This week the Harper government, and the largely Conservative-appointed Senate, will effectively drive a nail into the coffins of thousands of Canadians living with addiction by passing legislation that will block the establishment of supervised injection facilities such as Vancouver's Insite. Bill C-2, the ill-named Respect for Communities Act, which is likely to pass third reading in the Senate imminently, changes section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, Canada's blanket prohibition on drugs. It establishes 26 new requirements applicants must meet before the feds will even consider an approval to operate a supervised injection facility. These requirements are unwarranted and will be, in many cases, impossible to satisfy. [continues 581 words]
Hells Angels bikers, other gangsters and convicted international smugglers work as longshoremen handling the 1.5 million containers that flow annually through Port Metro Vancouver More than two dozen of the longshoremen unloading container ships on the docks of Metro Vancouver are Hells Angels, their associates, other gangsters or people with serious criminal records, a Vancouver Sun investigation has found. The infiltration of gangsters and criminals into the port workforce is perpetuated by a longtime employment practice that allows existing union members to nominate friends, relatives and associates when new jobs become available. [continues 2762 words]
Hells Angels and others with criminal connections have a long history working at Canada's major ports, a Vancouver Sun investigation has found More than two dozen of the longshoremen unloading container ships on the docks of Metro Vancouver are Hells Angels, their associates, other gangsters or people with serious criminal records, a Vancouver Sun investigation has found. The infiltration of gangsters and criminals into the port workforce is perpetuated by a longtime employment practice that allows existing union members to nominate friends, relatives and associates when new jobs become available. [continues 2094 words]
Described as an authoritative public servant, parliamentarian leaves behind a legacy of political achievements for the federal Tories For much of his life, Senator Pierre Claude Nolin was a model of Tory partisanship. He was campaign strategist for Brian Mulroney and Jean Charest. He helped Stephen Harper win the 2006 election. He was a leader in the backrooms of conservative politics in Quebec for three decades. Yet, during the short time he was Speaker of the Senate, Mr. Nolin tried to loosen the partisan shackles that constrain his colleagues. And, as a parliamentarian, he followed the directives of his heart even when they were at odds with those of the Conservative leadership. [continues 1299 words]
The lunacy of continuing to pursue the so-called "War on Drugs" after over 50 years of failure, with its massive cost in lives lost, lives wasted, lives ruined, and billions of dollars spent, compels me to say something: there is a better way. Last May, the Genuis-Banks debate on the legalization of marijuana got me started on a path of discovery. I would like to share a little of what I have learned. In 1972, the LeDain Commission recommended repeal of the prohibition against simple possession of cannabis and cultivation for personal use. [continues 293 words]
Last week, Insite received its annual Controlled Drugs and Substances Act exemption that the supervised-injection facility requires in order to operate without breaking the law. Health Canada has granted the exemption each March for more than a decade. But next year, that process is expected to be a whole new challenge, said Gavin Wilson, a spokesperson for Insite's operator, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH). In a phone interview with the Straight, Wilson explained that by that time, Bill C-2, the Respect for Communities Act, will likely have passed into law. Parliament approved the Conservative legislation on March 23, and it is now making its way through the Senate. [continues 504 words]
Re: Let the cops ticket tokers, Editorial March 10 In 2002, a nonpartisan Senate committee released a four-volume report in which it unanimously and unambiguously recommended that cannabis be legally regulated in a manner similar to alcohol and tobacco. The committee explicitly warned against a ticket and fine regime, citing jurisdictions that have tried it. Civil penalties lower the threshold and "widen the net" for enforcement. Where before the police would turn a blind eye or seize the cannabis and merely warn the possessor, they instead would issue a ticket. In Australia, because failure to pay is a criminal offence, more offenders were criminalized after the ticketing system was implemented. Giving the police more discretion exacerbates existing geographic and demographic enforcement disparities, which are already disproportionately skewed toward the lower classes and visible minorities. While a few hundred dollars might represent a fancy meal to a police chief or a newspaper editor, it might represent the grocery or electricity bill to a struggling single parent. It has been over a decade since the Senate made its recommendations and more than four decades since the Le Dain Commission and the Shafer Commission. The futility, crime, costs and damage caused by cannabis prohibition are well understood. Legal regulation is long overdue. Matthew M. Elrod, Victoria, B.C. [end]
The growing number of RCMP investigators tackling the terrorism threat is raising concerns that other important federal cases are taking a back seat. Last October, RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson told a Senate committee that 300 investigators had been pulled from organized crime and financial crime cases to help support 170 members dedicated to RCMP- led Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams across the country. The number of reassigned investigators is closer to 500 now, a senior law enforcement source said this week, adding that the number fluctuates daily. [continues 270 words]
As the House of Commons Returns Monday, Jason Fekete of Postmedia News outlines the issues expected to dominate this sitting and what they'll mean for each party Budgeting blues: Oil prices, which have shrunk by more than half since June 2014, are gobbling billions in tax revenue from the federal treasury and jeopardizing the Conservative government's promise to balance the books in 2015. Finance Minister Joe Oliver has delayed the budget until at least April so the government can get a better handle on what depressed oil prices will mean to the Canadian economy. [continues 2745 words]
There's a famous experiment in the annals of learning. It involves a jar, a banana and a monkey. I know it sounds very similar to jokes that start, "There was a priest, a rabbi and a minister," but that's where the similarity ends. The experiment goes like this. The banana is put inside the jar and the jar is put inside a room. So is the monkey. Put inside the room, that is, not inside the jar. It's not that big a jar. The monkey being a monkey and the banana being a banana, it doesn't take long for the monkey to notice the banana and decide he/she would really like to eat it. This is where it gets good. [continues 998 words]
