Crime The following quote on CTV's web site this past week was attributed to University of Winnipeg criminologist Dr. Michael Weinrath. "He isn't surprised by the violence inside the prison walls, violence that had several people taken by ambulance from the prison. In an institution there's going to be some vying for power and control over the drug trade. There's going to be some violence from time to time." That statement is surprising from two points of view. One is, it shouldn't take an expert to know that prisons are violent places. To a large extent the inmates are violent people so it shouldn't be a surprise that they behave violently at times. The other surprise though is the apparent admission of defeat on the drug trade front. Surely most citizens would ask why there are drugs in prisons, let alone competing factions trying to control the trade? [continues 439 words]
I am writing in support of my husband and the awesome police officers he's worked with over the years. He can't comment publicly on the blatant stupidity he sees too often in the decisions that judges make. Regarding this marijuana bust, just how many doors would Justice Catherine Bruce like him to announce his presence at? Is she aware that, in the vast majority of cases, little or nothing is known about the occupants of a residence prior to the execution of a search warrant? [continues 88 words]
A Porter Creek Secondary School student who suffers severe allergies to animals would be forced to seek her high school education elsewhere if the Canines for Safer Schools program brings a dog into the building. Yukon Supreme Court Justice Ron Veale heard that argument this morning. The student's family is seeking an injunction which would prevent the dog from coming into the school each day, as the family seeks a judicial review of the Yukon Human Rights Commission decision against it. [continues 606 words]
Porter Creek Secondary School's drug awareness co-ordinator says he's disappointed having his dog, Ebony, enter the school for the program came down to a matter of winning and losing. This morning, Yukon Supreme Court Justice Ron Veale ruled the school can bring Ebony in on a daily basis as part of the Canines for Safer Schools program, which is being run by Doug Green. School principal Kerry Huff also expressed disappointment at the way the case had played out, telling reporters he had hoped the school would find a way to accommodate the student. [continues 742 words]
A visiting territorial court judge has sentenced a local drug courier to a 7 1/2-year penitentiary term in what's been referred to as the Yukon's largest drug bust. While the sentence would be a total of eight years, Jacob Lee, 47, was given credit for the months he has spent in custody prior to being convicted. On Wednesday afternoon, Judge Donald Luther agreed to the proposed sentence for Lee. The man had pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking marijuana and trafficking cocaine. [continues 461 words]
Whether the Canines for Safer Schools program will continue with a dog at Porter Creek Secondary School may be settled out of court later this week. In Yukon Supreme Court on Monday, both the school and the family opposing the dog's presence agreed to go through judicial mediation. The family, whose name has been prohibited from publication, is against bringing the dog into the school because their child, a student at the high school, has a serious allergy to dogs. [continues 374 words]
The Canines for Safer Schools program will include a canine after all. Porter Creek Secondary School principal Kerry Huff was informed earlier this week by the Yukon Human Rights Commission that the school can go ahead with including the animal in the three-year-pilot program, aimed at dealing with drug use and other issues at the school. "I'm very pleased," Huff said in an interview this morning. While the Yukon government approved funding for the program, a complaint over having a dog in the school was brought forward to the commission by the family of a student with severe allergies to dogs. [continues 425 words]
Crown prosecutors will need time to decide how to proceed after territorial court judge Karen Ruddy ruled there were a number of Charter violations in the arrests and search warrants used in 2005 against eight men over a number of marijuana grow operations around the city. In an interview Tuesday afternoon, prosecutor Ludovic Gouallier said the decision certainly favours the defence counsel's arguments to leave certain evidence out because of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms breaches. However, the Crown needs time to analyze the 83-page document and consider what the implications will be, he said. [continues 1819 words]
Doug Green is clear on what he wants the Canines for Safer Schools Program to be about. "This is education," he said in an interview this morning from his Edmonton home. Green, a former Edmonton police officer who created a similar program there, accepted the position of handler for Porter Creek Secondary School last Friday, though the contract for the position has yet to be signed. It's expected Green will begin his work on June 1, school principal Kerry Huff told the Star this morning. [continues 1099 words]
Crown prosecutors have dropped drug charges against 15 people who were arrested following a two-month undercover RCMP investigation throughout the territory last fall. Crown prosecutor Ludovic Gouallier said this morning visiting Justice Rene Foisy of Alberta sided with the entrapment argument presented in a Faro resident's case in February. It was argued that the man, who was charged with one count of trafficking marijuana, had been entrapped in the M Division's RCMP undercover operation. Gouallier noted that in such an undercover operation where police are participating in a criminal activity, the defence of entrapment can be raised. [continues 106 words]
Whitehorse RCMP made what's being described as the largest cocaine seizure in the territory's history on Saturday night. Two men are facing charges, police said today. At around 10:20 p.m. Saturday, officers stopped a cube van headed north on the Alaska Highway, just south of Whitehorse. There, the driver and passenger were detained while officers executed the search warrant. Inside the van, concealed among produce boxes and restaurant supplies, police found about 4.95 kilograms (11.5 lbs.) of cocaine and 41 kilograms (91.5 lbs.) of marijuana, police said in a statement. [continues 220 words]
It might only be a joint, but territorial prevention consultant Sandy Bowlby wants Yukoners to know there are harmful effects that come with it. "It is a drug and it is addictive," Bowlby, a prevention consultant with the territory's prevention services department, said in an interview earlier this week. New studies have indicated marijuana is physically addictive, heightens cancer rates and risks to mental health and impacts short-term memory, Bowlby said. On Thursday evening, the branch will host a public meeting at the Gold Rush Inn to look at the effects of pot use. [continues 485 words]
Porter Creek Secondary School is planning to go ahead with its Canines for Safer Schools Program with or without a canine. "They think they need to push it forward," principal Kerry Huff said this week of the committee overseeing the project. The program, which would see a dog and its handler come into the school daily, was promised $250,000 for a three-year pilot project from the territorial government last year. The program was put on hold though after a complaint was filed with the Yukon Human Rights Commission by the parent of a student who has a doctor's note stating the pupil has a life-threatening allergy to dogs. [continues 437 words]
The announcement of an RCMP street crime reduction team is good news for the Whitehorse business community says Rick Karp, president of the Whitehorse Chamber of Commerce. The Yukon government announced on Monday of last week that it will provide the RCMP with $1.4 million over three years to establish the team. "What it means is that these additional police officers will be exclusively dedicated to tackle crime hot spots and prolific criminal offenders on our streets," Dave Shewchuk, the RCMP's chief superintendent, said at the news conference where the announcement was made. [continues 526 words]
As Porter Creek Secondary School students returned to class Thursday, they might have been disappointed after expecting to be greeted at the school by a puppy. "They certainly were excited about it," Kerry Huff, the school's principal, said in an interview Wednesday. "They're expecting (the dog) to be here." The school received about $250,000 from the territorial government to establish a three-year Dogs for Drug Free Schools pilot program. The approval for the program came after the school council brought up Medicine Hat Police Service Sgt. Randy Youngman, who heads up Dogs for Drug Free Schools in the Alberta community. Youngman brought Fiddler up with him as well, one of two dogs that work with the program there. [continues 247 words]
The Yukon government is being asked to spend $250,000 over the next three years on Porter Creek Secondary School. The school council has submitted the proposal to the territorial government in the hopes of establishing the Dogs for Drug Free Schools program in the school this fall, Bonnie Burns, a school council member, said in an interview Friday. The program would see an individual hired to be the dog's handler with the two at the school on a full-time basis. [continues 371 words]
During their short visit to Porter Creek Secondary School, a Medicine Hat, Alta. police officer and his canine friend have been "swamped with kids" wanting to hang out with the chocolate Labrador who's part of the Dogs for Drug Free Schools program in Medicine Hat. On Wednesday night, approximately 60 parents, students, community members and MLAs who packed the local school's cafeteria for a public meeting were asked by Medicine Hat Police Service Sgt. Randy Youngman to think about how well he'd get to know the students if he was at the school full-time with four-legged sidekick Fiddler. [continues 912 words]
Tanya Mickey wants to keep drugs out of her son's school and believes the Dogs for Drug Free Schools program could be the right step toward that. "This ain't going away," she told the Porter Creek Secondary School Council at its meeting Tuesday night after proposing the program. The council opted to invite Sgt. Randy Youngman of the Medicine Hat (Alta.) Police Service to the territory to discuss the program with school, Department of Education, RCMP and other community organizations which could be involved. [continues 485 words]
On The Whole, Alcohol And Marijuana Are The Drugs Of Choice For Those Stettlerites Who Use Substance abuse in east central Alberta closely follows provincial trends, the area manager of Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission said. "It doesn't matter where you are, there's a core base population of 12 to 20 per cent who will abuse drugs or alcohol," said Lance Penny, area supervisor of the Stettler AADAC office. Stettler's office is the regional centre for everything east of Hwy. 21, and spanning from Big Valley north to Hwy. 53. [continues 553 words]
This letter was sent to me and I let the Crystal Meth Anonymous group members read it. They said it should be published. I did research and the girl who wrote this has since died. Her name was Judy West. This was written by a young girl who was addicted to meth and in jail for drug charges. She wrote this while in jail. As you will soon read, she fully grasped the horrors of the drug, as she tells in this simple, yet profound poem. She was released from jail, but, true to her story, the drug owned her. She was found dead not long after. Please keep praying. This thing is worse than any of us realize. [continues 589 words]
