The federal government's omnibus crime bill will be heading back to the House of Commons after senators approved changes to Bill C-10 early Monday. The changes, proposed by Ontario Conservative Sen. Bob Runciman, were approved easily, but changes Liberal senators wanted to the Safe Streets and Communities Act received a tougher ride, including a failed proposal to raise the number of marijuana plants one could legally grow to 20 from six. The Conservative senators on the Senate legal affairs committee used their majority to reject all 17 changes the Liberals proposed. [continues 214 words]
Clogged Courts, Cash-Strapped Governments and the Failed American War on Drugs Point to Urgent Need for Public Policy Reform in Canada The B. C. budget has no extra money for justice at a time when Ottawa is thumbing its nose at cash-strapped voters with an omnibus crime bill that threatens to ramp up criminal costs. Not surprisingly, there was plenty of hand-wringing by the bar and other legal stakeholders who delivered a similar response: Victoria is maintaining the status quo, which means the situation remains a crisis. [continues 707 words]
On Wednesday, 28 current and former American l aw enforcement officials wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and members of the Canadian Senate urging the decriminalization of marijuana and warning against the effects of harsh mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug crimes. Before anyone gets up-in-arms about Americans sticking their noses into our business, consider that many of these people have been directly involved in crafting and enforcing America's war on drugs. They all belong to the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), which includes a number of Canadian board members. [continues 727 words]
Nicholson firmly behind crime bill VANCOUVER -- Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson is standing by mandatory minimum sentencing legislation despite a new warning such laws don't work. Nicholson said the law, which includes mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences, is "very targeted." "We develop our criminal law legislation looking at the experiences from around the world, from Britain and other countries," Nicholson said at a news conference Wednesday in Regina. "But again, ours is a Canadian solution to Canadian issues, and we make no apology for that." [continues 339 words]
A high-profile group of current and former U.S. law enforcement officials has sent a letter to the Harper government with a surprising message: Take it from us, the war on drugs has been a "costly failure." The officials are urging the Canadian government to reconsider mandatory minimum sentences for "minor" marijuana offences under its "tough-oncrime bill" and said a better approach would be to legalize marijuana under a policy of taxation and regulation. "We are ... extremely concerned that Canada is implementing mandatory minimum sentencing legislation for minor marijuana-related offences similar to those that have been such costly failures in the United States," the letter reads. "These policies have bankrupted state budgets as limited tax dollars pay to imprison non-violent drug offenders at record rates instead of programs that can actually improve community safety." [continues 290 words]
OTTAWA-As the Conservatives' massive crime bill nears its final stages of parliamentary approval, a Canadian group of judges, lawyers, and policy advisers has emerged to urge a "smarter" approach to tackling crime. Calling itself the "Smarter Justice Network," the group publicly stepped forward on a day that a similar but unrelated American group released an open letter urging the Canadian government to avoid mandatory jail terms for drug crimes that have been a "costly failure" in the United States. The two have much in common. They count in their ranks retired judges, lawyers, criminal law policy advisers, victims and offender advocates. [continues 676 words]
OTTAWA - The government's omnibus crime bill could put more aboriginals behind bars rather than addressing the source of high crime and incarceration rates among native Canadians, says the Assembly of First Nations. The AFN told senators reviewing Bill C-10, known as the Safe Streets and Communities Act, that it could override rules allowing courts to consider alternatives to incarceration for aboriginal offenders, rules the Supreme Court outlined in its 1999 Gladue ruling. Those rules have tried to deal with what the AFN argued were unique issues facing aboriginals that cannot always be addressed by the corrections system. The crime bill, the AFN argued, could remove more First Nations offenders from aboriginal rehabilitation programs. AFN National Chief Shawn Atleo said First Nations want to keep more of their offenders in aboriginal-run institutions where they can receive help from community elders and targeted rehabilitation plans. [continues 367 words]
Geoff Plant has felt for years that the prohibition of marijuana is wrong. Now that the former B.C. attorney-general is out of government, he has joined the chorus of officials and former politicians pushing for the legalization of the drug. "I have always had a problem with the idea that the state should criminalize an act which is essentially no more complex than putting a couple of seeds in your back yard, waiting a while and then, when something grows, you put it in your pocket, you chew it or you smoke it," Mr. Plant said. [continues 715 words]
About 30 people march to court house from waterfront Approximately 30 soggy protesters marched up to the courthouse from Maffeo Sutton Park in downtown Nanaimo on Thursday afternoon to protest the Tories' tough-on-crime omnibus legislation. The group, largely composed of young people, opposed Bill C -10 for reasons ranging from the costs associated with its enforcement to the harsher outlook it would involve for those convicted of drug offences, particularly as they relate to marijuana. Bill C-10 brings together nine pieces of legislation that would, among other things, establish mandatory prison sentences for drug-related crimes and child sex offenders, increase some maximum sentences, limit the use of conditional sentences such as house arrest and make it harder to get bail and a pardon. [continues 262 words]
Canada needs to give up the war on drugs and start treating drug use as a health and social issue rather than something for the criminal justice system to deal with, according to a policy group that was formally launched Thursday. The Canadian Drug Policy Coalition is, among other things, calling for the government to decriminalize drug use and not stand in the way of harm-reduction programs, such as safe-injection sites. "In western legal systems, the criminal law has long been seen as the instrument of last resort to be used when other means of social control has failed," Eugene Oscapella, a University of Ottawa criminology professor and member of the group's policy committee, said. "Unfortunately, in the case of certain drugs - cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine, heroin and hundreds of other substances for that matter - it has been used as the principal vehicle of social control." [continues 306 words]
