Top Stories (2007) -
(432 items)
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| Dec 16, 2007 |
NS:
Justice Unit Holds Power To Evict Guilty or not, people suspected of certain crimes are being turfed from their homes across the province. So far, occupants of 23 homes, apartments or trailers have been evicted since the summer, when a new division of the Justice Department began to fully enforce the new provincial Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act. Proclaimed Jan. 7, the act is intended to target suspected drug use and sales, prostitution, illegal gaming, bootlegging or child sexual abuse. |
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| Dec 15, 2007 |
BC Hydro Takes Tough Stand On Marijuana Growing BC Hydro and the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General announced Friday the power company is partnering with CrimeStoppers to encourage people to report suspected grow operations. With the new partnership, BC Hydro's energy diversion investigators will now be able to obtain the addresses of suspected growing operations reported to the CrimeStoppers' Tip Line. |
| Dec 15, 2007 |
Jail Too Stiff For Growers? A plan to put more pot growers behind bars has a Burnaby activist smoking mad. Adam Scriven said a handful of people will gather outside Burnaby-New Westminster MP Peter Julian's office Monday, part of a nationwide day of protest against mandatory jail sentences proposed by the Conservative government. |
| Dec 14, 2007 |
Police Pull Children From Abby Grow-Op Police officers were conducting the search warrant in the 3200 block of Firhill Drive, but while investigating a marijuana grow operation, they became concerned about the levels of carbon monoxide. The carbon monoxide levels were found to be in excess of 100 parts per million [the hazard increases dramatically above 30 ppm, according to experts]. Police also found three children under the age of 12 in the home, who are now under the care of non-parental family members. |
| Dec 14, 2007 |
Activist To Bring Dope To His MP PORT ALBERNI -- A well-known Vancouver Island pot activist will be huffing and puffing outside his local MP's office at high noon Monday. "I would bring a big pot plant, but it's too cold out," said Michael Mann. |
| Dec 13, 2007 |
Grow Ops Are For Grown-ups o whom it may concern, I am writing to say how outraged I am after reading this news item last Monday. As a mother of three, I can understand how parents across the country must feel. While it seems that we live in a fairly liberal society where we respect the rights of our children, there are some things that should remain sacred. No matter how many reasons parents might give, there is just no excuse for letting toddlers run a large-scale marijuana grow op. |
| Dec 13, 2007 |
Compassion Pleaded After Drugs Convictions Pete Young said he wasn't trying to hide anything -- he was offering marijuana from a downtown location to ease people's pain. He said doctors knew. So did the police. |
| Dec 12, 2007 |
BC:
Drug Laws Draconian Victoria - Protesters are set to gather Monday, December 17, at MP offices in Victoria and across Canada to speak out against proposed drug laws they say are draconian and ineffective. The Conservatives' Bill C-26 would entrench the criminalization of cannabis and require minimum mandatory prison terms for people caught with pot. |
| Dec 12, 2007 |
Grow Op Storage Costing Thousands Calgary police are taking steps to get rid of eight years' worth of seized marijuana grow operation equipment they have been paying to store in an Edmonton warehouse -- a move that could have a ripple effect for police services across the country. |
| 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. |
| Dec 11, 2007 |
Common Sense When I hear proponents for marihuana legalization expressing their view I can't help but consider that our one licit substance, alcohol creates more harms than all other drugs combined. So legalization of marihuana is supposed to work? I think not. But you decide. |
| Dec 11, 2007 |
Students Learn Drug Lesson Yesterday, La Verendrye School students learned a whole lot about illegal drugs. Their instructor, RCMP Const. Dave Higgs, talked to a room filled with Grade 7 and 8 students in an information session on common street drugs. Before starting, Higgs warned students as an RCMP officer, he can't and won't turn a deaf ear on anyone's admission of guilt, as the substances he was talking about are illegal in this country. [Shouldn't doctors discuss drugs?] |
| Dec 11, 2007 |
Grow-Op Above Daycare About 18 months ago some mysterious people took over the commercial space atop the Yeshiva Gedola daycare in Outremont, without introducing themselves to their neighbours. |
| 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. |
| Dec 6, 2007 |
Police Officer Loses Appeal, Must Resign Over Cocaine An Ottawa police officer ordered to resign after stealing crack cocaine for his own use has lost an appeal to keep his job. |
| 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. |
| Dec 5, 2007 |
Tough New Drug Laws Promise Jail Time Canadians caught trafficking drugs will spend mandatory time in jail if new federal Conservative legislation passes. But critics of the plan say it will just add to prison overcrowding, while doing little do deter drug dealing. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Dec 1, 2007 |
O Cannabis! War On Drugs Seen As Flawed Echo Of U.S. As far as ideas go, the verdict on new Tory anti-crime measures unrolled over the past couple of weeks - from people who make a living studying such things - has been unanimous. Bad idea. "If a person is found guilty of producing between one to 200 marijuana plants, they would face a mandatory minimum of six months in prison if the offence is committed for the purpose of trafficking, which can be: 'Hi, want to share a joint with me?'" |