Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jan 2006
Source: Tri-City News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2006, Tri-City News
Contact:  http://www.tricitynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1239
Author: Kate Trotter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?241 (Methamphetamine - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)

MANDATORY MINIMUMS NOT A DETERRENT: COTLER

Residents of Westwood Plateau, a community with million dollar homes 
and views worth almost as much are living in a "narco-terrorist 
zone," the federal justice minister was told Monday at a forum hosted 
by Liberal candidate Jon Kingsbury.

Judy Salvador, vice-president of the Westwood Plateau Residents' 
Association, told Irwin Cotler that marijuana grow operations and 
meth labs are destroying the liveability of the neighbourhood.

"Narco-terrorism zone may sound a little melodramatic but it's only 
the beginning," she said. "People have found deceased persons by 
their front door, bullet holes in their front doors and watched 
houses burn down."

Salvador said banning hand guns won't stop the violence because 
criminals are using machetes and knives to protect their drugs. "We 
implore you do to what is right."

Cotler pointed to his government's action to combat the scourge of 
drugs - it promoted amphetamines to the most restricted, and 
punishable, drug category - but said that more needs to be done to 
combat meth labs and grow ops.

"We will need a tougher regime," he said. "A drug tsunami is growing 
across the country that has to be combated."

cotler is one of Canada's foremost jurists, a law scholar and an 
international human rights lawyer who has served as counsel to former 
prisoners of conscience, including Nelson Mandela.

He is also a politician, first elected in Montreal in 1999, and has a 
politician's relationship with the media. At Port Moody's Inlet 
Theatre Monday, he disparaged the media, accusing it of "drive-by 
headlines" that distort the truth of court sentences.

Maria Firenze's son, David, 23, was killed last year by Jenny 
Woloshyn, an impaired driver who had three previous convictions, 
including one for impaired driving. She was sentenced to two years in 
jail and two years probation.

"She killed my son," Firenze told cotler. "She was sentenced to less 
than what her defendant lawyer asked for. Lenient sentencing is not a 
deterrent."

Cotler, who cannot comment on individual decisions, said minimum jail 
sentences, a plank in the Conservative election platform, are not the 
answer. "Mandatory minimum sentences are not a deterrent," he said. 
"They are held out as a panacea but they are [only] a part of combating crime.

"More effective law enforcement does act as a deterrent. [Criminals] 
are deterred by the likelihood they are apprehended."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom