Pubdate: Tue, 27 Sep 2005
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005 The Windsor Star
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: Tim Naumetz, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Roszko (James Roszko)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

KIN OF SLAIN RCMP WANT STRICT POT LAWS

OTTAWA - Justice Minister Irwin Cotler took a delicate approach to the 
federal bill to decriminalize marijuana Monday, saying it is up to the 
Commons justice committee to decide what to do with it.

But Cotler and Prime Minister Paul Martin ducked opposition demands to 
bring in tougher sentences for cannabis grow-operations as the families of 
four slain Mounties appealed to Parliament for support in their campaign 
against drugs and organized crime.

The family members, with the assistance of two Alberta MPs, held a news 
conference demanding the government scrap the marijuana bill and introduce 
mandatory minimum jail sentences for those who grow cannabis on a 
commercial scale.

"We have to draw the line and we're drawing the line here," said Don 
Schieman, whose son was among the officers killed by James Roszko, a 
violent criminal who was known to the local RCMP detachment and was found 
with 283 marijuana plants in his isolated yard.

The families want households across the country to switch on their front 
porch lights between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. on the evening of the third of 
every month, beginning in October, until next March 3, the anniversary of 
the killings.

"Every day we live with sadness because of their untimely deaths," Schieman 
said. "As we have put the puzzle together we also live with a fear that 
this could very easily happen again if present conditions do not change."

He called for a minimum sentence of two years in prison for anyone 
convicted of running a grow-op, and decried the lenient sentences that have 
been handed down for drug growers and dealers.

"I'm sure the Roszkos of this world are laughing at us," Schieman said.

Following a show of 5,000 police and peace officers over the weekend for a 
Parliament Hill memorial to all officers slain over the past year, Cotler 
said the government is not going to press MPs to push the legislation ahead.

"We brought it forth, it's now a matter of what the committee will do with 
it," he told reporters. "They will make their own determination as to when 
and in what order that bill will be addressed. The committee is a master of 
its own procedures.

Cotler denied the government wants the bill - first introduced under former 
prime minister Jean Chretien - to languish.

"We didn't introduce it because we wanted to shelve it; we introduced it 
because we wanted it to pass," he said, adding the government has six 
criminal justice bills it wants passed in this Parliament.

He avoided the question of mandatory jail terms, acknowledging grow-ops as 
"a scourge across the country" that had to be addressed several ways 
including criminal law. The marijuana bill, C-17, also contains tougher 
penalties for grow-ops, he added
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom