Pubdate: Thu, 11 Jun 1998
Source: The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. CA) 
Contact:  
Website: http://www.southam.com/kitchenerwaterloorecord/
Author: Brian Caldwell

CITY SHOULD JUST SAY NO TO PROPOSED POT CARNIVAL

Organizers of a so-called cannbis carnival in Victoria Park this summer
can't have it both ways. If they want to protest, they should protest. If
they want to raise funds, they should raise funds.

And if they can't make up their minds what it's going to be, Kitchener
council should do it for them. The city just can't sanction an event that
could include, either by design or by default, illegal activities. Smoking
marijuana is clearly in that category.

Whether it should be or not is well worth debating, especially in cases
where ill people benefit from medicinal use of the drug. Anne McLennan, the
federal justice minister, has said she's willing to entertain possable changes.

But in the meantime, the law is still the law.

Kitchener officials didn't write it and they have no authority to change it,
even if they're so inclined. Their only role is to respect the rules while
acknowledging the respect the rights of their residents to express
opposition to them.

Those aims will be properly balanced if the Cannabis Awareness Project is
permitted to use the park July 25 to discuss the issues and raise some money
for a local club that advocates the medicinal use of marijuana.

But if their's any hint, any whiff, that participants might challenge the
law by flouting the law, the group's request should be flatly denied.

A committee of councillors took the right approach this week when it
insisted organizers use marshals to sniff out pot smokers. It isn't being
hysterical to worry some people will light up at an event dedicated to
making it legal everywhere.

If organizers can't or won't provide unconditional assurances that they'll
police the park themselves, councillors should shut the event down when they
consider it again next week.

Free speech is fine. Smoking marijuana is not. That must be absolutely
understood by everybody involved before the city puts its official stamp of
approval on any permit.

Taking a hard line undoubtedly puts organizers in an awkward spot. One of
them complained it would be the height of hypocrisy to dedicate a day to
decriminalizing marijuana and then forbid participants from using it.

He's probably right, but that's his problem.

Breaking laws to challenge laws is an established form of political protest
in this country. If that's the idea, committed pot smokers are free to start
puffing any time and any place.

Local women opposed to indecency laws did it quite successfully a few years
ago by baring their breasts in Waterloo Park. The whole point was causing a
fuss to test attitudes and getting arrested to test the law itself. It would
have been silly to seek prior approval or combine their protest with a bake
sale and charity car wash.

The same goes now for the cannabis carnival.

If it's supposed to be an in-your-face protest, getting permission is both
ridiculous and impossible. If it's supposed to be a community fund-raiser,
it will just have to abide by the laws of the land.

As for councillors, their choice should be clear: just say no to organizers
who don't say no to drugs.

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Checked-by: Melodi Cornett