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Aug 9, 2002

U.S. AGENTS RUN ROUGHSHOD OVER OUR LAWS

If U.S. police are prepared to walk all over Canadian law, why is the federal government willing to allow more of them into the country?

[ Full Story... ]

The conduct of a United States civilian police agent entering Canada without the knowledge or consent of Canadian authorities, in defiance of known Canadian requirements for legal conduct, with the express purpose to entice Canadians to the United States to commit criminal acts in that jurisdiction and acting illegally to offer to sell cocaine in Canada is shocking to the Canadian conscience. It is a serious violation of the sense of fair play and decency that has been established in cooperation agreements for mutual assistance in criminal matters. It is also a serious violation of Canadian legality in the circumstances of clear defiance of Canadian law without explanation except perhaps to pursue drug dealers through the reverse sting technique that requires specific planning and approval in Canadabefore it can be legal by authorized police officers.

...The conduct of United States agents in this case is so egregious as to constitute an abuse of process to disentitle the requesting state from the assistance of this court. A stay of proceedings is ordered.

The Honourable Madam Justice J.R. Dillon

There is no longer any pretext that the U.S.A. is attempting to control Canadian drug policy:

If Canada does not halt what Washington perceives as a slide toward the legalization of drugs and act more vigorously to stamp out drug smuggling, the United States is prepared to retaliate by using the stick of tougher customs regulation, something which could have disastrous effects on Canada's U.S.-dependent economy.

"Canada is a sovereign country, but there are consequences when neighbours cannot co-operate on serious issues and this is a very serious issue," said Robert Maginnis, an advisor to White House drug czar John Walters. "It appears as if it's a trend going in the wrong direction and it is incumbent on the U.S. administration and the U.S. Congress to communicate that this is a key concern." National Post, May 17, 2002[emphasis added]

May 10, 2002

DEA KIDNAP ATTEMPT ON KEN HAYES BACKFIRES:

Outraged by DEA Special Agent John Pickett's illegal attempt to kidnap Ken Hayes, a Canadian court grants relief to Hayes and Steve Tuck.

----EXCLUSIVE POT TV REPORT----

http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/shows/pottvshowse-1318.html
Running Time: 25 min

Top Story: Tuck and Hayes Safe In Canada for A Year Or So. DEA Overplays Hand... Again. Attempt to Intimidate Hayes Family Backfires, Offends Canadians. Special Report to MarijuanaNews.com By Richard Cowan
http://marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=510

American influence on Canadian drug policy, video archive of presentation by Eugene Oscapella of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy at the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy, Houston, Texas, April 11, 2002.

Operation Green Sweep - American Style

Since Secretary Dick Cheney's staunch Department of Defense letter of September 1989, the military has been actively supporting drug law enforcement agencies at home and abroad. In the U.S. Southern Command area, a series of Operation Support Justice actions have provided continuing military support to U.S. ambassadors' counterdrug efforts and to the host nations' counterdrug infrastructures in order to attack drugs at the source. Forces Command, by way of its continental armies and Joint Task Force 6, has been supporting major marijuana eradication operations, while the state governors' National Guards have been especially active in countering drugs at the growing source. Many of these operations are large-scale efforts involving interagency planning and civil-military cooperation in the execution of complex concepts for operations. Operations such as Green Sweep, Green Merchant, Ghost Dancer, Ghost Zone, Grizzly, Wipeout, Badge, and Blast Furnace, have become highly visible to Americans of both continents, creating some curiosity as well as outright anger at military involvement.
Counterdrug Strategy - Illusive Victory: From Blast Furnace to Green Sweep, William W. Mendel, Military Review , December 1992, pp. 74-87

The Sacramento Bee
January 17, 1999

The hearing is the latest legal wrinkle in a lengthy legal battle over "Operation Greensweep," a joint federal-state-local campaign in August 1990 that included agents with semiautomatic weapons, low-flying Blackhawk helicopters and Army troops that traversed the hills hunting down marijuana plantations. In one area known as the "Emerald Triangle" authorities reportedly seized 1,100 marijuana plants and more than eight tons of cultivation gear.

