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Current Affairs 2008 - Chronological (120 items)
| Feb 11, 2008 | QU: A Little Science With Your Cafe, Madame? Tomorrow night, Montrealers will get a chance to share their thoughts and concerns at a Cafe Scientifique, an informal gathering where members of the public can chat with leading researchers in a setting that is less intimidating than a classroom or a doctor's office. ....The CIHR Cafe Scientifique's "Drugs: the Good, the Bad and the Useful" takes place tomorrow at 6 p.m. at O Patro Vys, 356 Mount Royal Ave. E. ( corner St. Denis St. ). Admission is free.
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| Feb 11, 2008 | Let's Hope These Cops Now Have The Message I can't recall the last reported incident of a shootout or police death during a raid on a B.C. grow-op.
And yet coroner statistics show that, since 1992, 267 citizens have lost their lives in B.C. during police-related incidents.
One involved the death of a young man with a channel-changer in his hand. Police who burst into his living room fired, thinking he had a gun.
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| Feb 9, 2008 | Behind The Toronto Police Scandal Years Of Investigation Went Into A Case That, Thanks To Judge's Ruling, May Never Go To Trial
Dozens of police officers under suspicion. A million pages of documents. Thousands of interviews. Hundreds of criminal charges. Easily the worst scandal in Toronto police history.
And then it fell apart.
Charges were stayed because the prosecutors took too long in handing over the mountain of evidence to the defence.
[An definitive work on this subject] |
| Feb 7, 2008 | Pot Grower's Rights Violated: Judge A Surrey pot grower's Charter rights were violated when police used a battering ram to break down his door and find more than 700 plants in his basement, a B.C. Supreme Court judge just ruled.
Police are unhappy with the ruling, and hope the Crown will appeal it.
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| Feb 6, 2008 | ON: Rights body grants hearing to joint smoker An Ontario man who was told he was not allowed to smoke medical marijuana outside a local sports bar has been granted a hearing at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, one of the first cases of its kind in Canadian history.
Steve Gibson, a father of two, is claiming he was discriminated against because of his disability after he was barred from Gator Ted's Tap and Grill in Burlington, Ont., in May, 2005, for smoking marijuana by the restaurant's front door.
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| Feb 1, 2008 | Understanding the Motivations for Recreational This exploratory qualitative research seeks to better understand both the motives for the
use of marijuana by adult Canadians* and their learned "drug experience" expectancies
through an examination of their subjective experiences with the drug. This neglected area
of research has implications for drug consumption prevention educators and treatment
counselors, particularly those who are wary of "statistical reductionism" and sensitive to
the clinical value of gaining an understanding of the subjective experiences of those who
use and misuse drugs (Feinstein, 1999).
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| Jan 31, 2008 | Carousel Harvest Appeal [PDF] The Crown is appealing the ruling that allows medical cannabis growers to grow for more than one patient. For more background, see:
Ottawa Loses Marijuana Fight
Federal Court strikes down regulation limiting growers of medical marijuana
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| Jan 29, 2008 | Man Sues Police For Wrecking Grow-op The Saanich Police Department is being sued by a man who claims his marijuana grow operation was damaged during a police raid, even though he had a Health Canada certificate to legally grow the substance. ..."Ninety-five [plants]... is well above personal consumption and most of it would go bad before the person could smoke it," said Price.
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| Jan 22, 2008 | Plea Bargain Talks Expected To Delay Emery Extradition Extradition proceedings against Marc Emery, Vancouver's self-styled Prince of Pot, were postponed Monday.
The B.C. Supreme Court put the hearing over until today. The proceedings were expected to be further adjourned until Feb. 6 while a plea bargain is negotiated.
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| Jan 18, 2008 | Constitutional Pot Challenge In Sechelt Provincial Court BC: The local courtroom is taking centre stage in a constitutional showdown on laws governing the possession of marijuana, after a written submission from Vancouver lawyer Kirk Tousaw on Tuesday.
Tousaw and Ryan Poelzer, an East Vancouver man charged with possession of marijuana on the Coast in late May, are pursuing a constitutional defence based on the non-viability of Health Canada's 2003 Marijuana Medical Access Regulation ( MMAR ).
"The courts have found, as recently as Jan. 2008, the MMAR is not constitutionally adequate," said Tousaw. "It's clear that the government can only prohibit possession of marijuana if it has a constitutionally adequate medical program."
