Pubdate: Fri, 04 Mar 2016
Source: Mission City Record (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 The Mission City Record
Contact:  http://www.missioncityrecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1305
Author: Tom Fletcher

BOWING TO THE POWER OF 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: Jay Bergstrom