News - Police (411 items)
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| Oct 24, 2007 |
Party Has High Hopes
A user of medicinal marijuana in Regina has joined the race for a seat in Saskatchewan's legislature to push for a greener society -- and he doesn't mean the environment. Tom Shapiro, 51, has let his name stand as Saskatchewan Marijuana Party candidate for the riding of Regina Coronation Park. |
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| Oct 22, 2007 |
A Criminal Mind: Juries Can Nullify, Just Don't Tell
The common law recognizes the jury's power not to convict when a law is unfair, or when it would unfairly impact upon the accused. This is known as jury nullification. The trilogy of Canadian cases from the Supreme Court of Canada that have dealt with this are R. v. Morgentaler ( 1988 ), R. v. Latimer ( 2001 ), and the recent case of R. v. Krieger ( 2006 ). |
| Oct 22, 2007 |
Pro-Pot Protest Nets Just 60 People
Police were out in full force for a contingent of mostly teenagers protesting to decriminalize marijuana during Saturday's pro-pot rally. About 60 people marched up Pitt Street to Domino's Pizza near Tollgate Road for the first-ever Walk 4 Weed demonstration. It was a far cry from the hundreds who were expected to attend, but that didn't stop organizers from forging ahead with the peaceful demonstration. [So does police intimidation work?] |
| Oct 19, 2007 |
ONTARIO JUDGE RULES CANNABIS PROHIBITION INVALID
<strong>Today in an Oshawa Court, the trial judge in the 'Tom, Dick, and Harry' case dismissed the charges against them, for simple possession of marijuana. He said that in his view the marijuana prohibition had no valid force or effect. ...He said the cases against Tom, Dick, and Harry, are dismissed because the law is not there to charge them or convict them. The exact terms of his decision will be available later, after an exchange of faxes with the Court house. </strong> [Every person arrested for a cannabis offense should read this important information and make their lawyer aware of it - this is a federal law and should be applied the same across the country] |
| Oct 16, 2007 |
ON:
Pro-pot Protest Planned
Protesters calling for the decriminalization of one of Canada's most readily-available illegal drugs are planning a massive march through Cornwall this weekend. Organizers of the first annual "Walk 4 Weed," which is being promoted by local pro-pot group Cannabis Cornwall, are hoping at least 400 people will peacefully march through the city Saturday afternoon. |
| Oct 14, 2007 |
OPP Officer Charged Following Drug Raid
A longtime local OPP officer, now working in northern Ontario, is charged following a drug raid by the provincial police near Thunder Bay. Det.-Const. Lynn MacKay, who worked in London for years under her married name, Lynn Pretty, before joining the Nipigon OPP, was charged along with her boyfriend following an Oct. 5 raid on a house that netted $6,000 worth of marijuana. |
| Oct 11, 2007 |
Marijuana Party Candidate Gets Three Months For Trafficking
VANCOUVER - Former Marijuana Party candidate Marc Boyer has been sentenced to three months in jail after pleading guilty in Vancouver Provincial Court to possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. |
| Oct 4, 2007 |
Med Pot's Slow Access?
As the Montreal Compassion Centre gets ready to celebrate the official opening of their new digs on 72 Rachel E. this Tuesday, Oct. 9, at 6 p.m., relations between the benevolent marijuana distribution organization and the bureaucrats running Health Canada's Medical Marijuana Access program remain as stilted as ever. |
| Oct 3, 2007 |
Club Head Wants Quebec To Run Medical Marijuana Access
The founder of the Montreal Compassion Club wants Quebec to take over the administration of the federal Medical Marijuana Access program in the province. Marc-Boris St-Maurice said yesterday the program is "an embarrassing oxymoron." He complained about major delays processing applications, licence renewals and changes of address. |
| Oct 3, 2007 |
BC:
US War Deserter Is Held After Pot Arrest In Nelson
NELSON - A U.S. army deserter has been arrested in Nelson. Robin Long, 24, was arrested by police on a countrywide warrant on Monday. Long, who is from Ontario, was in Nelson visiting friends and staying with fellow war resisters. But Nelson police Chief Dan Maluta said Long was arrested as a result of regular police work, not because they were targeting war resisters. |
| Oct 1, 2007 |
Tory Pot Smokers Should Be The First To Turn Themselves Into Police!
