Pubdate: Wed, 02 Mar 2016
Source: Lake Country Calendar (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Black Press
Contact: http://www.lakecountrycalendar.com/contact_us/
Website: http://www.lakecountrycalendar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2229
Author: Tom Fletcher

GOVERNMENT AGAIN BOWING TO THE POWER OF THE JUDGES

One of the enduring legacies of Pierre Trudeau's time as prime
minister is the legal supremacy of the individual, as articulated in
the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

We are seeing this played out with greater force than ever today, by
an activist high court that swatted aside Stephen Harper's attempts to
restrain it, and now orders a meek, politically correct Justin Trudeau
government to do its bidding.

The Federal Court decreed last week that people have the right to grow
their own "medical" marijuana. This ruling is unlikely to be appealed,
given that Trudeau the Younger is committed to legalizing marijuana
for everyone.

There are conditions that show measurable relief from marijuana
products, such as glaucoma or the nausea and loss of appetite
associated with cancer treatments. But much of the so-called medical
marijuana industry is based on unsubstantiated claims about an
inconsistent herbal remedy that hasn't been studied much because it's
been illegal.

The Federal Court case involves four people from B.C., which boasts
more than half of the contested medical marijuana growing licences
issued across the country.

One of the petitioners suffers from a vaguely defined condition known
as "chronic fatigue syndrome," which led to a disability pension from
a federal civil service job at age 45.

The judge cited no research to support the claim that sitting around
smoking dope relieves this condition. Indeed it defies common sense
that a set of symptoms with no identified cause, which might be
confused with what we used to call laziness, would be alleviated by
chronic consumption of a drug that promotes eating chips and watching
TV.

But we peasants aren't supposed to question our monarchs, especially
those in ermine-trimmed red robes at the Supreme Court of Canada.

That court has decreed that our charter, which in Section 7 protects
the "right to life, liberty and security of the person," includes a
right to have a doctor's help to commit suicide. Euthanasia has been
re-branded as "assisted dying" by all the most "progressive"
countries, and Canada has been given a firm deadline to join the club.

(Meanwhile, the term "right to life" is all but banned from university
campuses, to minimize the risk of a crude literal interpretation that
it means, you know, a right to life.)

A Liberal-dominated committee of MPs and senators has recommended
full-throttle implementation, not restricted to terminal illness and
including mental conditions such as depression and dementia. The
majority suggested even "mature minors" should have this new right.

The politicians support allowing doctors to opt out of cases they
won't condone, as long as they provide a referral to another doctor.

In Belgium, one of the pioneers of this brave new world, most of the
growing number of euthanasia patients have had cancer. But as The New
Yorker magazine reported in a ground-breaking article last summer,
others have been euthanized because of autism, anorexia, partial
paralysis, blindness with deafness, manic-depression and yes, chronic
fatigue syndrome.

B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake expressed the hope that Canada ends up
with a consistent policy on doctor-assisted suicide, rather than a
provincial patchwork.

The closest Lake came to politically incorrect criticism was to
caution that "deep discussion" is needed around the court's notion of
a "competent minor," someone not yet entrusted with the vote or access
to a liquor store.

Three dissenting Conservative MPs went so far as to say the
recommendations don't adequately protect seniors who might be coerced
into checking out and passing on their estates. How old-fashioned.
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MAP posted-by: Matt