It's A Social Issue, Not Criminal, Group Says Canada needs to give up the war on drugs and start treating drug use as a health and social issue rather than something for the criminal justice system to deal with, according to a policy group formally launched Thursday. The Canadian Drug Policy Coalition is, among other things, calling for the government to decriminalize drug use and not stand in the way of harm-reduction programs, such as safe-injection sites. "In western legal systems, the criminal law has long been seen as the instrument of last resort to be used when other means of social control has failed," Eugene Oscapella, a University of Ottawa criminology professor and member of the group's policy committee, said at a news conference on Parliament Hill. "Unfortunately, in the case of certain drugs -- cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine, heroin and hundreds of other substances for that matter -- it has been used as the principal vehicle of social control." [continues 367 words]
Tougher Laws Won't Reduce Problem but Rather Create a Lucrative Black Market, Group Says OTTAWA -- Canada needs to give up the war on drugs and start treating drug use as a health and social issue rather than something for the criminal justice system to deal with, according to a policy group that was formally launched Thursday. The Canadian Drug Policy Coalition is, among other things, calling for the government to decriminalize drug use and not stand in the way of harm-reduction programs, such as safe-injection sites. [continues 485 words]
Group Argues Reality Is That Safe Injection Sites Save Lives Canada needs to give up the war on drugs and start treating drug use as a health and social issue rather than something for the criminal justice system to deal with, according to a policy group that was formally launched Thursday. The Canadian Drug Policy Coalition is, among other things, calling for the government to decriminalize drug use and not stand in the way of harm-reduction programs, such as safe-injection sites. [continues 324 words]
Canada needs to give up the war on drugs and start treating drug use as a health and social issue rather than something for the criminal justice system to deal with, according to a policy group that was formally launched Thursday. The Canadian Drug Policy Coalition is, among other things, calling for the government to decriminalize drug use and not stand in the way of harm-reduction programs, such as safe-injection sites. "In western legal systems, the criminal law has long been seen as the instrument of last resort to be used when other means of social control has failed," Eugene Oscapella, a University of Ottawa criminology professor and member of the group's policy committee, said at a news conference on Parliament Hill. "Unfortunately, in the case of certain drugs -- cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine, heroin and hundreds of other substances for that matter -- it has been used as the principal vehicle of social control." [continues 163 words]
OTTAWA--Media reports that some pot growers will face harsher mandatory-minimum sentences than child rapists under the Conservative government's new crime bill were enough to catch the attention of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. A request by The Canadian Press for cabinet records on the controversial omnibus crime legislation turned up a single document - -- much of it blacked out under a broad, discretionary exemption in the Access to Information Act. The Oct. 11, 2011, "memorandum for the prime minister" says its purpose was to inform Harper about the controversial sentencing provisions "in light of recent criticism in the media." [continues 683 words]
If everything is on the table - including the Old Age Security benefit of roughly $540 a month - why do the billions of dollars being added to the federal corrections budget feel untouchable? As the Senate begins hearings on the government's omnibus crime bill, and the almost certain prospect of huge, long-term budgetary increases in the jails moves a step closer, it seems an odd juxtaposition: trying to ensure the long-term health of the retirement security system, and spending like crazy, in the short, medium and long terms, on prison cells. [continues 276 words]
The Conservative government's massive new crime bill runs counter to a Supreme Court of Canada ruling on aboriginal justice, Nunavut's justice minister said Thursday. New mandatory minimum sentences will overburden the territory's courts and corrections system and fly in the face of Criminal Code provisions on the treatment of aboriginal offenders, Daniel Shewchuk told the Senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee. "The government of Nunavut believes that taking away discretion from judges is not the right approach." [continues 553 words]
A new poll suggests Canada may have reached the tipping point and a 66-per-cent majority favours legalizing marijuana. Hallelujah! Finally we might get a sensible public policy discussion in this country about what to do about a relatively benign substance that has been demonized and outlawed for a century yet is as readily available in schoolyards as cigarettes. Prohibition and a 40-yearlong "war on drugs" have led to pot being more widely accessible, taxpayers considerably poorer, gangs richer and thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens branded "criminal." [continues 527 words]
The real-life story of a Brampton man who was given a reprieve by a judge and turned his life around could soon be fodder for fables. And that's because Bill C10, expected to pass into law in Canada by the end of March, will make second chances a thing of the past. Instead, the bill's mandatory minimum sentences will make sure that people like Maxwell Beech go to jail. Beech was charged with gun and drug-related offences seven years ago, but by the time he appeared for sentencing before Judge Hugh Atwood he had found God. [continues 617 words]
A new poll suggests Canada may have reached the tipping point and a 66-per-cent majority favours legalizing marijuana. Hallelujah! Finally we might get a sensible public policy discussion in this country about what to do about a relatively benign substance that has been demonized and outlawed for a century yet is as readily available in schoolyards as cigarettes. The prohibition and a 40-year-long "War on Drugs" have led to pot being more widely accessible, taxpayers considerably poorer, gangs richer and thousands upon thousands of otherwise law-abiding citizens branded "criminal." [continues 678 words]
