on bail, the judge having been convinced Daniell Anderson was neither a risk to the community or of fleeing.
Their abusive comments, however, directed toward the judge are unacceptable and the officers must formally apologize to Court of Queen's Bench Justice Karen Simonsen. ...One officer was heard to say someone -- Daniell Anderson? -- should have been killed, while the mutterings of others called into disrepute the justice system. Said in the heat of the moment, they were nonetheless alarming remarks.
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| Jul 9, 2007 | Pot Possession Arrests on the Rise The number of people arrested for smoking pot rose dramatically in several Canadian cities last year after the Conservatives took office and killed a bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana... Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Halifax all reported increases of between 20 and 50 per cent in 2006, while Montreal and Calgary saw their number of arrests dip a few points from the previous year.
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| Jul 8, 2007 | Your Fate If Arrested For Pot Smoking? Marc-Boris St-Maurice has been arrested so many times for marijuana possession that he serves as a one-man clinical study in the fate reserved for those caught with small amounts of pot.
The study's theme would be inconsistency.
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| Jul 7, 2007 | ON: Niagara Grow-Op Strategy Praised By Province At a press conference outside the Niagara Falls police station, Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor announced the Liberal government was expanding its "guns, gangs and grow-ops project" to combat violence and build safer communities.
[The violence and economy created by prohibition becomes larger and more entrenched every year at the expense of civil society - but not enough members seem to notice or care - yet] |
| Jul 6, 2007 | ON: Police Officer Arrested During Series Of Raids Toronto police have accused one of their own officers of helping an Eastern European organized crime group charged with importing and exporting marijuana and cocaine between Canada and the United States.
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| Jul 5, 2007 | ON: Home-Grow Registry Wanted Real estate agents and local police are working together to ensure potential homeowners don't get duped into buying a home once used in an illegal drug operation.
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| Jun 28, 2007 | MB: Ex-Cop Faces Grow-Op Charge A retired Winnipeg police officer who recently came under scrutiny for his role in the wrongful conviction of James Driskell has been charged with running a marijuana grow operation in his home.
Bill VanderGraaf, 56, was arrested in April after police received a tip that he was allegedly manufacturing drugs in the basement of his East Kildonan home.
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| Jun 27, 2007 | Gatineau Officer To Remain Jailed Until Trial A Gatineau police officer charged with possession of narcotics will be detained until his trial.
At the end of a day-long bail hearing, Justice Jules Barriere ruled that Peter Vranas, 41, should not be released, to "maintain the confidence of the public in the administration of justice."
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| Jun 22, 2007 | QU: Gatineau Officer Arrested On Cocaine Charge A Gatineau police officer has been charged with drug-related offences after more than two kilograms of cocaine was found in the car he was in late Wednesday.
Peter Vranas, 41, remained calm as he was remanded yesterday. The 20-year veteran of the force will remain behind bars until his bail hearing, which is scheduled for Tuesday at the Gatineau courthouse.
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| Jun 9, 2007 | ON: Students Face Drug Charges Nine teenagers are facing drug-related charges after a newly formed police team swooped in on a Guelph high school yesterday morning.
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| Jun 8, 2007 | BC: Judge Nixes Cops For Hydro Inspections "We only use police for safety issues," she said. "If they don't like the fact that it's the police that are working with our firefighters, then that's fine; we'll have somebody else.
"But at the end of the day we want to make sure our firefighters are protected and are safe and that whole team of B.C. Hydro personnel as well, their safety is first and foremost. That's the reason why we had the police there, and the only reason. The police aren't there to lay charges; the police aren't there to execute warrants. We're there because it's a fire safety issue."
[Talk about mixed messages..it is a legal issue when the police alone shut down cannabis cultivation, but it is a fire safety issue when other civil servants are enforcing prohibition] |
| Jun 7, 2007 | AB: Smith Family Endures Orwellian-Style Invasions George and Helen Kupilik have lived just outside of Smith for 35 years. They came from the Calgary area to enjoy the freedom and tranquility of country living to raise a family.