Experts Say Campbell's Advisory Positions Are Within Guidelines but Put Him in a Poor Light OTTAWA - Sen. Larry Campbell, while acting within ethics guidelines, has put himself in a clear "appearance" of being in a conflict of interest by accepting a post as adviser to a Vancouver company breaking into the medical marijuana business, say ethics experts. The former Vancouver mayor was named Tuesday to an "advisory board" for Vodis Innovative Pharmaceuticals Inc., along with ex- Conservative MP John Reynolds, once one of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's most high-profile allies. [continues 879 words]
Sen. Larry Campbell, while acting within ethics guidelines, has put himself in a clear appearance of being in a conflict of interest by accepting a post as adviser to a Vancouver company breaking into the medical marijuana business, ethics experts say. The former Vancouver mayor was named Tuesday to an "advisory board" for Vodis Innovative Pharmaceuticals Inc., along with ex-Conservative MP John Reynolds, once a high-profile ally of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Vodis, which is seeking Health Canada approval to market medical marijuana, said both were brought on because of their business expertise and not because of any real or perceived political influence. [continues 300 words]
Re: Lots of buzz over first pot licences, July 8 (and related stories) Now that neighbouring Washington state and Colorado have legalized marijuana, Ottawa can no longer claim Canada must maintain marijuana prohibition to maintain good U.S. relations. The Canadian Senate in 2002 offered a common-sense alternative to marijuana prohibition when the special committee on illegal drugs concluded marijuana is relatively benign, prohibition contributes to organized crime, and law enforcement efforts have little impact on patterns of use. Consider the experience of the former land of the free and current world leader in per capita incarceration. The U.S. has almost double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana has been legally available for decades. The only winners in the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs politicians who deliberately confuse the drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant. Policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy [end]
Re: Most young, severely hurt crash victims high on pot, by Brian Cross, June 21. The word "most" is generally considered to mean the largest part. So, when a headline reads, "Most young, severely hurt crash victims high on pot," we expect that at least 50 per cent were high. Not so. In one year out of three, pot was detected in just over 50 per cent of cases. In the most recent year, 2013-14, it was 46 per cent. However, pot is very different from alcohol. [continues 244 words]
Stand up, but don't light up, say organizers of Alberta's largest pro pot celebration. Alberta 420 director Keith Fagin says some younger participants in the annual Edmonton 420 Rally, set to take place at the legislature grounds Sunday afternoon, have a misconception that smoking up in public is legal on April 20. "We never encourage people to consume publicly in the open. But we know and the police know there are going to be people who will spark up at 4:20 p.m.," Fagin said. [continues 239 words]
Re. Ben Lypka's column ("B.C. missing its 'pot'-ential," Reporter's Notebook, Chief, March 13). Now that neighboring Washington State and Colorado have legalized marijuana, Ottawa can no longer claim Canada must uphold marijuana prohibition in order to maintain good U.S. relations. In 2002, the Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs concluded that marijuana is relatively benign, prohibition contributes to organized crime, and law enforcement efforts have little impact on patterns of use. Consider the experience of the former land of the free and current world leader in citizens incarcerated. [continues 115 words]
Ottawa's Folly: B. C. Judges, U. S. See Flaws in Mandatory Minimum B.C. Provincial Court Judge Joseph Galati has joined a handful of his colleagues in thumbing his nose at Ottawa's tough-on-crime legislation. Along with their counterparts in Ontario and elsewhere, he and his fellow judges are finding it hard to stomach sending non-violent, chronic drug offenders to prison under recently imposed mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines. In their opinion, when dealing with these by-and-large addled and addicted adults, compassion not incarceration is the answer, and to imprison them for at least a year constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. [continues 557 words]
Justin Trudeau is taking a bold step by coming out in favour of the legalization of marijuana. But voters need to hear more than some impromptu remarks at a campaign-style rally when it comes to such a controversial issue. If the Liberal leader wants to be taken seriously as a prime minister in waiting he's going to have to spell out how he sees legalization actually working - and answer the many legitimate concerns about it. On the substance of the issue, Trudeau has facts and logic on his side. Experts as far back as the Le Dain Commission four decades ago have rightly concluded that regulating and taxing cannabis makes more sense than spending tens of millions to arrest, fine and occasionally jail recreational users. The Senate, hardly a nest of potheads, came to the same conclusion in a thoughtful committee report 11 years ago. It said the current approach amounts to "throwing taxpayers' money down the drain on a crusade that is not warranted by the danger posed by the substance." [continues 653 words]
Group wants voters to tell the province to pass a law asking police to ignore marijuana use Organizers of a campaign aimed at decriminalizing pot will be blitzing B.C. this summer, turning up at public gatherings to sign up donors and volunteers. "British Columbians can expect to hear and see Sensible B.C. on a regular basis," says Dana Larsen, director of the group set up last year to promote a referendum campaign on marijuana. Governments had better take note because B.C. is place where people power packs a punch, where a 2011 referendum campaign killed the Harmonized Sales Tax. It's also the location of Insite, the first supervised injection centre in Canada, which is broadly supported by an open-minded, caring community. [continues 531 words]
After decades of wasted resources, clogged courtrooms and a shift in public perception, let's end the war on weed Sometime this year, if it hasn't happened already, the millionth Canadian will be arrested for marijuana possession, Dana Larsen estimates. The indefatigable B.C.-based activist for pot legalization is thinking of marking the occasion with a special ceremony. True, it will be impossible to know exactly who the millionth person is, but with the Conservative government's amped-up war on drugs, it won't be hard to find a nominee. As Larsen notes, the war on drugs in Canada is mostly a war on marijuana, "and most of that is a war on marijuana users." [continues 5925 words]
