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]
It's disappointing to read Chris Sommers call medical marijuana patients and growers "terrorists." It's violent rhetoric toward his fellow Americans. I know dozens of people with legit reasons for their Proposition 215 scripts, from cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic migraines, liver failure and every health problem you can imagine. Many of these people are disabled and not able to grow for themselves so they must designate a caregiver/grower. Since Butte County has banned all dispensaries, where are these people supposed to get their medicine? [continues 168 words]
I am a peaceful, proud, patriotic pothead. As such, I relish the rights afforded to all Americans by the Bill of Rights, especially the First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and political expression. As a patriot I feel it's my duty to express my opinion on things my government does, whether it's popular or not. This is what I've always believed as I openly spoke out against our nation's war on drugs. Because of Mike Huckabee's presidential announcement, this column is dedicated to exercising my free speech rights again by voicing my opposition to America's daily bombing of the Middle East's Muslim populations. Which we've done for decades now, in the name of the goodness Huckabee-like Americans think we dole out. This is the real reason some of them want to attack us or bomb us back as Osama bin Laden did - not because they're jealous of our freedoms, as that self-righteous idiot from Texas claimed. [continues 967 words]
THE emotional circus surrounding the executions of Bali Nine drug masterminds Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran is wrong on so many levels. One lowlight was the grandstanding 11th hour intervention by a group of actors telling Tony Abbott to "show some balls". But nothing was as bad as the unscrupulous opportunism of the drug reform lobby. No sooner had the shots been fired on Nusakambangan Island than the drug liberalisers started capitalising on acute media-driven sympathy, declaring the executions were proof the "war on drugs" is futile. [continues 717 words]
Freddie Gray's Death Has Sparked Discussions of Many Injustices, but at Its Heart Is the Breakdown in Relations Between Police and the Community The death of Freddie Gray and the riots that followed have brought Baltimore's problems to the forefront of national, even international, attention. The drug addiction, poverty, failing schools, health disparities, deteriorating housing, broken families and unemployment that plague neighborhoods like the one where Gray lived and was arrested in have been on full display, and they have become a part of the larger discussion about what it would mean to bring about justice in the wake of his death. [continues 1340 words]
This is in response to Andrew Merkel's letter Tuesday headlined "Freedoms being taken by our government," specifically regarding Measure A. Contrary to Merkel's assertions, many normal, law-abiding citizens are finally having their freedoms restored, not curtailed. These include: freedom from nuisance (smells, traffic, vicious dogs, shady characters); freedom from fear and danger (armed guards, home invasions, exploding butane honey oil labs); and freedom to enjoy peace and quiet in the country. And guess what - many of us are very grateful that the county government is protecting us from "terrorists," i.e. scofflaw pot-profiteers, who snuck their illegal activities into our communities inside a trojan horse, named "Prop 215." Compared to the last two years, I am already seeing a notable reduction in seasonal vehicular traffic and shady out-of-towners here to make a fast illegal buck. [continues 106 words]
OTTAWA - A smiling Steven Blaney, Canada's minister of public safety, dismissed a B.C. MP's complaint Thursday that the government's focus on balancing the budget and combating domestic terrorism has made communities like Surrey and North Delta more vulnerable to drug- and gang-related crime. New Democratic Party MP Jasbir Sandhu, citing 23 shootings in the two communities since mid-March, complained in the House of Commons that there was no new money in Tuesday's federal budget for education and outreach programs targeting youth. [continues 377 words]
If it becomes law, this legislation may cause the closing of Vancouver's Insite and prevent other sites - we fear the worst for addicts and our cities, write Perry Kendall, Patty Daly and John Carsley O n March 23, federal Bill C-2 - the "Act to Amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act" - passed in the House of Commons. Vancouver's supervised consumption site, Insite, was recently granted a one-year extension under the existing legislation, but if Bill C-2 eventually becomes law, then it may well cause the eventual closure of Insite and make it almost impossible for new sites to open in other communities. The Conservative government has labelled this law the "Respect for Communities Act," but "Contempt for the Health of Communities" would be more accurate. [continues 644 words]
Activists, Leaders Push to Learn About Possibly Invasive Devices The secrecy surrounding a military-grade cellphone-tracking device that's already being used in the Bay Area - and coming soon to Santa Clara County - has come under increased scrutiny, with local governments, courts and lawmakers around the nation joining civil rights groups in demanding more information about the potentially invasive technology. Earlier this month, a New York judge ruled that a sheriff's office in that state must pull back the curtain on the controversial "stingray" devices, which simulate cellphone towers and allow police to track suspects but also gather location information on potentially thousands of bystanders. Judge Patrick NeMoyer cited a case in which the FBI instructed the Erie County Sheriff's Office to drop charges instead of revealing any information about the stingray. [continues 1048 words]
