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Current Affairs 2007 - Government (150 items)
| Dec 21, 2007 | BC: Protest Targets New Minimums Sidney - Protesters waved flags, shook signs and yelled questions outside Saanich Gulf Islands MP Gary Lunn's office in Sidney on Monday. One even lit up a marijuana cigarette and had a few puffs.
The gathering was part of a national day of demonstration against the proposed federal Bill C-26, which would raise mandatory minimum sentences for cannabis ( marijuana ) offences, including cultivation and trafficking.
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| Dec 21, 2007 | Where Have All The Grow Op Kids Gone? Real estate agent Tammy Wing Yan Tsui and her husband Clement Kin Keung Cheung were charged with two counts of production of a controlled substance and two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking as a result of the July 17 raids at 4382 Blair Dr. ( where the children were found ) and at 7471 Minoru Blvd.
It is unknown at this point to what happened to the five children.
"We don't know what happened to those kids," said Linda Korbin, executive director of the B.C. Association of Social Workers.
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| Dec 21, 2007 | Are The Kids All Right? What kind of parent would subject toddlers to the dangers of living in a marijuana grow operation? We would suggest they are parents who may not have the basic moral or intellectual capacity to care for children.
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| Dec 20, 2007 | Ex-Federal Justice Led Drug-Use Probe Former Supreme Court of Canada justice Gerald Eric Le Dain, who also led a landmark commission into drug use in Canada in the '60s and '70s, has died.
Le Dain, who died in Toronto Tuesday, was 83.
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| 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 19, 2007 | New Tool To Detect Stolen Electricity BC Hydro and Crime Stoppers have announced a new enforcement tool that they hope will encourage people to report suspected marijuana growing operations.
Addresses of suspected illegal drug operations reported to the Crime Stoppers tip line can be forwarded to BC Hydro energy diversion investigators.
An unexplained spike in electrical energy use in a residence or business is one way to identify an indoor marijuana farm, which is why the meter is often bypassed and stolen electricity routed to the grow operation.
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| Dec 18, 2007 | No Laws Needed To Protect B.C. Children Found In Grow-Ops Social workers in the Fraser Valley were called in last week to deal with three young children found in a grow-op. Despite the wearying familiarity of the scene, they had to make a child-protection decision in the absence of any specific policy.
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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 | MS Sufferer Wins Right to Use Pot Vapourizer Pam Edgar has won her fight to have the provincial government pay for a device she says is needed for her to use marijuana to ease symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
The government, which earlier refused to pay for a $200 marijuana vapourizer, has been forced to reverse its decision following the unanimous decision of an appeal tribunal.
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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 16, 2007 | NS: Justice Unit Holds Power To Evict Guilty or not, people suspected of certain crimes are being turfed from their homes across the province.
So far, occupants of 23 homes, apartments or trailers have been evicted since the summer, when a new division of the Justice Department began to fully enforce the new provincial Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act. Proclaimed Jan. 7, the act is intended to target suspected drug use and sales, prostitution, illegal gaming, bootlegging or child sexual abuse.
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| Dec 15, 2007 | BC Hydro Takes Tough Stand On Marijuana Growing BC Hydro and the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General announced Friday the power company is partnering with CrimeStoppers to encourage people to report suspected grow operations.
With the new partnership, BC Hydro's energy diversion investigators will now be able to obtain the addresses of suspected growing operations reported to the CrimeStoppers' Tip Line.
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| Dec 14, 2007 | Activist To Bring Dope To His MP PORT ALBERNI -- A well-known Vancouver Island pot activist will be huffing and puffing outside his local MP's office at high noon Monday.
"I would bring a big pot plant, but it's too cold out," said Michael Mann.
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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 11, 2007 | Marijuana Activists Will Gather At MP Offices An exciting new grass-roots political campaign is beginning to grow across Canada. In response to the Americanization of Canadian drug policy by the Conservative Party of Canada, ordinary Canadians are standing up to ask a simple question: Why?
On November 20th, 2007 the Conservative government of Canada introduced Bill C-26, imposing mandatory minimum jail sentences for cannabis ( marijuana ) offences in an attempt to appear "tough" on crime.
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| Dec 10, 2007 | When Menard Speaks, Colleagues Listen Menard says handing down mandatory minimums forces a judge who has gone over a case and weighed all the factors - individual and general deterrents, seriousness of the crime, circumstances surrounding the crime, background, recidivism, home life, outside influences, and dozens of other factors - to end up sentencing someone to three years who should be getting 18 months. That's no way to do law.
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| Dec 6, 2007 | ON: Medicinal Pot Case Wraps Up Lawyers for Canadian users of medical marijuana who want Ottawa to ease restrictions on where they get their pot wrapped up their case Wednesday by telling a Federal Court judge that government-approved marijuana, grown by a Flin Flon contractor, doesn't compare to higher-quality strains available on the street.
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| Dec 5, 2007 | Tough New Drug Laws Promise Jail Time Canadians caught trafficking drugs will spend mandatory time in jail if new federal Conservative legislation passes.
But critics of the plan say it will just add to prison overcrowding, while doing little do deter drug dealing.
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| Dec 4, 2007 | Bill C-2 Second Reading Debate Adjourned (1520)
The second key area is impaired driving. Bill C-2 proposes long-overdue reforms to address impaired driving, which unfortunately remains a serious problem in Canada. The bill does so in three ways: First, it addresses drug impaired driving by proposing the necessary legislative framework for the drug recognition expert, or DRE program. These reforms would permit police to demand roadside physical sobriety tests. Where those tests reveal impairment, but the person is not impaired by alcohol, police could then demand that the person perform other tests administered by a drug recognition expert and to provide a sample of body fluids to be analyzed for the presence of a drug.
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