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| Jan 17, 2008 | Extraditing The Prince Of Pot Many Canadians will be tuning in to witness the fate of self-proclaimed "Prince of Pot" and marijuana seed distributor Marc Emery. Since Harper took office, $64 million has been pledged in the anti-drug fight... A UN study released in 2007 estimated Canadian pot use is four times that of the global rate and the highest in the industrialized world,..Economics professors at the Fraser Institute estimate Canadians will spend $1.8 billion this year on marijuana,
Latest News: Extradition Hearing Adjourned - A press conference will take place at the BC Supreme Court at 800 Smithe Street, downtown Vancouver, at 10:00am on Tuesday, January 22nd. www.NoExtradition.net
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| Jan 10, 2008 | Federal Court strikes down regulation limiting growers of medical marijuana Ottawa Loses Marijuana Fight : The federal government lost another court challenge to its controversial medical marijuana program, and now has 30 days to decide whether to appeal the ruling that declared one of its key policies unconstitutional.
Under the current set of regulations, licensed producers are only allowed to grow the drug for one patient at a time. Federal Court Judge Barry Strayer said that the one-to-one ratio violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The decision, the latest in a string of court cases, will essentially mean more choice for approved medical marijuana users and should provide easier access for them to the drug.
The Decision is posted here Carasel Harvest decision |
| Jan 7, 2008 | Doctors More Open to Medicinal Pot: Study After first opposing the use of medicinal marijuana, some Canadian doctors have warmed to the idea.
A study for Health Canada says doctors support the use of cannabis when all other conventional treatments have failed. The study is based on the testimonials of 30 Canadian doctors.
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| Jan 7, 2008 | Supreme Court Will Hear Challenge to Property Seizure The Supreme Court of Canada will scrutinize Ontario's Civil Remedies Act after granting a Toronto-area man leave to appeal an Ontario Court of Appeal decision that backed the seizure of his property.
Police found Robin Chatterjee in 2003 in a vehicle, carrying $29,020 in cash and equipment often used in marijuana grow operations, but he was not charged.
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| Jan 4, 2008 | A Matter of National Sovereignty On Dec. 31, the National Post comment pages published an open letter by columnist Karen Selick that asked Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to intervene in the extradition process against "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 21.
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| Jan 3, 2008 | Job Drug-Testing Debate Not Over A court ruling against a fired marijuana user won't stop the province's human rights commission seeking changes to workplace drug-testing policies, a lawyer on the case said yesterday.
"I think automatic termination is troubling because you're denying someone employment," said Arman Chak, an Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission lawyer who represented the fired worker, John Chiasson, during a recent court case.
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| Jan 2, 2008 | Open Letter to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson Dear Mr. Nicholson: On Jan. 21, 2008 an extradition hearing will begin in Vancouver for Marc Emery, Canada's pre-eminent activist for the legalization of marijuana. Marc has been charged in the U.S. with conspiring to manufacture and distribute marijuana, and conspiring to launder money. If convicted under U.S. law, he faces possible life imprisonment without parole.
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| Jan 1, 2008 | Pot Users Slammed In Ruling Alberta's top court has dealt a blow to the province's pot smokers with a ruling upholding workplace drug-testing policies that were at risk.
In a new decision from the Alberta Court of Appeal, a trio of judges overturned a controversial ruling from Justice Sheilah Martin that drew scorn from 2006 Tory leadership candidate Ted Morton. In that case, Martin ruled that a Fort McMurray employer discriminated against a worker named John Chiasson by firing him over a positive drug-test result.
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| AB: Pot Activist Loses Bid To Have Charges Stayed CALGARY ( CNS ) -A medical marijuana activist has lost his bid to have drug-trafficking charges against him stayed in Alberta -- his second judicial setback in less than a week.
Grant Krieger was looking for a constitutional exemption on Wednesday from his marijuana trafficking conviction, arguing his actions were protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Alberta Court of Appeal rejected Mr. Krieger's bid.
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| NS: Maccan Man's Latest Marijuana Plea On Hold Ricky Simpson, 58, was to have entered a plea Monday to a charge of trafficking not more than three kilograms of cannabis resin. But the hearing in Amherst provincial court was cut short when Truro lawyer Linda Hupman told Judge Carole Beaton that the Crown and defence lawyers handling the case were not in attendance and were asking for a postponement until Feb. 28.
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