STUPID, YES, BUT GUILTY?... Daniell Anderson got what I expected he'd get Wednesday. But did he get what he deserved? Anderson, a young Fort Rouge drug dealer -- whose reputation for selling pot was known at least as far away as Tuxedo -- was found guilty of attempting to murder a Winnipeg police officer and attempting to wound another. This by firing blindly through a bathroom door after drug-raiding police burst into the family home two years ago. Police testified they loudly identified themselves as they entered the house. [continues 174 words]
The Province has announced plans in its recent capital budget to invest $2.5 million in a facility for youth at risk, earmarking $500,000 in 2009-2010 and $2 million in 2010-2011 for such a facility. One official says the money be used to establish a 30-bed facility to provide a host of services for youth. Services could include psychology, psychiatry, mental-health services, addictions and education. But just what exactly the project will include has yet to be determined. Planning is said to be in the initial stages and decisions yet to be made. [continues 312 words]
It won't be until 2009 that a decision is made on the special teams. Township lawyers are still trying to decide whether the Public Safety Inspection Teams will start operations again in the new year. "We don't have a full report yet from our legal counsel," said Township fire chief Doug Wade. A decision is expected in the first quarter of 2009, Wade said. The teams, also known as PSIT, include Township bylaw officers and RCMP officers. They were created to use safety inspections to target homes suspected of harbouring marijuana grow operations. [continues 231 words]
Gerald Ward told the police everything. He told them about his drug deals worth tens of thousands of dollars. About the mind-numbing purity of his cocaine supply. About cracking down on losers trying to take a bite out of his business. He even told police how terrified cops were to come near his mighty fortress clubhouse in Welland. The leader of the local Hells Angels spilled his guts without knowing it. Steven Gault of the Oshawa chapter was wearing a wire. And what Gault heard, police heard. [continues 954 words]
Despite the arrests of Project Tandem, the Hells Angels still remain active in Niagara Gerald Ward told the police everything. He told them about his drug deals worth tens of thousands of dollars. About the mind-numbing purity of his cocaine supply. About cracking down on losers trying to take a bite out of his business. He even told police how terrified cops were to come near his mighty fortress clubhouse in Welland. The leader of the local Hells Angels spilled his guts without knowing it. [continues 970 words]
Ontario fell to the Hells Angels in a single night. There were no shots fired. No murders. No explosions. But there was a party. In December 1999, years of diplomatic efforts and arm-twisting by the Angels in Ontario paid off. In a ceremony in Sorel, Que., nearly all of Ontario's 13 outlaw motorcycle gangs buried their own colours for the winged death's head of the Angels. The mass patch-over was an aberration in a culture that lives and breathes tradition. It normally takes years for would-be Hells Angels to get in with the gang. [continues 1300 words]
BCAA's Traffic Safety Foundation offers some very real statistics. Impaired drivers cost the B.C. economy $1.6 billion annually. That startling statistic says little about personal injuries and death, too often the aftermath of impaired driving. Allan Lamb, executive director of the BC Automobile Association Traffic Safety Foundation, would like to get all drivers under the influence off the roads this holiday season. According to Lamb, carnage due to impaired driving is on the rise. "One in five people in B.C. admit to driving after drinking and a third of all motor vehicle fatalities are alcohol-related," he said. [continues 188 words]
Re: 'Needle exchange plan draws MLA's fire' (Daily News, Dec. 12) I was at the same meeting on Wednesday morning as was Jane Templeman and I read her statements in your article. She must have been at some other meeting because she got an earful from each and every resident, business and property owner present. The way our city hall has handled this, one has to wonder if we as citizens of Nanaimo can expect a needle exchange to be located next to every school in Nanaimo, since this proposed location is next to a school. [continues 149 words]
A decision waiting to be handed down in Ontario's highest court could give amnesty to all those convicted of marijuana-related offences. If an Ontario superior Court judge upholds earlier findings in an ongoing challenge to the medical marijuana laws - finding no legal prohibition against possession of cannabis because the medical marijuana scheme was deemed unconstitutional - cannabis could be an endangered item in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. One of the co-owners of the Holy Smoke Culture Shop, who faces sentencing December 23 on trafficking one ounce of marijuana, said the decision could be groundbreaking. [continues 422 words]
The Day Trouble Came To Town Guilty. A word to seal fates. For Hells Angel Gerald Ward, the president of Niagara's chapter, the word likely means a decade or more behind bars. A judge in Toronto found Ward guilty Friday of directing others to commit crimes as part of a criminal organization. A mobster with a motorcycle. At one time, he had it all. For a decade, Ward ruled an empire on wheels from his fortified bunker in Welland. Cocaine and cash flowed like wine. A loyal band of brothers did his bidding. [continues 1221 words]