George's children are now grown and he and Helen enjoy quiet retirement. Quiet except for the nights when unidentified men come into their home. They didn't speak or say what they wanted but twice they have searched George's home.
George himself likens it to something out of a George Orwell novel.
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| Jun 5, 2007 | AB: Parents Charged in Drug Den Cases PARENTS CHARGED IN DRUG DEN CASES - Police Use New Law for First Time..."Police officers wearing full protective suits with respirators are walking into rooms with kids playing, watching television, with no protection at all. The moulds, the smells, the risk of electrical explosions . . . you just shake your head."...The Southern Alberta Marijuana Investigative Team found 120 pot plants...
[Reefer Madness on steroids] |
| May 26, 2007 | Legalize Pot To Halt Violence, Group Urges Legalizing drugs as a way to combat the drug trade may go against traditional views, but it's an idea with its share of supporters.
A Packet & Times story last week in which a member of the Huronia combined forces drug unit talked about violence in relation to drugs received many responses.
One was from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition ( LEAP ), an organization comprised of current and former police officers, attorneys, judges and corrections workers.
The organization is in favour of legalizing drugs as a way to take the drug trade off the streets and into a regulated environment.
"We're not starry-eyed utopians who think we aren't going to have any problems," said LEAP founding secretary John Gayder, who works in law enforcement in Niagara Falls.
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| May 24, 2007 | Supreme Court - Backpacks and Searches If police officers were allowed to drop in on quiet house parties, snoop around backyard patios or search the private vehicles and backpacks of people at random and without cause, an awful lot of upstanding citizens would likely find themselves getting pinched for minor drug crimes.
But police generally need a warrant to search our homes and our purses and briefcases and that same protection should extend to the backpacks of students. Kids should have constitutional rights too, whether they are in school or at the shopping mall.
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| May 22, 2007 | Random Searches Tested In Court Did Police Breach Student's Rights By Visiting School With Drug Sniffer Dog
A case that began when officers showed up at a Sarnia high school with "Chief" the drug-sniffing dog is about to test the limits of police powers in Canada.
The Crown appeal, to be heard today by the Supreme Court of Canada, will help determine whether police can use sniffer dogs to conduct random searches of schools and other public places, such as parks, sports stadiums, beaches and malls.
At issue is whether an unannounced police visit to St. Patrick's high school in November 2002 amounted to an unreasonable search and seizure under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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| May 12, 2007 | Eyes In The Sky Spot Pot Satellite Imagery May Uncover Hidden Marijuana Plantations
Space will be the final frontier for busting marijuana grow operations in Canada now that police researchers are backing satellite technology that can uncover hidden cannabis plantations.
While RCMP weren't hot about the idea a few years ago, a study just completed by the Canadian Police Research Centre shows that police forces would be crazy not to use the technology, if they can afford it.
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| May 11, 2007 | RCMP Alleges Pot Politician A Reefer Recidivist
Police charged Ed deVries in Iqaluit with trafficking in a controlled substance, conspiracy to traffic and breach of undertaking, May 2. He was released from custody and will appear in court July 3.
Police seized several pounds of marijuana, said Cpl. Randy Slawson.
DeVries, 48, recently served a six-month sentence for trafficking marijuana and laundering the proceeds of crime, after police intercepted a filing cabinet in 2003 full of marijuana sent from Ontario to Iqaluit, addressed to a company owned by deVries.
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| May 11, 2007 | Court Case Set To Argue Grow-op As A Civil Right Vancouver Island Compassion Society planning constitutional challenge in defence of pot bust
To the prosecution, it's a simple case of production for the purposes of trafficking, involving two local men caught red-handed growing a crop of 900 marijuana plants on an acreage in East Sooke.
To Vancouver Island Compassion Society founder Philippe Lucas, it's a constitutional challenge of Canada's medical marijuana laws.
Lawyers were in court in Victoria this week arguing that the two men arrested in the May, 2004 raid, Mat Beren and Michael Swallow, were operating a marijuana research and cultivation facility on behalf of the society.
"We don't deny what we were doing," Lucas said. "Our defence is a constitutional challenge."
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