Pubdate: Wed, 21 Nov 2007
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2007 Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Richard Foot, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

MANDATORY JAIL TERMS IN TORIES' DRUG PLAN

Critic Compares Strategy To U.S. Prohibition

The Conservative government unveiled legislation yesterday to create 
the first mandatory prison terms in Canada for people convicted of 
trafficking illicit drugs.

The proposed changes are the newest chapter in the Harper 
government's sweeping crackdown on crime, which includes bills before 
Parliament to toughen rules for repeat violent offenders, to keep 
accused young offenders in jail before their trials and now to impose 
automatic prison penalties on serious drug offenders.

Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act contains no mandatory 
prison sentences for anyone convicted under the act. Judges use their 
own discretion about whether to send drug pushers and growers to jail.

However, the new bill proposes measures including a one-year 
mandatory jail term for dealing drugs while using a weapon, or for 
dealing drugs in support of organized crime; a two-year mandatory 
term for dealing cocaine, heroin or methamphetamines to young people, 
or for dealing them near a school or any place young people are known 
to frequent; and a mandatory six-month sentence for growing as little 
as one marijuana plant for the purposes of trafficking.

When the government announced plans for the antidrug bill last month, 
Liberal and New Democratic Party critics said the Conservatives were 
embracing a U.S.-style "war on drugs" that treats drug abuse as more 
of a criminal matter than a health issue. Opposition MPs said the 
government should focus more on harm-reduction programs, such as 
safe-injection sites and needle exchanges.

The Conservatives are also proposing to allow judges to exempt 
certain offenders from mandatory prison terms, on condition that they 
complete drug treatment court programs.

Drug treatment courts are designed to help non-violent offenders 
overcome their drug habits if they have trafficked in small amounts 
of drugs to support their addictions.

Rob Nicholson, the Minister of Justice, said yesterday the changes in 
the sentencing provisions are designed to target the people the 
government considers at the root of the drug supply problem: 
large-scale growers and traffickers, organized crime groups that 
finance their operations through drugs, and people who push drugs on 
children and teenagers.

"We've made it very clear that those individuals who are in the 
business of exploiting other people through organized crime and other 
aggravating factors -- through this bill, we want to get serious with 
those individuals and send the right message to them ... you will be 
doing jail time," he said. "We want to put organized crime out of 
business in this country."

But one expert says the changes will only help organized crime groups 
do more business in Canada.

"Tougher penalties for people who produce and traffic drugs will only 
scare the ma-and-pa producers, and organized crime will fill the 
gap," says Eugene Oscapella, a criminal lawyer who teaches drug 
policy at the University of Ottawa and once advised the Law Reform 
Commission of Canada on the issue.

"Organized crime doesn't care about the law. With these changes, this 
government is doing a service for organized crime."

Mr. Oscapella says decades of experience with tough, mandatory 
penalties in the United States have proven that the threat of prison 
terms doesn't deter drug traffickers or growers, just as similar 
policies never deterred organized criminals and illegal bootleggers 
during the U.S. prohibition on alcohol.

He says a better way to tackle the drug problem is to treat it as a 
health issue, and deal with the social factors behind people's addictions.

Mr. Nicholson says the government is doing exactly that, alongside 
its law-and-order changes.

He says the new sentencing legislation is part of the government's 
national antidrug strategy, announced last month, which includes 
programs run by Health Canada to prevent and treat drug addictions.

While the government was revealing its drug plans, a Commons 
committee passed its signature crime bill without amendment.

The committee finished a clause-by-clause study of Bill C-2, known as 
the Tackling Violent Crime Act, an omnibus of five crime bills that 
died when the last session of the current Parliament ended on Sept. 
14. The bill was reintroduced when the House reconvened a month ago.

The bill increases mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes and 
impaired driving, and creates two new indictable offences -- robbery 
to steal a firearm and breaking and entering to steal a firearm.

As well, it requires those convicted of three or more serious sexual 
or violent offences to prove why they should not be jailed 
indefinitely, and institutes a similar reverse onus for bail for 
those accused of firearm offences.

It also raises the age at which youths may engage in non-exploitive 
sexual activity to 16 from 14.

In an extraordinary move, all four parties agreed last month to give 
the committee until midnight Thursday to finish its deliberations. 
Though the three opposition parties proposed amendments, most were 
ruled out of order and none were approved. Third reading is expected 
before the House rises on Dec. 14.

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PROPOSED DRUG LAWS

Legislation proposed yesterday by the Conservative party includes the 
following new measures:

- -Mandatory one-year jail term for dealing drugs while using a weapon, 
or for dealing drugs in support of organized crime;

- -Two-year mandatory term for dealing cocaine, heroin or 
methamphetamines to young people, or dealing near a school or any 
place young people are known to frequent;

- -Mandatory six-month sentence for growing marijuana for trafficking;

- -Two-year mandatory term for a marijuana grow-operation of at least 500 plants;

- -A doubling of the maximum prison term for cannabis production from 
seven to 14 years.

- -Tougher penalties for trafficking date-rape drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom