Pubdate: Mon, 14 Mar 2005
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2005, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Campbell Clark
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

COTLER UNDER PRESSURE TO GET TOUGH ON GROW-OPS

MPs Seek Minimum Sentence For Owners

OTTAWA -- A movement to impose minimum sentences on marijuana grow-op 
owners is gaining ground in the minority Parliament over the objections of 
Justice Minister Irwin Cotler.

New attention has been focused on grow-ops since the killing of four RCMP 
officers during a raid 11 days ago. That has prompted MPs to consider 
joining the ranks of those who complain that judges have been too lenient 
on a criminal activity that is causing harm in many communities.

The push for tougher measures comes even though Mr. Cotler and many in the 
legal community argue that minimum sentences will backfire, and 
civil-liberties advocates denounce it as a "knee-jerk" movement that will 
do more harm than good.

Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan's criticism of the judiciary for 
imposing lenient sentences for grow-ops, made the day after the deaths of 
the four officers, has only fuelled the debate. Mr. Cotler, however, 
insisted that several studies have concluded minimum sentences do not work.

"They've all come to the conclusion that minimum sentences are neither a 
deterrent nor are they effective," Mr. Cotler said.

The Conservatives have already called for anyone convicted of operating a 
marijuana grow operation to face a minimum of two years in jail. 
Conservative justice critic Vic Toews argues that minimum sentences send a 
signal to the courts about the public's concern over the problem of grow-ops.

Several Liberal MPs say they are considering backing minimum sentences as 
grow operations spark community concerns in places such as Scarborough, 
Ont., where residential homes have been converted into marijuana hothouses. 
The measure could be added to a bill already before the Commons to 
decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, but stiffen 
penalties for grow operations.

"There seems to be a lot of converts in terms of the seriousness and how to 
approach this," Liberal MP Dan McTeague said.

Minimum-sentence provisions will pass easily if the Bloc Quebecois -- 
already sensitive to the issue because of prominent grow-op problems in 
rural areas outside Montreal -- moves to support them.

"We're not allergic to the idea," said Bloc justice critic Richard Marceau. 
"But at first glance, we are probably more against than for."

On Friday, a delegation from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association 
lobbied Mr. Cotler against existing minimum-sentence provision at the same 
time they sought clemency for Robert Latimer.

Mr. Latimer,a Saskatchewan farmer, was convicted in 1997 of second-degree 
murder for the killing of his daughter Tracy, who suffered from pain from 
cerebral palsy and extensive surgeries. He received the minimum sentence of 
25 years in jail, with no eligibility of parole for 10 years.

The CCLA argues that case highlights the kind of special circumstances that 
people do not take into account when they advocate minimum sentences.

"There is simply too much knee-jerk reaction in the press, saying there is 
a problem, let's have a minimum sentence -- as if that solves problems," 
former Saskatchewan premier Allan Blakeney, a member of the CCLA 
delegation, said after meeting with Mr. Cotler.

Some members of the legal community argue that minimum sentences prevent 
plea bargains by making it impossible for accused persons to obtain a 
lesser sentence by pleading guilty. Prosecutors also may avoid laying 
charges that carry a minimum sentence that they consider unfair, or that a 
judge might not want to impose.

There is a patchwork of mandatory minimum sentences in Canada's Criminal 
Code for crimes that range from bookmaking (taking and paying bets) to 
first-degree murder.

They have typically been introduced in periods of intense public outcry, 
such as the mandatory minimum sentences for some drug crimes that arose 
from a heroin scare in the 1920s.

"It's a series of ad-hoc decisions made by Parliaments over the years to 
respond to something that seemed to be of concern at the time. There's no 
real rhyme or reason to what we now have in the [Criminal] Code," said 
David Daubney, general counsel for the Department of Justice's sentencing 
reform team.

Although Canada added new mandatory minimum sentences for several gun 
crimes in the 1990s, when a series of violent gun crimes pushed Ottawa to 
toughen gun-control laws, prosecutors often do not press such charges, a 
Justice Department study found.

Prosecutors withdrew or stayed two-thirds of the charges filed under 
Section 85 of the Criminal Code, which provides for stiffer penalties for 
using a gun to commit a crime.

"They were either plea arrangements being made or prosecutors just coming 
to the view that it would be unjust to send someone to jail for a year 
based on the circumstances that were there," Mr. Daubney said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth