Pubdate: Tue, 27 Sep 2005
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2005 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
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)

GRIEVING PARENTS OF SLAIN MOUNTIES URGE CRACKDOWN ON GROW-OPS

Justice Minister Backs Off Pot Bill; Families Scarred By Killing Of RCMP 
Officers In March Say It's Time For Tougher Penalties

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler washed his hands yesterday 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, Alta., 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 
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.

Schieman, 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 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.

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.

Cotler sidestepped questions about minimum jail sentences for grow-ops.

"I know that grow-ops are a scourge across the country, it is a matter that 
has to be addressed, and it has to be addressed not only through the 
criminal law, though the criminal law is clearly one vehicle for that 
purpose, and an important one," he said, noting the marijuana bill, C-17, 
also contains tougher penalties for grow-ops.

Martin recalled his presence at the Edmonton memorial for the slain 
officers, but said the government already has indicated its commitment to 
combat drug trafficking and violent crime.

"I met the families and had long discussions with them," he told the 
Commons in reply to questions from Conservative Leader Stephen Harper.

"I can assure the families and I can assure the honorable member that the 
government takes the issues he has raised very, very seriously, and that 
the government does intend, as has already been indicated, to act within 
this area."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom