Top Stories (2007) -
(432 items)
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| Jun 8, 2007 |
BC:
Judge Nixes Cops For Hydro Inspections "We only use police for safety issues," she said. "If they don't like the fact that it's the police that are working with our firefighters, then that's fine; we'll have somebody else. "But at the end of the day we want to make sure our firefighters are protected and are safe and that whole team of B.C. Hydro personnel as well, their safety is first and foremost. That's the reason why we had the police there, and the only reason. The police aren't there to lay charges; the police aren't there to execute warrants. We're there because it's a fire safety issue." [Talk about mixed messages..it is a legal issue when the police alone shut down cannabis cultivation, but it is a fire safety issue when other civil servants are enforcing prohibition] |
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| Jun 7, 2007 |
AB:
Smith Family Endures Orwellian-Style Invasions George and Helen Kupilik have lived just outside of Smith for 35 years. They came from the Calgary area to enjoy the freedom and tranquility of country living to raise a family. George's children are now grown and he and Helen enjoy quiet retirement. Quiet except for the nights when unidentified men come into their home. They didn't speak or say what they wanted but twice they have searched George's home. George himself likens it to something out of a George Orwell novel. |
| Jun 7, 2007 |
Wanted: Tokers In Suits Time For Greying Potheads To Come Out Of The Closet And Back Anti-Prohibition Battle In 1977, only 18 per cent of cannabis smokers were over the age of 30, but in 2001 the percentage shot up to 49.... Considering this changing demographic, it's surprising that our drug laws haven't been reformed and liberalized. Most people blame the looming presence of the U.S. "war on drugs," but I think we've failed on the road to rational drug law reform because aging drug users rarely come out of their smoky closets to enter the political debate. |
| Jun 7, 2007 |
ON:
Man Pleads Guilty to Pot-By-Post Plan A medical marijuana crusader accused of mailing pot to fellow users in the United States and Britain pleaded guilty yesterday to committing mischief by using Canada Post services "without proper authority." Following Marco Renda's plea, federal prosecutor David Doney asked the court to withdraw three counts each of trafficking and exporting a controlled substance and a single count of possession of a controlled substance. |
| Jun 5, 2007 |
AB: Parents Charged in Drug Den Cases PARENTS CHARGED IN DRUG DEN CASES - Police Use New Law for First Time..."Police officers wearing full protective suits with respirators are walking into rooms with kids playing, watching television, with no protection at all. The moulds, the smells, the risk of electrical explosions . . . you just shake your head."...The Southern Alberta Marijuana Investigative Team found 120 pot plants... [Reefer Madness on steroids] |
| Jun 4, 2007 |
Missing Teen's Mom Stopped At Border Glendene Grant said she was not allowed to enter the U.S. this week as she tried to board a plane for Las Vegas. Grant was bound for the Nevada city to meet with investigators and others there about the disappearance of her daughter Jessie Foster....Grant said she has a criminal conviction for possession of a small amount of marijuana from 21 years ago, and wonders if that was the reason she was denied entry. |
| Jun 3, 2007 |
Best To Stay Off U.S. Radar News item: The Washington Post, the very last U.S. newspaper to keep a correspondent in Canada, is closing the bureau. .. "My proposed caption," wrote Beam, "would attract a lot more Yankee turistas: 'The Pot Capital of North America -- Just Minutes Away.' I'm still fuming that the newspaper didn't send me to cover Vancouver's Global Marijuana March ( 'Think Global, Smoke Local' ), which took place earlier this month." |
| Jun 1, 2007 |
YK:
Crown To Appeal Grow-Op Judgment Crown lawyers will appeal a territorial court judgment that prevented some evidence collected on nine men allegedly involved in marijuana grow operations from being heard at trial. |
| May 30, 2007 |
ON:
Proceeds Of Crime Law Upheld Ontario defence lawyers and a Thornhill man suspected of running a marijuana grow operation have lost their battle to strike down a law that gives the province power to seize property obtained through crime. Robin Chatterjee and the Criminal Lawyers' Association argued that the Civil Remedies Act, which took effect in 2002, is really an attempt to punish offenders, not compensate crime victims. [The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a law allowing the province to seize alleged proceeds of crime from people who have never been convicted or even charged with an offence. ] |
| May 30, 2007 |
ON:
Officer Defends Himself An Ontario Provincial Police constable named in a million-dollar lawsuit believes he used a reasonable amount of force when arresting Rick Reimer March 27, 2002. Constable Tim Broder, a member of the Killaloe OPP detachment, testified in his own defence Tuesday during the second day of the civil trial at Pembroke's Superior Court. Mr. Reimer is suing Const. Broder, Killaloe OPP Sgt. Dwayne Sears and the province's Crown, claiming wrongful arrest and the use of excessive force in two arrests March 27, 2002 in the parking lot of the Killaloe court. |
