Pubdate: Wed, 20 Sep 2006
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2006, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.canoe.com/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author: Brookes Merritt, Edmonton Sun

IDEAS WON'T FLY: LAWYER

Recommendations Run Counter To Charter Rights

An anti-meth task force should have known better than to make 
recommendations that violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, says 
one of Edmonton's top defence lawyers.

For all the work the Premier's Task Force on Crystal Meth did over 
the last year, it never approached the Criminal Trial Lawyers 
Association, said president Laura Stevens.

"There's no way some of the provisions they've put forth could ever 
be in place. They have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme 
Court and would be struck down."

She scoffed at the task force's call for the federal government to 
shift the burden of proof to the accused in meth manufacturing cases, 
and shot down another that would let police seize suspected proceeds of crime.

"I understand their goals, but there is precedent declaring such 
motions unconstitutional and a violation of rights.

"Coming up with simple-sounding solutions like this will not help 
curb meth use. It hinders the debate."

Stevens also said measures like forcing teens into locked-up 
treatment facilities won't work.

"That's incarceration, and there's overwhelming evidence that locking 
up drug users doesn't help them rehabilitate."

Stevens dismissed a half-dozen other recommendations in the anti-meth 
report, listed under the "Getting Tough" header, among them an 
attempt to have drug criminals labelled violent offenders, denied 
bail rights and conditional sentences.
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