Pubdate: Fri, 03 Aug 2012
Source: Brandon Sun (CN MB)
Copyright: 2012, Brandon Sun
Contact:  http://www.brandonsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2437

PARDONS LOOK BAD FOR TORIES

"These people were not criminals. They were our fellow citizens." -
Prime Minister Stephen Harper

The federal Conservatives have set a dangerous precedent this week,
after Prime Minister Stephen Harper pardoned western Canadian farmers
convicted of selling grain into the United States in the 1990s.

Harper made the announcement on a farm near Kindersley, Sask., where
he and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz marked what the government
called marketing freedom day -- the federal legislation kicked in to
end the Canadian Wheat Board's decades-long monopoly on western wheat
and barley sales.

The stunt, which no doubt drew cheers from anti-monopoly grain
producers across the Prairies, was not a well-thought-out move on the
part of the Prime Minister.

And here's why.

Sometime in the not-too-distant future, the use of marijuana will be
legalized. Society is moving in that direction, and when the day
comes, all those hundreds of thousands of people who were convicted of
possession, use and the sale of pot will want to be pardoned too.

Ridiculous, you say? Not so.

In 1996, Alberta rancher Jim Chatenay drove across the U.S. border to
donate a bag of wheat to a 4-H club in Montana. Chatenay knowingly
tried to get around the law of the day, which stated that producers
had to sell their wheat and barley through the wheat board or get
export permits from the agency.

As The Canadian Press reported, Chatenay was told to pay a $4,000 fine
or face 64 days in jail for his actions. He would eventually serve 23
days behind bars in 2002.

On Wednesday, Harper said the producers who made these kinds of
symbolic rebellions were responsible for first raising the monopoly
issue in the minds of Canadians.

"For these courageous farmers, their convictions will no longer
tarnish their good names ... it is to them that much of this victory
is owed," Harper said.

Lets compare the 'noble' actions of these producers who knowingly
broke the law to the marijuana-user protest dubbed 4-20 that takes
place annually in Manitoba. In April of this year several hundred
people sat on the Manitoba legislature grounds in a thick blue haze to
advocate in favour of looser drug laws. Possession of marijuana is
currently a criminal offense under the federal Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act.

According to CBC, the annual police-reported crime survey for 2010
shows Manitoba had 157 reported cannabis offenses per 100,000 people.
Thousands of people in this country have criminal convictions for pot
possession.

The 2011 World Drug Report suggests Canadians are among the top
marijuana users in the world, though we pale in comparison to Italy,
Palau and Papua New Guinea.

By Harper's definition, many recreational marijuana users who openly
defy Canada's drug laws could be considered courageous in their own
right, as they fight for legislative changes.

A recent article in Rolling Stone magazine states that come November,
voters in three U.S. states will vote on marijuana-legalization
initiatives. The two with the best chance of succeeding are Colorado
and Washington, which already have legalized medical pot and
permissive local laws. This follows a failed 2010 vote in California,
Proposition 19.

Should they succeed, similar legislative changes cannot be very far
away in Canada. Rest assured there would be no decriminalization step
- -- pot use would become fully legal so the government could tax it.

In the wake of Harper's pardon of convicted farmers, would Canada then
be honour bound to pardon Canadians convicted of possession -- those
other courageous "fellow citizens" -- on the grounds that the law
changed? One man's felon is another man's folk hero.

The convicted farmers, like convicted marijuana users, broke the laws
that we as a civilized society put in place and were rightly charged.
In our opinion, it looks bad for a Conservative government that has
taken a hard line on law and order to pardon people simply because
they share an ideological stance.
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MAP posted-by: Matt