| May 30, 2007 |
ON:
Party Ends in Punishment for Police Officers A Peel Regional Police officer has been demoted for "unwanted sexual touching" involving a woman he was with while he and another officer were partying in Ottawa. ...Ho Sue allowed one of the women "to blow the marijuana smoke into his mouth as they were kissing," according to the disciplinary report. |
| May 28, 2007 |
BC:
Marc Emery Gets Some Breathing Room B.C. Marijuana Party president Marc Emery was to appear in court today for his extradition hearing to the United States. Instead, he will be at a rescheduling hearing on Wednesday, he said. The actual extradition hearing will be at the end of the year and he's glad for the extra time. |
| May 26, 2007 |
BC:
Landlords Turn To Screening Company To Weed Out Grow-Ops British Columbia landlords and rental property owners are going to remarkable lengths to weed out potential marijuana grow-ops, crystal methamphetamine labs, deadbeats and rogue tenants more likely to trash their suites than pay the rent. Credit checks and referrals are now just a starting point. Complete credit histories, Canadian Police Information Centre criminal record checks and a delinquent tenant list are being used and, if stung, landlords are even launching "electronic surveillance" of former tenants to monitor their financial status and then aggressively collect debts. |
| May 26, 2007 |
AB:
Industry Wins Court Standing In Jobsite Drug Testing EDMONTON ( CP )- More industry heavyweights will be heard in the challenge of a court ruling on pre-employment drug testing involving Alberta's human rights commission and a large American construction firm. An Alberta justice ruled last June that Kellogg Brown & Root Company discriminated against a man when it fired him from an oilsands project near Fort McMurray after his drug test was positive for marijuana. KBR's appeal of that ruling is to be heard Oct. 11. The Alberta Court of Appeal has granted intervener status in the case to Syncrude Canada Ltd., the Mining Association of British Columbia and the Coal Association of Canada. |
| May 26, 2007 |
An Invasion Of Privacy Pacing around his living room Wednesday, Richard Pitt can't believe the city's safety inspection team is late. He points to an inspection notice delivered to his home on 119 B Avenue in Pitt Meadows. The team was to arrive at 10:30 a.m. It is 45 minutes late. When two police cars, a fire department pick-up and bylaws truck pulled up in front of the house to check for an illegal marijuana grow operation, Pitt was ready. "It's an invasion of privacy," he said. "It has taken two hours out of my day." |
| May 26, 2007 |
Vaporizing The Threat Of A Weed Bust On a weekend afternoon at the Hot Box Cafe in Kensington Market, three young women are sipping greenish blender drinks. Up on a chalkboard are the house rules, which include "no smoking" and, in big, capital letters, "BYOP." |
| May 26, 2007 |
Legalize Pot To Halt Violence, Group Urges Legalizing drugs as a way to combat the drug trade may go against traditional views, but it's an idea with its share of supporters. A Packet & Times story last week in which a member of the Huronia combined forces drug unit talked about violence in relation to drugs received many responses. One was from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition ( LEAP ), an organization comprised of current and former police officers, attorneys, judges and corrections workers. The organization is in favour of legalizing drugs as a way to take the drug trade off the streets and into a regulated environment. "We're not starry-eyed utopians who think we aren't going to have any problems," said LEAP founding secretary John Gayder, who works in law enforcement in Niagara Falls. |
| May 26, 2007 |
Little Interest In Drug Debate There was no moderator, one of three panelists left halfway through the debate and only two dozen audience members turned up. But that didn't stop the LEAP debate on drug prohibition Tuesday night at Matsqui Centennial Auditorium. There to discuss the issue was retired Vancouver judge Jerry Paradis, former Vancouver police officer Tony Smith and Chief Constable Ian Mackenzie of the Abbotsford Police Department. |
| May 24, 2007 |
Pot Challenge Gets High-Profile Help Philippe Lucas, founder of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, is flying high. As a supplier of medical marijuana and political activist bent on reforming Canada's pot laws, Lucas has a supportive MP in Vancouver East New Democrat Libby Davies. He has what he called "an interested and engaged judge" in Justice Robert Edwards, now hearing the society's Charter of Rights challenge arising from a raid on the compassion society's grow-operation near Sooke. And he has a Tory Senator, Pierre Claude Nolin, to testify for the society when the trial resumes on June 11. |
| May 24, 2007 |
Supreme Court - Backpacks and Searches If police officers were allowed to drop in on quiet house parties, snoop around backyard patios or search the private vehicles and backpacks of people at random and without cause, an awful lot of upstanding citizens would likely find themselves getting pinched for minor drug crimes. But police generally need a warrant to search our homes and our purses and briefcases and that same protection should extend to the backpacks of students. Kids should have constitutional rights too, whether they are in school or at the shopping mall. |