First Nations leaders say they must be given the right to govern the sale and distribution of legalized marijuana within their communities and to set the laws that will oversee its use by their people. Chiefs attending an annual conference of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) on Wednesday expressed wide-ranging views on the federal Liberal government's plan for legalizing cannabis by next July 1. Some told the assembly they have not had enough time or money to prepare for the change and urged the AFN to ask for a delay in the implementation of Bill C-45, which would make marijuana legal in Canada for the first time in 94 years. [continues 636 words]
Health Canada is easing its prohibitions against safety testing of medical marijuana, which will allow registered growers and patients to have the product scrutinized at federally certified laboratories to ensure it is safe. The federal government plans to legalize marijuana for recreational use next year, and the move will give added protection in an unregulated market to consumers, many of whom worry that some marijuana being sold as medicine could contain harmful contaminants. Hundreds of storefront dispensaries have sprung up across the country, particularly in Toronto and Vancouver. The government considers them illegal, and had no oversight of their products, leaving medical users with no way to ensure their safety. The government did not allow patients access to federal labs capable of detecting potentially harmful contaminants. [continues 880 words]
Tom Mulcair, whose New Democrats are promising to decriminalize marijuana possession but not to make it legal, says he understands legalization will happen eventually under an NDP government. The NDP Leader spent part of the late afternoon on Tuesday taking part in a town hall that was organized by Vice, an online news service that caters to a young demographic. The audience wanted to know why Mr. Mulcair was advocating that marijuana merely be decriminalized and not legalized. He responded by saying decriminalization is something he could do immediately if his party is elected to form a government next Monday. [continues 381 words]
A re-elected Conservative Party would give police more resources to go after marijuana grow-ops and create a help line for parents who are concerned about their children's drug abuse, but Stephen Harper says he remains opposed to loosening pot laws. The Conservative Leader told an audience of supporters Tuesday in Markham, north of Toronto, that his party believes the use of illegal drugs remains too high in Canada, especially among young people. "Keeping dangerous and destructive drugs away from our children isn't a point of debate, it's simply the right thing to do," he said. [continues 560 words]
Despite Ottawa's clear stand against marijuana, illegal dispensaries have flourished, while cannabis is now traded on the TSX As the Conservative government's champion in the war on pot, Health Minister Rona Ambrose has taken some heavy blows and faces the prospect of more. Ms. Ambrose was "outraged" in early June when the Supreme Court ruled that legal medical marijuana users would be permitted to eat the drug as well as smoke it. She was "deeply disappointed" last week when Vancouver said it would regulate marijuana dispensaries, most of which obtain their supply from unauthorized sources. [continues 1116 words]
Described as an authoritative public servant, parliamentarian leaves behind a legacy of political achievements for the federal Tories For much of his life, Senator Pierre Claude Nolin was a model of Tory partisanship. He was campaign strategist for Brian Mulroney and Jean Charest. He helped Stephen Harper win the 2006 election. He was a leader in the backrooms of conservative politics in Quebec for three decades. Yet, during the short time he was Speaker of the Senate, Mr. Nolin tried to loosen the partisan shackles that constrain his colleagues. And, as a parliamentarian, he followed the directives of his heart even when they were at odds with those of the Conservative leadership. [continues 1299 words]
Police appear to be losing their zeal for investigating marijuana-related offences - particularly those related to cases of trafficking and production. While they are still searching people for pot and laying charges of possession, statistics suggest they are increasingly less likely to go to the trouble of finding actual drug dealers. The federal Conservative government has introduced a slate of legislation aimed at punishing those who profit from marijuana production and distribution. But criminologists say those laws are not working in a country where the majority of people, and perhaps even a majority of police, do not recognize the recreational use of cannabis to be a crime worth prosecuting. [continues 502 words]
Growers of medical marijuana say they will expand their selection and provide better measures of medicinal content as Health Canada determines which companies will be granted licences to produce the drug commercially. "Eventually, we are going to evolve it to a true medicine," said Brent Zettl, the CEO of Saskatchewan-based Prairie Plant Systems which, for more than a decade, has held the lone government contract to grow the pot that the federal department dispenses to many of Canada's medical users. [continues 334 words]
Key law-enforcement officials are praising obstacles created by the Harper government to limit federal approval of new supervised injection sites for drugs users. But health experts who work with addicts say the proposed rules ignore the evidence that the sites save lives. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq tabled a bill in Parliament on Thursday that would require the federal government to consider a range of factors, including the views of police and local government officials, before granting exemptions to drug laws and allowing the clinics to operate. [continues 690 words]
New rules drafted by the Harper government for establishing supervised injection sites for drug addicts could make it more difficult for Vancouver's InSite to be replicated elsewhere in Canada. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, who expressed disappointment in 2011 when the Supreme Court of Canada ordered the government to stop interfering with the controversial clinic, will table a bill in the House of Commons on Thursday that clarifies how supervised-injection sites can be created. It is expected to focus heavily on the need to consult members of the community and respect their values and voices. That means any opposition could make it difficult for proponents of a supervised-injection site to move forward. [continues 469 words]
One prospective grower of medical marijuana is a law student who hopes Health Canada officials will be impressed by his "charisma and character." Another has already developed his own "one of a kind" strain of the plant that will help "hundreds, if not thousands, of people from the pains and discomforts that they feel in their everyday lives." And another owns a "highly secure" facility in British Columbia with panic buttons, bollards on its service bays and "bomb grade" anti-shatter windows. [continues 593 words]
The Conservative government's omnibus crime bill has returned from the Senate to the House of Commons with amendments that will allow terrorism victims and their families to sue state sponsors of terror. The amendments are similar to those proposed by Liberal MP Irwin Cotler when the bill was before the Commons justice committee. They were rejected by the Conservative MPs on that committee and, by the time the government decided they were important additions to the legislation, it was too late to make changes to the bill in the Commons. So it was up to Tories in the Senate, specifically Senator Bob Runciman, to make the amendments. [continues 377 words]
A broad slate of justice measures - many of them contentious for their cost and for the limits they place on judicial discretion - is about to become law as the House of Commons puts an omnibus Conservative crime bill to a final vote. The bill, which the opposition says will fill prisons without making streets safer, has been returned by the Senate to the House of Commons with amendments to allow terrorism victims and their families to sue state sponsors of terror. [continues 444 words]
The decision by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff to stand against a crime bill that he once supported was a blow to the federal government's justice agenda -- one that allows the Conservatives to highlight the policy gap between the two federal parties. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson held a news conference Thursday to lambaste Mr. Ignatieff for his party's about-face on Bill S-10, which would impose mandatory minimum sentences for some drug crimes, including the cultivation of as few as six marijuana plants if the crop was intended for sale. [continues 599 words]
More than 500 health professionals from across Canada have written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and opposition leaders to protest a government bill that would impose mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes including growing small amounts of marijuana. The physicians, scientists and researchers, led by the Urban Health Research Initiative, a program of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, and the Canadian Public Health Association argue that the measures included in Bill S-10 are both ineffective and expensive. [continues 463 words]
OTTAWA -- Canadians convicted of crimes abroad have been told they must now undergo security checks by Canada's spy agency before they can be transferred to a prison in this country. The process will delay the transfers for months - possibly even years - regardless of the type of crime committed and the threat the prisoners pose to public safety. Critics suggest the policy was introduced at the request of Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who does not approve of returning drug dealers to Canada to serve their time. But it has been left to the bureaucrats at the International Transfers office within Correctional Service Canada to pass on the news to prisoners and their families. [continues 587 words]
Protesters Angered by Federal Government's Plan to Appeal B.C. Court Decision Keeping Vancouver Safe-Injection Site Open OTTAWA -- Supporters of British Columbia's safe-injection site erected 868 wooden crosses on Parliament Hill yesterday to protest against the federal government's court bid that would see the site shut down. Each cross represented an overdose that organizers said had occurred in the Insite facility since it opened in 2003. "Those are people that could have died had it not been for a nurse intervening right away," said Nathan Allen, the co-ordinator of a group called Insite for Community Safety. He said his group represented Vancouver's Portland Hotel Society, which helps run Insite, as well as church groups, labour unions, community groups, parent groups and individual citizens. [continues 356 words]
Advocates in B.C. Upset in Light of Health Minister's Decision Last Week to Contest Ruling That Validated Vancouver's Insite Program OTTAWA, VANCOUVER -- Health Minister Tony Clement says his government will not necessarily oppose safe-injection sites for illegal drugs in Quebec even though it will appeal a court decision allowing a similar facility in British Columbia. "It's a situation that we can discuss with the province. There is no decision now, today," Mr. Clement said when asked about the possibility that Quebec will set up a facility like Vancouver's Insite. [continues 631 words]
Arguing Vancouver Clinic Is Not Effective, Health Minister Says He Will Appeal B.C. Supreme Court Ruling That Allows It To Stay Open OTTAWA -- Ottawa moved yesterday to close Canada's only sanctioned safe-injection site, announcing it will appeal a B.C. court ruling that Vancouver's Insite should stay open because reducing the risk of drug overdoses is a vital health service. "In my opinion, supervised injection is not medicine; it does not heal the person addicted to drugs," Health Minister Tony Clement told the House of Commons health committee yesterday. [continues 839 words]
OTTAWA -- The organizers of Vancouver's safe-injection site took retired policemen from Australia and Britain - as well as a retired Vancouver officer - to Ottawa yesterday to plead for an extension of the site's licence. With the June 30 expiry looming, Insite is trying to drum up support for its continued existence as a place in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside where addicts can inject their own illegal drugs in clean, supervised conditions. The three retired policemen told reporters that closing the site would mean more deaths among the most vulnerable members of society - the poor and the uneducated - and would cost the criminal-justice system untold dollars if police were left to deal with overdoses. [continues 563 words]
Proposed Legislation Would Set Mandatory Prison Terms for Dealers Who Are Linked to Organized Crime or Who Traffic Near Schools OTTAWA -- Serious drug offenders could no longer hope for leniency under new legislation introduced yesterday by the federal government. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson offered an unusually sympathetic message for those who resort to non-violent crime to support their habits, but he also urged strong action against major producers and dealers and drug peddlers whose customers include young people. "For too long, Canadians have been getting mixed messages about drugs," Mr. Nicholson told reporters. "With today's bill, we are saying that serious drug crimes will mean serious jail times." [continues 437 words]
OTTAWA -- The man known as the U.S. drug czar offered an unusually friendly message to Canada yesterday, thanking officials on this side of the border for their "renewed focus on illicit drug abuse." John Walters, the director of the National Drug Control Policy, was in Ottawa to speak at a meeting of the Canadian Centre on substance abuse, where he boasted that his policies have reduced drug use among American teens by 23.2 per cent since 2001. "We want work on controlling both supply and demand so we can see not only declines, but sustained declines," he told reporters. [continues 514 words]
OTTAWA -- The alleged kingpin of a complex drug-running network that spanned from Vancouver to Toronto to Montreal lived in a modern, two-storey home in suburban Ottawa -- the kind of place where you would expect to be greeted by a hockey dad. But instead of a minivan, he drove a flashy black sports car. And, judging by the types of guns confiscated from his associates, any shots being fired had nothing to do with pucks and nets. The group was "very well organized," Inspector Gary Meehan of the Ottawa police told a news conference yesterday. That enabled "a hierarchy of associates to conduct hands-on business of drug trafficking and debt collection" under the direction of a leader who had "layers of subordinates." [continues 347 words]
OTTAWA -- Canadian Troops Being Sent to Afghanistan in February Are Being Tested for Illegal Drug Use -- and About 5 Per Cent Are Failing. The 2,300 Canadian Forces personnel, most of them from CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick, are the first group to be checked for illicit drugs since the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier, announced last November that the inspections would take place. Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium and the military does not want to send people who already have problems into that environment. More than that, it needs troops who are in full control of their faculties. [continues 514 words]
KITCHENER, ONT. -- The chief executive of Mothers Against Drunk Driving is fearful that legislation promised yesterday to combat drugged drivers will not be passed into law before the Conservative minority falls. Previous bills aimed at stopping drivers impaired by drugs died along with the Liberal governments that introduced them. But Andrew Murie said he is glad to see Prime Minister Stephen Harper going back at the problem that his group says claims many lives, particularly among young people. "I feel very strongly that we need to get this through this time," Mr. Murie said after the Prime Minister announced that his government would give the police the power to arrest and test people they suspect of driving while under the influence of drugs. [continues 523 words]
Drivers who get behind the wheel while stoned on drugs will be targeted in new legislation to be announced today by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, sources have told The Globe and Mail. Mr. Harper will unveil the legal changes in Kitchener, Ont., where he will be accompanied by Senator Marjorie LeBreton, whose daughter Linda LeBreton-Holmes and her 12-year-old son Brian were killed more than 10 years ago by a drunk driver. Mr. Harper will announce that the Criminal Code will be amended to allow police to apprehend and test drug-impaired drivers, something that previous Liberal governments had tried unsuccessfully to enact, government sources said. [continues 485 words]
A Nickel A Drink Could Pay For Better Care And Housing For Sufferers, Senators Say OTTAWA - If Canadians would pay an extra five cents for every bottle of beer, glass of wine or shot of Scotch they drink, the country's mentally ill could be adequately housed and cared for in their own communities, a group of senators said yesterday. "A nickel a drink is all it would take to produce a first-class mental health system in Canada," Senator Michael Kirby told a news conference held to mark the release of a Senate committee's solutions for the problems posed by mental illness. [continues 668 words]
Tories Trailing Liberals in Regional Polls VICTORIA -- Stephen Harper heads east this week, hoping to make indignation over the sponsorship scandal burn hot enough to sear Atlantic seats away from the Liberals but also to convince easterners that he can offer them a better way. The Conservative Leader spent time in every region of the country during the first five days of the campaign. His tour ended with a noisy pep rally in Victoria on Saturday afternoon. This week the focus will be slightly more concentrated. After a couple events in Ontario, Mr. Harper will turn toward the Maritimes with stops in St. John's, Fredericton and Prince Edward Island. [continues 829 words]
Burnaby, B.C. -- Stephen Harper said Saturday a Conservative government will be tough on drug crime and make it much more difficult for people convicted of drug offences to peddle their wares to children. At a press conference in Burnaby, B.C., the Conservative leader said he would impose mandatory minimum sentences of at least two years for people who are convicted of trafficking, selling or importing hard drugs, like heroin, cocaine and crystal meth. He would ban conditional sentences, or house arrest, for for all indictable offences and increase fines to reflect the true value of the profit that can be made for dealing the banned substances. [continues 105 words]
CANADA - The folks who live near the northern Ontario farm where police found 21,000 neatly planted marijuana stalks this month said there was something funny about the operation from the start. For one thing, most of the hardy people who choose to live near this paper-mill town north of Toronto know each other. But the new owners who moved in this year were outsiders from Toronto who kept to themselves. They were Chinese, didn't speak English, and, as far as any of the neighbors could tell, they became invisible once they took possession of the land. There was not even a tractor on the farm. [continues 429 words]
Grow Operators Deserve Jail Terms, Minister Says OTTAWA -- Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan warned judges yesterday to take marijuana laws seriously and said they will be held to account if jail terms are not imposed on those who run grow operations. "We are putting the onus on the courts - the judiciary, in a sense - to take this crime seriously," Ms. McLellan said at a Liberal policy convention in Ottawa. "This is not a victimless crime, and therefore I think the judiciary needs to start to reflect the harsh reality of illegal grow-ops and the consequences for our communities and society in the sentences they hand out." [continues 550 words]
Union Vows To Fight Decision In Court Citing Lack Of Evidence That Problems Exist The Toronto Police Association promises to take the force to court in its battle to prevent officers entering high-risk jobs from being tested for drug abuse, psychological problems and financial difficulties. "The association will fight this," said Dave Wilson, president of the 7,700-member police union. "It's fundamentally unacceptable to us that this is going on and we will fight it in every way we can." [continues 467 words]
Ontario 18-year-old Accused Of Selling Powerful Painkillers To Two Young Men A teenager from Timmins, Ont., was released on bail yesterday after being charged with manslaughter in the deaths of two other teens who overdosed on a heavy-duty pain reliever that they had taken illegally. Andrew Tessier, 17, and Daniel Drouin, 19, both of Timmins, were found dead in their beds last week. "The lads went to sleep at home," said Timmons police Staff Sergeant Sandy MacKinnon. "Relatives tried to wake them up and couldn't." [continues 633 words]