Uniway Head Leading Local Effort A drug strategy for Chatham-Kent is in the works. Chatham Coun. Marjorie Crew said a group of volunteers has been meeting throughout the last year to formulate a plan to combat issues dealing with illicit drugs across the Municipality. "We've decided to go with a four pillar approach . . . prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction, " Crew said. "Our guiding principles will be based on these four pillars." The formation of the group stemmed from a meeting held by the Addiction Network for the Erie St. Clair Local Health Integration Network in November last year, Crew said. A task force was formed in the three counties of the local LHIN. [continues 303 words]
Mayor Fred Eisenberger says it's time Hamilton got a drug court to deal with addicts who need treatment as opposed to jail time. The mayor, who has spoken to federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson about the issue, made his comment yesterday after police Chief Brian Mullan presented a report on the city's crack cocaine trade to the police services board. Mullan said police have identified 80 crack addicts in Hamilton who commit multiple crimes to support their habit, but noted a 2005 study on drug abuse in Hamilton found that there were more than 6,600 users who sought treatment for addictions in 2004. Seventeen per cent used crack cocaine and 10.5 per cent used cocaine as their primary drugs. [continues 185 words]
Police have busted Calgary's single-largest residential marijuana grow-op and netted close to $6.5 million from four separate raids. Officers announced yesterday they confiscated thousands of marijuana plants from four houses and charged a 17-year-old, who can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Staff Sgt. Darren Cave of the Calgary police drug unit said the record drug busts came from public tips. "It's a double-edge sword because on one side it shows how entrenched drugs are in our society because we're getting multiple examples of these high-volume busts," he said. [continues 146 words]
Last Sunday, at least 18 people were killed in the struggle to control the Mexican drug trade. They included 10 suspected traffickers and a soldier who died in a wild gunfight, and two men whose severed heads were left near the residence of a state governor. The record-high rate of drug-related murders in 2007 has doubled in 2008. As of Dec. 2, it stood at 5,376. Canadians will be dimly aware that drug-related violence is soaring in Mexico. But to us, this is just more bloodshed far away. It has nothing to do with us. [continues 681 words]
On Dec. 6, at least 18 people were killed in the struggle to control the Mexican drug trade. They included 10 suspected traffickers and a soldier who died in a wild gunfight and two men whose severed heads were put in buckets and left near the residence of a state governor. As horrible as it was, it was a day like any other. Last Monday, Mexico's attorney general told reporters the record-high rate of drug-related murders in 2007 had doubled in 2008. As of Dec. 2, it stood at 5,376. [continues 832 words]
Police have made the largest residential marijuana bust in the city's history, seizing $3.25 million worth of pot plants in the first of four raids over two days last week. The bust was made Wednesday in a house on Weston Place S.W. where 2,600 plants were found in various stages of growth. The previous record-breaking seizure took place in May, when police grabbed 2,445 plants worth about$3 million from a large home on Patterson Crescent S. W. [continues 276 words]
The coke was pure enough to freeze a man's brain. At least, that was the joke. Niagara Hells Angels president Gerald Ward's product was top-notch. Eighty-five to 91 per cent pure. "I never even tried it, I'm like, I'm trying not to touch it," Steven Gault said, laughing about the potency at Ward's Quaker Road house in August 2005. Gault, a member of the Oshawa chapter, paid $42,000 in cold, hard cash for 1.1 kilograms. [continues 1378 words]
Ontario fell to the Hells Angels in a single night. There were no shots fired. No murders. No explosions. But there was a party. In December 1999, years of diplomatic efforts and arm-twisting by the Angels in Ontario paid off. In a ceremony in Sorel, Que., nearly all of Ontario's 13 outlaw motorcycle gangs buried their own colours for the winged death's head of the Angels. The mass patch-over was an aberration in a culture that lives and breathes tradition. It normally takes years for would-be Hells Angels to get in with the gang. After that, at least a year spent as a prospect member - a peon forbidden from wearing the Angels patch. Only then can a man claim status as a Hells Angel. [continues 1381 words]
B. C. Study MONTREAL - While the message that drinking and driving kills has registered after 25 years of awareness campaigns, drug use behind the wheel is on the rise, according to a new B. C. study released last week. A survey of 1,500 drivers conducted by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) found that while 8.1% of nighttime drivers tested positive for alcohol, 10.4% showed evidence of drug use. In total, 16.9% of drivers tested positive for drugs, alcohol or both. [continues 317 words]
Inside Canada
