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Current Affairs 2007 - Chronological (88 items)
| Dec 29, 2007 | Woman Led Fight to Legalize Medical Marijuana KITCHENER - In recent years, when people saw Catherine Devries of Kitchener, they saw a tiny and obviously ill woman who needed to use a wheelchair when she managed to get out of bed at all. ....Catherine died last Sunday in St. Mary's Hospital, at the age of 49. Most of her life, she had struggled with a host of health problems and pain.
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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: Judge's Death Puts Cases In Jeopardy Crown and defence lawyers are working to keep on track two long-running and ongoing Victoria cases temporarily delayed by the sudden death of a Supreme Court judge.
Conferences have been scheduled for January to make sure of continuations of the murder trial of Ruby Ann Ruffolo and the constitutional challenge to the marijuana charges levelled at two men arrested in a raid on a house used by the Vancouver Island Compassion Society as a grow operation.
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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 17, 2007 | Canadian National Demonstration Against Bill C-26
ALSO:
Criminal lawyer Kirk Tousaw explains why the proposed changes to Canada's marijuana laws are bad for the entire country, and how you can help to stop them |
| 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 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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| Dec 3, 2007 | NS: Simpson Facing Charges of Trafficking, Sentencing AMHERST - Within minutes of his Supreme Court sentencing for counts of possession, trafficking and producing marijuana being adjourned, Rickey Logan Simpson was taken into custody and faces additional charges of trafficking the same substance.
Crown attorney Paul Drysdale told Justice Felix Cacchione that two officers from Amherst Police Department, including Sgt. Tim Hunter, were at the back of the courtroom to take Simpson into custody where he would be charged with trafficking marijuana.
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| Nov 30, 2007 | Ministers Guilty Of Trafficking 'Sacrament' Hamilton's high priest of pot, who turns 75 next month, faces a possible jail sentence after being convicted of selling the holy sacrament to an undercover police officer.
A Superior Court jury deliberated eight hours Wednesday night before finding Walter Tucker and fellow minister of pot, Michael Baldasaro, 58, guilty of all five charges. They will be sentenced Jan. 24.
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| Nov 29, 2007 | Judge's Death Puts Pot Trial In Jeopardy The death of B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Edwards has jeopardized a lengthy and costly criminal trial involving an important constitutional challenge of the marijuana law.
In most criminal cases, when a judge is unable to follow through to judgment, a mistrial is declared.
In this case, a rare hearing has been scheduled in Vancouver tomorrow to see if there is a way to save the huge expense incurred and the evidence already presented.
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| Nov 24, 2007 | Crime Rate: A 25 Year Low According to Statistics Canada, the national crime rate fell to its lowest level in 25 years last year. Since 1991, the crime rate is down by 30 per cent after steadily increasing through the '60s, '70s and '80s.
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| Nov 21, 2007 | Ottawa Proposes Mandatory Jail For Growers, Dealers The Conservative government unveiled historic legislation Tuesday to create the first mandatory prison terms in Canada for people convicted of trafficking illicit drugs.
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| Nov 21, 2007 | Drug Law Will Fill Jails, Expert Warns B.C.'s already crowded jails will need to squeeze in another 700 marijuana growers per year if new mandatory sentences are enacted, an analysis of sentencing figures suggests.
"You basically need a new prison to facilitate that," said Darryl Plecas, a criminologist at the University College of the Fraser Valley who studies marijuana sentencing. "You're going to have hundreds, if not thousands, of people going to jail who aren't going now."
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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 10, 2007 | Worker's Rights Violated, Judge Rules A former pipeline worker made a good decision when he asked to have a marijuana possession charge from Kirkland Lake transferred to Kingston's Ontario Court of Justice.
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| Nov 9, 2007 | Drunks Put End to Pot Meetings The smoke has cleared and it was alcohol that killed the marijuana bash.
After 12 years, the world's largest weekly pot rally has been stubbed out because of drinking.
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| Nov 5, 2007 | Professor's Grant Goes To 'Pot' The goal of the cannabis research is to find a way to block the production of psychoactive cannabinoids that produce the mind-altering effects in users so cannabis can become a useful crop for oil, fibre and even food, said Facchini.
[Are they trying to re-invent hemp?] |
| Oct 26, 2007 | Immigrant Workers Found Innocent In Dope Farm Bust Five Asian immigrants arrested after they were found working on a massive rural dope farm did not know they were breaking the law, a judge has ruled.
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