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Current Affairs 2007 - Chronological (88 items)
| Feb 12, 2007 | BC 'Exports' Marijuana Expertise Worldwide A different kind of brain drain is under way in B.C. as marijuana growers share their billions of dollars worth of skills with a worldwide audience.
"We think they're exporting their expertise," said Supt. Paul Nadeau, director of the RCMP's national drug branch.
"We've heard of it on an international scale." ....Sgt. Urquhart was reluctant to expand on the nature of the connections and the organization involved.
But when Supt. Nadeau was asked who in B.C. is exporting their skills, his answer was simple -- "Everybody."
[After possibly watching the South Park (1999) movie again, US officials were inspired to deny the existence of the internet and other factors, and directly blame Canadians once again for their woes] |
| Jan 31, 2007 | Police Say Smoking Pot Endangered Kids NWT: Four people have been charged with endangering children after police say they were found smoking pot in the same room as five kids....
The adults were released after giving statements to RCMP, and promising they would have no contact with the children until the charges have been dealt with in court.
Until that time, the children will remain in the hands of Health and Social Services, said Dreilich.
When it comes to the irrationality surrounding parents using illegal substances, we get the best perspective by looking at whether using legal substances would have the same outcome in any family situation. If not, then allowing prohibition related, not drug related problems to tear families apart in Canada, will eventually be as common as it is in the US, and just as detrimental. |
| Jan 25, 2007 | Four Kids Seized In Grow Op Bust AB: Police arrested a pregnant mother and seized her four young children after a drug raid on a home in the northeast Calgary community of Temple.
The search of the marijuana grow operation marks the third time children have been taken into custody since Alberta's Drug-endangered Children Act came into effect in November.
Two of the children, who range in age from two to nine, were taken from the home on Templeton Circle N.E. The two older children were in school at the time of the raid, but were picked up later by Child and Family Services officials.
[This trend of seizing children of people busted with illegal substances is deeply disturbing at many levels.
While many parents have the gut feeling that this makes a bad situation much, much worse, there is no evidence or data they can look at to support or dispute that families are hurt far worse by the state mandated separation than any other factor. At the very least, can society not demand some accountability in this matter?
We know from our history that removing children from their homes has gone on since the beginning, for very despicable reasons, usually racial in nature. Could that happen against a backdrop of voter disapproval? No, society as a whole is complicit in these crimes against humanity.] |
| Jan 20, 2007 | Marijuana Growers Lose Houses A court decision this week doubled the number of marijuana growers forced to turn over their homes since local authorities began taking an aggressive approach to the problem five years ago.
Eight houses in Waterloo Region have now been ordered forfeited following changes in the law to make it easier in 2001, with another case scheduled for a hearing in March.
That puts local police and prosecutors on the leading edge in Ontario as they go after lucrative marijuana grow houses.
[The more drug warriors profit from prohibition, the more entrenched it becomes] |
| Jan 19, 2007 | Pot Grower Dodges Jail Term Growing pot for medical marijuana crusader Grant Krieger won't mean jail for a former Calgary man, a judge ruled yesterday.
Justice Beth Hughes agreed with defence lawyer Adriano Iovinelli that jail time wasn't necessary for Mark James Maki's involvement with the Compassion Club.
"Mr. Maki's motivation for these offences, while certainly against the law and misguided, were to assist the Compassion Club and it's members," Hughes said.
The 577 plants seized in October 2001 and February 2002 had a value of about $600,000 to $800,000, and a loaded sawed-off shotgun was found in Maki's home.
Maki, 43, of Coquitlam, B.C., pleaded guilty to two charges of cultivating marijuana and one of careless storage of a firearm.
Hughes placed him in on house arrest for a year, followed by a curfew for another 12 months.
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| Jan 13, 2007 | Marijuana Advocate Battles For Business Licence Tim Felger says he'll open his bookstore/political office, called Da Kine, in downtown Abbotsford whether he receives a business licence from the city or not.
Since he first applied for a business licence in the summer of 2005, Felger says he has been the subject of 170 building and bylaw inspections, 24 fire inspections and more than 100 police visits.
"I'm not only being singled out, but [City of Abbotsford officials] are violating my freedom of expression," said Felger, a long-time marijuana advocate.
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| Jan 12, 2007 | Cheech And Chong Would Approve Of This Ruling A Toronto construction manager who surreptitiously videotaped two employees in their pickup truck during a lunch break, and later accused them of smoking marijuana, violated their rights to privacy, the Ontario Labour Relations Board has ruled.
The videotape is not admissible as evidence in a hearing to determine whether the employer was justified in firing the two, although the manager's first-hand observations will be considered, the labour board said.
A summary of the case, reported this week in a labour law bulletin published by Toronto-based Lancaster House, said Canadian arbitrators are divided on how far employers can go in investigating suspected wrongdoing.
In the case of the Toronto construction workers, The labour board said the employer has the right to monitor on-the-job performance and behaviour, but does not have the right to place employees under surveillance on their own time.
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| Jan 5, 2007 | Compassion Club Weed Out Their Concerns With Raid Members of the Mid-Island Compassion Club will be gathering for a special meeting on Sunday to discuss the latest developments within their group.
Those developments, says club chair Mark Russell, are significant.
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