Pubdate: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 Source: Chatham Daily News, The (CN ON) Copyright: 2002 Chatham Daily News Contact: http://www.canada.com/chatham/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1627 Author: Erica Brown Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) POT POSSESSION CASES PUT OFF Judge Awaits Decision In Windsor Case A local judge is refusing to hear cases of pot possession until a potential precedent-setting case is decided in Windsor. Ontario Justice Bruce Thomas, Chatham's presiding provincial court judge, said the Windsor case will be argued Friday. He said the argument that's being made by defence counsel in the case centres around an Ontario Court of Appeal decision from July 2000, in which the marijuana possession section of Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act was declared invalid. The appeal court decision upheld a lower-court ruling in the case of Terrance Parker, a 44-year-old epileptic who won the right to smoke the drug to control his seizures. It gave Parliament a year in which pot possession remained illegal to amend the section or lose it. That year has come and gone. Thomas said the Windsor case is asking a provincial court judge to say there is no offence of possession of marijuana in Ontario right now. "I'm not hearing that case, the argument's not being made to me, but in looking at it from the outside it appears to be a fairly compelling argument," Thomas said. "I want to hear the results of the case, including what the government's response and the Crown's response to that application (is). "I don't want to be convicting individuals of the offence now that I know about the argument, until I have the results of the decision and am able to really assess it myself." Thomas admitted that it's hard to say what effect the Windsor decision would have on cases in his courtroom. "We're not bound by another judge's decision in our court so I, and presumably others, would have to look at (the judge's) reasoning and look at the arguments that were presented to (the judge) and see whether we agree one way or another," he explained. "You can bet that if the defence is successful then that issue will be raised in front of me regularly on the same type of case by other lawyers." Thomas added that if the Crown attorney in Windsor is successful, then the argument will be used by the Kent Crown if the issue arises here. He said visiting justices who sit in Chatham can decide on their own whether to hear those types of cases. - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl