Police Will Help Pick Canada's Judges OTTAWA -- The Conservative government has named the first police officials in Canada who will have a say in the appointment of judges. The officials range from a Vancouver detective who worked on the Pickton case to a Toronto police-union boss who called for a tougher law-enforcement approach to gun violence. They will sit on the judicial advisory committees that assess judgeship applicants, a fact that is raising concerns that the balance of power on the committees has shifted in favour of the Minister of Justice. [continues 319 words]
OTTAWA -- A bill to curb drugged driving and to stiffen penalties for alcohol-impaired motorists is drawing fire from at least one legal expert and one opposition critic, who say the legislation is unconstitutional. The comments came after Justice Minister Vic Toews tabled legislation that gives police the power to request blood or urine samples from suspected impaired drivers. The bill, heralded two weeks ago by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, also punishes those drivers who refuse to provide blood or urine samples or who turn down a breath analysis. [continues 461 words]
Move to Let Police Help Pick Judges Seen As Pushing Agenda to Get Tough on Crime OTTAWA -- Opposition parties accused the Conservative government yesterday of trying to use the courts to advance its tough-on-crime agenda. Those accusations came as Justice Minister Vic Toews continued to draw sharp rebukes from legal bodies over his proposed changes to the way judges are chosen. And in spite of the dissent, Mr. Toews announced that he will proceed with his plan to give police officials a voice in the appointment of federal judges, a move that opposition critics warn could skew the courts in favour of a heavy-handed law-enforcement approach. [continues 408 words]
Legal Marijuana Grow-Op To Continue But Activists Decry Research Cutbacks OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have decided the study of medicinal marijuana is a waste of money, but his government is still interested in selling pot. After gutting a $4-million fund destined to research the therapeutic properties of cannabis, the Conservatives recently extended the contract of Canada's only legal grow-op. As part of the new deal, Prairie Plant Systems Inc. will keep growing marijuana inside an abandoned mine shaft and sell it to the government for at least one more year. [continues 538 words]
'They Have A Place That's Welcoming' When June walked into the Cactus needle exchange centre recently, she was short $10 to buy a 10th of a gram of heroin, her usual evening dose. She walked out carrying five syringes, a few aluminum cups the size of soft drink bottle caps, a handful of alcohol pads and five water flasks. When she finds the money to buy her fix, she will dissolve the heroin in the sterilized water and heat it in the aluminum cup to kill bacteria. Then she will draw the mix in the syringe, rub her arm with the alcohol pad, find a vein and slowly inject herself. [continues 387 words]
Eleven years ago, Darlene Palmer was biking to her evening job after working all morning and shooting heroin and cocaine all night. Today, Darlene is driving to her evening job after working all morning and has been clean for almost ten years. "I thought it was the drugs that kept me going, but it wasn't," she says. "And it's not the coffee, either." The 47-year old Plateau resident spends her nights as an intervention worker at the Centre d'action communautaire aupres des toxicomanes utilisateurs de seringues (CACTUS), a needle exchange clinic on St-Hubert St. that caters to intravenous drug users. During the day, she coordinates SurvUDI, a research project on HIV/AIDS. She goes to bed at four in the morning and is up and at 'em at seven. [continues 1328 words]