Stephen Harper is about to declare another 'War on drugs.' Statistics show that roughly 16.8% of Canadians use marijuana / cannabis. You therefore have to assume that there MUST be a couple of Conservative Members of Parliament who fit into the 16.8% number. ... It is time for EVERY card carrying member of the Conservative Party of Canada who uses cannabis to lead by example and turn themselves into the police immediately whether or not they support Harper's new initiative. |
| Sep 30, 2007 |
Tories to Drug Users: The Party's Over
Health Minister Tony Clement will announce the Conservative government's anti-drug strategy this week with a stark warning: "the party's over" for illicit drug users. "In the next few days, we're going to be back in the business of an anti-drug strategy," Clement told The Canadian Press. "In that sense, the party's over." Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Halifax all reported increases of between 20% and 50% in 2006 of arrests for possession of cannabis, compared with the previous year. As a result thousands of people were charged with a criminal offence that, under the previous Liberal government, was on the verge of being classified as a misdemeanour. |
| Sep 29, 2007 |
Cannabis Culture Lights Up the Festival
Films About Marijuana Are Challenging Viewers' Thoughts About the Politics Behind the Drug VANCOUVER -- Nick Wilson was 26, developing a documentary - his first - - about online infidelity, when he had a conversation with his 68-year-old aunt that sent him in a new direction. Aunt Wendy had seen a news story on TV about the Vancouver marijuana activist Marc Emery and she was incensed. Why were U.S. authorities after him? And why would Canada even consider extraditing a Canadian to face up to life in prison, simply for selling marijuana seeds? |
| Sep 27, 2007 |
ON:
Time For City To Grow Op
After three hours punching each other silly over issues like amending the fireworks bylaw, the licensing and standards committee is finally ready to hear my deputation September 11. I'm here on behalf of the Canadian Cannabis Society to speak to the final agenda item: how the city plans to police pot and divvy up the proceeds of grow op busts. |
| Sep 17, 2007 |
AB:
'Prince of Pot' Gets White Hat
Canada's "Prince of Pot" has joined the ranks of singer Dolly Parton, Prince Philip and Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean. Arriving at the Calgary airport for a two-day visit Saturday, Canada's best-known marijuana activist, Marc Emery, was white-hatted by the Calgary Airport's official White Hat Volunteers. |
| Sep 17, 2007 |
AG Increases Use of Forfeiture Powers to Seize Assets
The Ministry of the Attorney General has increased its use of sweeping provincial civil forfeiture powers in the past year to seize assets, including people's homes, even if criminal proceedings have been stayed or withdrawn because of Charter violations. ...A report issued recently by the attorney general's office stated that $3.6 million in property has been seized in the past four years in 170 proceedings. Nearly $1 million has been distributed to crime victims and more than $900,000 transferred to municipal police forces. [More US-style war on civil liberties] |
| Sep 12, 2007 |
Senior Officer Charged In Arrest, Strip Search
EDMONTON - A city police officer has been charged with unlawful exercise of authority for arresting and strip searching the son of lawyer Tom Engel after evidence of the alleged crime -- a marijuana cigarette -- was thrown away. |
| Sep 11, 2007 |
B.C. Man Taking Pot Message To Ottawa
Neil Magnuson is skating across Canada to raise awareness about the prohibition of cannabis and stopped in Moose Jaw on the weekend. Magnuson started in Vancouver in July. He is making his way across the country to Ottawa. In Ottawa, Magnuson will be speaking on Remembrance Day about his cause. On his way, he will be stopping in different towns to talk to the people about cannabis. |
| Sep 8, 2007 |
It's For Tobacco, Really (Wink-Wink, Nudge-Nudge)
In every quadrant of our city, one can find shops where brightly coloured bongs line the shelves and a wide selection of pipes sit in glass cases. The stores have names like Grass Roots, Hemporium and Bongs and Such, just in case you still don't get the idea. Known to some as "head shops," such businesses have been sprouting like, well, weeds all over booming Calgary. You can find them in Forest Lawn, in the northeast industrial area and in the tony shopping districts of Kensington and 17th Avenue S.W. |
| Sep 2, 2007 |
Retired Prescott Police Officer Faces Drug-Trafficking
A retired officer with the Prescott police force was one of nine people charged this week in connection with drug trafficking in the border town. Bruce Perrin, 58, was arrested on Aug. 29. He is the second current or former police officer from the Seaway Valley to face drug charges this year. |
| Aug 31, 2007 |
ON:
OPP Says RIDE Check At Hempfest Was Legitimate
Ontario Provincial Police say an impaired driving checkpoint outside Hempfest wasn't a ploy to search festival-goers for pot, and deny charges by organizers of the annual cannabis festival that police attempted to drive off attendees. ...Rob Waddell, organizer of Hempfest, pointed out this week that no impaired driving charges were laid, for drugs or alcohol. He also charged OPP went above and beyond their normal practice at RIDE checks by questioning passengers, checking for documentation and doing vehicle safety checks. Some who attended Hempfest described a military-style roadblock a short distance from the event, manned by as many as 20 police officers. |
| Aug 27, 2007 |
ON:
32 Drug Charges at Hempfest
Ontario Provincial Police laid 32 drug charges and four weapons charges over the weekend during a RIDE stop set up during Hempfest 2007. OPP say most of the drug charges were for possession of marijuana. [Crushing the culture] |
| Aug 27, 2007 |
ON:
Judges Tosses Out Drug Charges Against Whitby Man
WHITBY -- Durham police seriously breached the constitutional rights of a Whitby man during a drug investigation, a Superior Court judge said in tossing out charges against him Monday. Cops were acting solely on a hunch and denied Roland Liebregts the most basic of rights afforded to him under the Charter of Rights when they apprehended and questioned him near his Taunton Road home in the early morning hours of Sept. 23, 2005, Justice Barry MacDougall said in his ruling. |
| Aug 25, 2007 |
ON:
Police Will Be Out in Force at Hempfes
The Cannabis Festival Runs Through Sunday in Ophir A police traffic checkpoint aims to smoke out any possible problems during Hempfest. The ninth annual cannabis festival runs through Sunday in Ophir about 30 kilometres north of Bruce Mines. Ontario Provincial Police started checking vehicles on Poplar Dale Road Thursday afternoon. Motorists will be stopped through the weekend. |
| Aug 24, 2007 |
ON:
Church Leaders Go To Court Over Confiscated Pot
The spiritual leaders of a church that uses marijuana as its sacrament are seeking a court order for the return of several pounds of pot and other items seized from their Barton Street headquarters during an RCMP raid. Church of the Universe ministers Walter Tucker, 74, and Michael Baldasaro, 58, were charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking after the Mounties executed a search warrant on May 15, 2000. The raid came after a sting operation in which undercover police officers pretended to join the church and began to buy the sacrament. However, all charges against the pair were ultimately withdrawn by a federal drug prosecutor on Dec. 15, 2005. |