Online Docs Like American Drug War Are Ragged, But They Express A POV Mainstream Media Won't Do-it-yourself documentaries are becoming more and more popular on the net - and for good reason. Controversial, hot-button issues that corporate news refuses to cover can now be addressed within citizen-based films that, thankfully, now have the opportunity to reach wide audiences and be seen be millions of viewers. Movies such as Loose Change, Zeitgeist, and The Money Masters provide a soapbox for dissenting opinions and legitimate questions about the manner in which the elite media present information - and how they choose what information even makes it into the airwaves. Although esthetically raw, this forum is invaluable, I believe, for a healthier society and with this in mind I bring to your attention the fascinating documentary American Drug War. [continues 335 words]
Can The Cops Stop You Based On Nothing But The Colour Of Your Skin? In A Word, Yes Editor's note: This is the last in a series of guest columns on privacy and legal issues by local lawyer D. James Anderson. Last week he looked at who can let the police into your home or room. This week he tackles searches based on racial profiling. Let's take an unhappy detour into one of criminal law's heartbreaking culs-de-sac: the one where, in some situations, it's OK for the police to stop and question a person just because they have a certain skin tone. [continues 807 words]
The Answer Depends On Your Living Situation, And Just How Much You Trust Your Mom Editor's note: This is a guest column on privacy issues by local lawyer D. James Anderson. Last week he looked at whether police can search your home if they smell pot. This week he looks at who can let the police into your home or room. Here's the question: can a roommate, a parent, or a landlord let the police search your room or apartment without your consent? [continues 705 words]
If the police are at your door, does a suspicious marijuana smell give them the right to enter? Editor's note: This is a guest column on privacy issues by local lawyer D. James Anderson. This week he tackles police searches. Next week, he'll look at who can let the police into your home or room. Back in 1992, Crime Stoppers received a tip about a house that reeked of pot when the front door was opened. The RCMP tried to gather enough information using conventional and legal means to obtain a search warrant. They failed. Doubtlessly frustrated, two RCMP officers decided to knock on the front door to check for a questionable contraband smell. Sure enough, when the door opened, the aroma of growing weed blossomed around them. I don't know if they smiled, but like to imagine they did. [continues 497 words]
Ontario Student Was Right To Challenge The Use Of Sniffer Dogs, And School's Authority I remember the Monday in Grade 11 when our high school population shrank by about 40. Kids were marched down one at a time to the principal's office, and make the dreaded call home to inform their parents they'd been expelled. Over the weekend our ex-military principal had arranged for sniffer dogs to go through the school, and those whose lockers contained drugs were marked for expulsion. [continues 751 words]
Harper Government Can't See The Doughnuts For The Weed Our Conservative federal government, much beloved of right-wing religious folk, has made me think a lot about sin lately. The seven cardinal or deadly sins of Christian fame are rooted in basic character flaws that humans have found difficult to suppress or contain. It's a good thing for all our consciences that believers have displayed some readiness lately to ease up on some of the seven. It's a shame, however, that they compensate by trying to tighten the screws on those of us evincing less metaphysically challenging behaviour. [continues 647 words]
And Other Pothead Revelations The Naked Queen Apr 27-28, Metro Cinema, Zeidler Hall, Citadel Theatre (9828-101A Ave) It's hard not to like The Naked Queen, Daryl Verville's shoestring ode to cannabis, not in and of itself so much, but because it seems like the kind of movie that a pot smoker from Nelson, B.C. might make-sincere, gentle and deeply in love with weed, but also freighted with heady cosmic concerns, hippie self-righteousness, and the inescapable hoserish-ness of rural Canada. [continues 571 words]
Arthur Kewling does convey the frustration I feel with these myopic conservatives in power (Issue# 694, March 15--22). Sadly when the need for change is greatest, our citizens resort to a cast in concrete ideology. With the decline of voter interest, poor leadership options, and a long lag time for meaningful change to come about, I see only further decline. The prohibition issue is the canary in the mineshaft. It directly points out our failure to come to grips with the simplest of problems. Shows our form of government to be useless in dealing with things on a practical level. [continues 79 words]
I am greatly concerned with the Harper government. When you hear Conservatives speak they can only talk about money and crime. I live on a fairly low income and the Conservatives turned around and lowered the personal exemption, thus I have to pay $63 more tax per year. All this while rich family incomes have tripled. Crime and particularly incarceration should not be a growth industry! Why are drugs illegal anyway when alcohol is legal? Alcohol kills more people than pretty well anything. [continues 51 words]
Colleen Klein's Cure Could Be A Political Hot Potato The legislature will resume August 24, and Premier Klein has spending on his mind. What remains to be seen is if any of Alberta's surging oil and gas dollars will be directed to recommendations from his wife Colleen's task force on crystal meth. The task force report due this fall could spark a fight in government. Task force member and AUPE union president Dan MacLennan says the recommendations could easily carry a price tag upwards of $10 million. He also hinted that new methamphetamine addictions treatment spaces would be on the list of to-do items. [continues 617 words]
Escape Documents Aftermath Of Our Liberal June Directed by Albert Nerenberg, Metro Cinema, Zeidler Hall, Citadel Theatre, * In his most notable recent outing, Canada's Albert Nerenberg aimed his documentary lens at fuzzy thinking. Stupidity amply and comically demonstrated that the world still provides fertile ground for idiocy. But Stupidity was itself a little dense, and I don't mean "bewildering by virtue of being packed with insight." "Can you believe this shit?" the film seemed to ask, without offering much in the way of a solution or even a thesis. [continues 365 words]