As Grits Plan To Decriminalize Pot, Study Shows Possession Charges Also Increasing Melissa made a stupid mistake. One afternoon last fall she and two friends lit up a joint outside her suburban Toronto high school. There wasn't much she could say to the police officer who pulled up in a cruiser beside her while she was taking a drag on a marijuana cigarette. "I was holding all of it on me, so I took the blame for my friends. It's better that one person gets [in trouble] than everyone," the 17-year-old said yesterday. [continues 772 words]
Day Marks Occasion of Celebration and Protest Among Marijuana Users in North America It may seem like just another Tuesday, but today -- called 4:20 by those in the know -- is a high holy day for North America's dedicated pot smokers. To some, April 20 is a good day to light up a joint and celebrate marijuana with friends. To others, its a time to protest against the fact that, despite moves toward decriminalization, the drug is still illegal in both Canada and the United States. [continues 657 words]
Day marks occasion of celebration and protest among marijuana users in North America It may seem like just another Tuesday, but today -- called 4:20 by those in the know -- is a high holy day for North America's dedicated pot smokers. To some, April 20 is a good day to light up a joint and celebrate marijuana with friends. To others, its a time to protest against the fact that, despite moves toward decriminalization, the drug is still illegal in both Canada and the United States. [continues 655 words]
BURLINGTON, ONT. -- In a dark basement in this wealthy residential city sandwiched between Toronto and Hamilton, a group of teens has gathered to celebrate the end of a school week. One of them uses a razor to shave a tiny pill emblazoned with a blue Superman logo into a powder that is formed into a line on the top of a formica coffee table. A pretty girl holds back her long brown hair and takes a sniff. Then another pill is found and it's someone else's turn. [continues 978 words]
During a decade when Canadians grew increasingly tolerant of marijuana use, the number of simple possession charges more than doubled - a trend that critics say has increased the costs of running an already overburdened court system. Charges for marijuana hit 50,246 across Canada in 2002, according to recently released figures from Statistics Canada. That compares with 1992, when there were 23,178. The steady rise came to a halt in Ontario this spring when a series of court decisions effectively obliterated marijuana-possession laws, and police chiefs told their officers to stop laying charges when they found small quantities. [continues 548 words]
Hockey Organizers Ask Dad to Move Boy to Another Team to Avoid Showdown A nine-year-old boy has switched hockey teams over fears of potential dressing-room hostilities involving his father, who uses marijuana for medical purposes, and his coaches, who are members of the Ontario Provincial Police. Nicolas Neron of Hearst, a town of 1,000 in Northern Ontario, had been selected in a blind draft to play for a team sponsored by a committee that runs the local Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program. D.A.R.E. is an Ontario-wide initiative used by police to alert children to the dangers of illegal drugs. [continues 602 words]
A nondescript warehouse near Pearson International Airport housed what Peel Regional Police say is the largest indoor marijuana farm discovered in Ontario to date. Peel Regional officers raided the building in the early morning hours yesterday and arrested four people after discovering roughly 9,500 plants growing in the 3,700-square-metre storage area. Constable Heather Andrews said the operation was not only mammoth but sophisticated. "What the people had done is make a second level and there were plants also on that second level," she said. "There were plants inside grow pots throughout the entire floor of this place with huge lights hanging down overtop of them." [continues 247 words]
Two major drug busts in the past week -- one in Toronto and one in Vancouver -- have netted more heroin than Canadian police forces seized in all of 1998. And the officer in charge of the Toronto investigation says at least some of the illegal and highly addictive substance was headed for the Hamilton area. Superintendent Ben Soave, the RCMP commander of the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, said yesterday the 57 kilograms of heroin found last Thursday in a shipment of duck eggs would have supplied the whole Golden Horseshoe. [continues 728 words]
In uttering those famous words, "I did not inhale," 1992 presidential hopeful Bill Clinton sounded -- well, let's be charitable here -- insincere. There was little doubt in the minds of the U.S. public that the candidate for America's top job had indeed let marijuana smoke fill his lungs and that he had felt compelled to lie about it. So, eight years later, Canadian Alliance candidate Stockwell Day tells reporters in Woodstock, Ont.: "Yes, I have done marijuana and I did inhale." [continues 759 words]
By GLORIA GALLOWAY The Canadian Press TORONTO It's the teenagers that bother pharmacist Komal Khosla the kids who show up at his midtown methadone clinic with a $400aday habit and needle tracks beneath their highschool jerseys. "When you get a 45yearold heroin addict, that makes sense," he says, taking a break from the business of keeping junkies clean. "When you get a 17yearold, it doesn't." Fortunately, in the summer of 1997, Khosla and his physician colleagues have easy access to methadone, used to help addicts kick their habit by alleviating the symptoms of withdrawal. [continues 553 words]