Shortly after the raids, which received national attention, local residents backed by civil liberties groups said in a lawsuit that the raiders violated federal law by conducting warrantless searches, used excessive force, damaged the environment and illegally detained suspects. They also contended that use of Army troops violated the Defense Authorization Act.
Marijuana News

The Civil Liberties Monitoring Project (CLMP) and The Rights Organization (TRO) organized Monday's hearings on behalf of plaintiffs in a federal suit against the government's 1990 Operation Greensweep, in which helicopters and armed troops invaded a remote wilderness area of Humbolt County to eradicate marijuana. As part of the settlement in that case, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was ordered to issue guidelines for marijuana eradication operations in Northern California and hold public hearings.
NORML

Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission reports on progress of Canada's anti-drug efforts

OTTAWA, Jan. 30 /CNW/ - Solicitor General Lawrence MacAulay, Health Minister Anne McLellan and Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham welcomed a report issued today by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) on Canada's progress in addressing illicit drug activities.

The report gives a positive evaluation of Canada's anti-drug efforts, noting satisfaction with Canada's commitment to the objectives of the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism (MEM). The MEM is a tool that Canada was instrumental in developing to evaluate anti-drug efforts in the hemisphere, encourage cooperation and collaboration among member states, and highlight best practices.

In 2000, the MEM evaluation of Canada made 14 recommendations aimed at strengthening Canada's efforts to address illicit drug activities. Of the 14 recommendations, today's report notes that Canada has initiated work on all fronts. Many of these initiatives have been completed, such as the creation of a mechanism to identify the number of individuals charged and convicted of drug trafficking crimes. The report encourages Canada to continue working on areas where more progress can be made, such as in determining the annual incidence of new drug users nationally.

At the 1998 Summit of the Americas, leaders from the OAS called for a mechanism to monitor the development of national and regional illicit drug- control strategies. The resulting MEM was developed under Canada's leadership and finalized in Ottawa in September 1999. It was formally adopted by CICAD at an October 1999 meeting in Uruguay, and was implemented immediately.

The report is one of 34 national reports released today outlining progress of members of the Organization of American States (OAS). A hemispheric report was also released. The national report provides information to strengthen Canada's commitment to help win the fight against drugs in the hemisphere - and to enhance its partnerships with other OAS members, and between health and law enforcement partners here at home.

Extensive information on the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism process can be found at the CICAD website http://www.cicad.oas.org/en/mem/Main.htm

-30-

For further information: Dan Brien, Office of the Solicitor General,
(613) 991-2924; Farah Mohamed, Office of Anne McLellan, Minister of Health,
(613) 957-0200; Media Relations Office, Department of Foreign Affairs and
International Trade, (613) 995-1874. This document and the Canadian report is also available on the Solicitor General Canada Internet site: http://www.sgc.gc.ca

Reference: http://www.newswire.ca/government/federal/english/releases/January2002/30/c7127.html

It was therefore primarily under the influence of the United States that measures to control trafficking, cultivating and production were gradually put in place during the first half of the century; what these six Conventions all had in common was their aim of [TRANSLATION] "reinforcing the constraints and penalties on drugs" (Caballero, 1989:47).  A number of the other authors consulted (Beauchesne, 1988; Bertrand, 1989; Solomon and Green, 1988; Caballero, 1989; Glorie, 1984; Nadelmann, 1992) assert that the period between 1912 and 1961 led to an ongoing intensification of controls at the same time as international agreements were expanded, ranging from control of the production of opium to a gradual criminalization of increasing numbers of "behaviours" associated with substances that were now "illicit", in both quantitative and qualitative terms.  Thus, from the time of the earliest conventions, a growing number of countries had become signatories of the treaties and growing numbers of substances were subject to controls while control mechanisms became more specialized and the level of penalties rose.  In addition, the purpose of the controls, which initially applied solely to production, first of all of opium and later of other substances, gradually involved the criminalization of individuals and increased numbers of behaviours that were classified as offences (Hulsman and Van Ransbeek, 1983).

Source: The Structure Of Drug Prohibition In International Law And In Canadian Law