It's not everyday that a federal Cabinet minister comes to town. However, Kootenay-Columbia MP David Wilks has been trying to get James Moore out to Cranbrook for the last year. "I think he was well received and it was great to have him out and about," said Wilks, who spent the day with Moore meeting with different groups all day, including addressing members of the Cranbrook Chamber of Commerce for lunch on Wednesday. "We met with the Columbia Basin Trust and another group of people regarding broadband," said Wilks. "Broadband's a significant issue in this area, especially to those people who still don't have access to high-speed Internet and we're working toward making that happen." [continues 609 words]
It's not everyday that a federal Cabinet minister comes to town. However, Kootenay-Columbia MP David Wilks has been trying to get James Moore out to Cranbrook for the last year. "I think he was well received and it was great to have him out and about," said Wilks, who spent the day with Moore meeting with different groups all day, including addressing members of the Cranbrook Chamber of Commerce for lunch on Wednesday. "We met with the Columbia Basin Trust and another group of people regarding broadband," said Wilks. "Broadband's a significant issue in this area, especially to those people who still don't have access to high-speed Internet and we're working toward making that happen." [continues 610 words]
Life sentences for drug convicts have proven to be ineffective in Indonesia. After many years of delaying the execution of drug convicts - the execution of Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan has been postponed for almost a decade - drug trafficking still lingers. Life sentences never prevent drug traffickers from continuing their businesses. The case of the Nusakambangan prisoners Sartoni and Sutrisno was an obvious example that drug trafficking gets worse day after day. It is strange that they could manage such prohibited businesses from the prison. [continues 332 words]
Ivan Speed is not a model citizen. Since growing up in the Alemany housing projects, Speed has spent his adulthood running the streets in San Francisco, racking up the kind of record -- assault, theft, drugs, guns -- that would earn even a fallen choir boy the title of "career criminal." Not that anyone in the Marina has anything to fear from the likes of Speed. His crime spree as of late has been contained to the Tenderloin, where his alleged misdeeds -- stealing $25, swiping a phone, selling $50 worth of crack cocaine -- are seemingly trivial, especially considering these daily occurrences often take place in full view of rollerbag-dragging tourists who wandered a block too far from their Union Square hotel. [continues 834 words]
How DEA Agent's Slaying Led to Legalization of Extraordinary Rendition BOGOTA, Colombia - Of all the cases of troubling corruption and stunning violence that have characterized the war on drugs in Latin America, few linger as powerfully among U.S. drug agents as the case of Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, who vanished on a busy street in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1985 while walking to meet his wife for lunch. His body was found nearly a month later. His skull, jaw, nose, cheekbones and windpipe were crushed. His ribs were broken. His head had been drilled with a screwdriver. [continues 1068 words]
A judge has reserved sentencing in a marijuana grow-op case involving a Winnipeg man who used his time in court Wednesday to admonish the government and reject the usage of his own name. Scott David Peters, who was convicted by a jury last month for operating an illegal marijuana operation out of a residence on Boyd Avenue, will now learn his fate from Judge Robert Dewar on Feb. 26. Peters, who is representing himself, was in court Wednesday and spoke of Hilary Clinton, ISIS and slavery while holding a white flag he said represented not surrender, but an indication he comes in peace. [continues 206 words]
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]
I have a Stalker. I came close to writing about cyber stalkers in this week's column and had planned to write specifically about my stalker. But why promote his bad juju? I met him close to a year ago as part of my marijuana legalization activism. Now I realize he didn't want to know me, he wanted to be me, and he hates me now because he's not me. Last week I was forced to file terroristic threat and harassment charges against him after he repeatedly emailed me and posted these threats on his Facebook account. So I've changed my mind and don't plan on getting him any more notoriety, or stroking his manic delusions of grandeur by doing so. [continues 977 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]
Federal Law Had Netted Billions That Were Split With Local, State Police Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Friday barred local and state police from using federal law to seize cash, cars and other property without warrants or criminal charges. Holder's action represents the most sweeping check on police power to confiscate personal property since the seizures began three decades ago as part of the war on drugs. Since 2008, thousands of local and state police agencies have made more than 55,000 seizures of cash and property worth $3 billion under a civil asset forfeiture program at the Justice Department called Equitable Sharing. [continues 2074 words]
WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday barred local and state police from using federal law to seize cash, cars and other property without proving that a crime occurred. Holder's action represents the most sweeping check on police power to confiscate personal property since the seizures began three decades ago as part of the war on drugs. Since 2008, thousands of local and state police agencies have made more than 55,000 seizures of cash and property worth $3 billion under a civil asset forfeiture program at the Justice Department called Equitable Sharing. [continues 585 words]
