Pubdate: Tue, 27 Sep 2005
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005 Calgary Herald
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
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)

JUSTICE MINISTER BACKTRACKS ON MARIJUANA LEGISLATION

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler washed his hands Monday of the once-heralded 
bill to decriminalize marijuana, 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 and all Canadians for support in 
their campaign against drugs and organized crime.

The family members, still scarred by the shooting deaths of the officers by 
a violent outcast near Mayerthorpe, 110 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, 
called on the government to 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 
Schiemann, 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.

Schiemann, with the assistance of Alberta Conservative MPs Rona Ambrose and 
Rob Merrifield, whose riding includes Mayerthorpe, held a news conference 
to ask Canadians to put pressure on the government.

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

"Every day we live with sadness because of their untimely deaths," 
Schiemann 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 what he said were lenient 
sentences handed drug growers and dealers.

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

With an election on the horizon, and following a show of 5,000 police and 
peace officers over the weekend for a Parliament Hill memorial of 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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom