Canada: Senate Takes Aim at Second Tory Crime Bill

[Jim Finnel]

The Liberal-dominated Senate, a day after rewriting a Harper government crime bill, signalled that it will alter another piece of law-and-order legislation that would automatically jail drug dealers and marijuana growers for the first time in Canada.

A Senate committee grilled Justice Minister Rob Nicholson on his proposed legislation Thursday -- particularly an element allowing drug pushers in six Canadian cities to escape jail time if they go through drug treatment courts -- an option that is not available elsewhere because drug courts exist only in those cities.

"How can you bring in all of these minimum sentences and say, if there are drug treatment courts in your area, you won't have to go to jail for the minimum sentence?" Liberal Senator George Baker said after the hearing.

"I think definitely amendments will be put forth by Liberal members and by Conservative members."

Judges would have leeway to exempt certain offenders from jail, provided they enter treatment programs imposed through drug courts that exist in Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto and Ottawa.

Conservative Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, an expert in drug policy, warned Nicholson that the Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee intends to put his bill -- a centrepiece of the government's law-and-order agenda -- through "rigorous" scrutiny.

The committee's signal that it will not rubber-stamp the contentious legislation came only a day after Nicholson blasted the upper chamber for "gutting" another bill that would eliminate a judicial practice, when sentencing offenders, to credit them on a two-for-one basis for each day already spent in detention.

The bill has the support of the opposition parties in the Commons, including the Liberals.

The Senate actions have become a political football in the House of Commons, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper accused the Liberals on Thursday of pretending they support crime bills, only to stand by while they are stymied by their unelected counterparts.

"What the Liberal party should do ... is go down to the Senate and, instead of playing this two-faced game where they pretend to support tough-on-crime legislation but block it in the Senate, they should tell their own senators to be honest with the Canadian people, to pass that legislation and stop letting criminals get away," said Harper.

Liberal MP David McGuinty countered that the Conservatives are revelling in the Senate scrutiny because they can use it as a springboard to reinforce their tough-on-crime message and take aim at their Liberal opponents.

The drug bill sailed through the House of Commons earlier this year after the Liberals teamed up with the Conservatives, despite grumbling within Grit ranks that they were being told to support a bad bill so they wouldn't be accused of being soft on crime.

The bill would also strip judges of their discretion on whether to incarcerate drug traffickers, including offenders who grow and then sell as few as five marijuana plants.

The proposed legislation was lambasted by 13 of 16 witnesses who appeared before the House of Commons justice committee during public hearings last spring.

Critics have warned the legislation would flood jails and imprison drug addicts and young people rather than drug kingpins, who will continue to thrive, while small-time dealers are knocked out of commission.

The bill would impose one-year mandatory jail terms for marijuana-dealing when it's linked to organized crime or a weapon is involved.

Minimum sentences would be increased to two years for dealing drugs, such as cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine, to young people, or pushing drugs near a school or other places frequented by youths.


NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: Ottawa Citizen
Website: Ottawa Citizen - Breaking News, Ontario, Canadian News & Multimedia
Author: Janice Tibbetts

 

[Caber1]

Harper is a person who gives morons a bad name. Why this perplexing continual yelling about drug crime?

As far as most people are concerned most crime in this country is caused by the silly laws supposedly meant to protect us.

And has anybody ever sat down and done a running total on what crimes cost us the most in lost revenue and social harm.

I'd be willing to bet that white collar crime far outstrips anything a pot smoker would do to the social fabric, not to mention that many and I do mean many legal activities kill and maim and change irrevocably many more lives than pot could ever be accused of.

I think we should start as a country, asking more from our politicians. Why should a man who has no training in drug therapy or social work or human psychology be allowed to make laws regarding drug policy.

Why only in government, with so much influence on our lives do we allow people with little or no training in these matters to tell US what to do.
There should be at the very least a minimal set of standards for these people to have to meet before they are even considered for these posts.

Would you let a person with 1 year of training defend you in court on a serious crime, wire your house electrically, make rules on how to run a nuclear plant?

And like the fact that we change the politicians in power after a certain amount of time if things aren't working how come we can't change the policies that aren't working?

If you fire someone for incompetence why would you continue to do things that they want you to do?

 

[newsisnoise]

Here, here brother!

I just can't figure out how..

 

[fatigues]

The Tories bring out these policies because it is consistent with their social conservatism. In terms of how the story have been handled by the press, the legislation has been presented so far only in its best light, never in its worst. At no time was the public ever asked --or told -- in any of the various polls conducted about C-15 about the 1 plant, later 5 plants issue and mandatory jail terms ranging between 6-24 months for five plants.

Instead, C-15 was presented by the government as an anti- gang, anti-organized crime bill. The media never questioned it in any manner otherwise.

When polled, Canadians heavily supported the amendments, largely out of ignorance re: what was actually in C-15. The support was so high, the opposition parties were too scared to oppose them. The Tories had announced that if C-15 was not passed, they would consider it a vote of non-confidence and they would call an election on it.

That was not an issue the opposition wanted to fight an election on.

Nevertheless, the mandatory sentences and avoidance of those sentences by diversion to drug courts wich exist in only six or so cities would have resulted in parts of the legislation being declared unconstitutional. There is nobody who presented evidence to the Senate on the subject from the Crown Prosecutors or criminal defence bar who have said otherwise. All the lawyers know it's stupid legislation which will in part be struck down at the very first charge, but the public -- which does not know about this aspect of the legislation because of the media's fumbling -- does not seem to care.

So we have politicians passing unconstitutional legislation simply because they perceive it to be popular in the short term. That is the nature of minority governments.

Harper appointed a number of new Senators in August as he knows that otherwise C-15 is not going to be approved by the Senate.

The spin so far re: the Senate is to blame the Liberals.

But that spin is about to change, as Claude Nolin is a senior member of the Conservative party and he'll be the face of the opposition to C-15 in the Senate -- at least as far as the media is concerned. This story is about 4 days away from being presented as showing the fault line amongst the old skool Progressive Conservatives (the centre-right party from whence Nolin comes) and Harper's Reform party roots (the firmly right wing new "Conservative" Party of Canada).

Still not sure what the Senate will actually do with C-15 in terms of amendments, but the 2002 Senate Report on Marijuana which Nolin chaired was very clear in recommending legalization of Marijuana. Nolin feels very strongly on the subject. This is Nolin's chance to put marijuana reform legislation in front of the public again - and I doubt he will miss the opportunity.

Harper needs Nolin's support amongst the party organizers in Quebec to assist in any coming election. Moreover, there are ZERO political consequences for those Progressive Conservative senators in the Senate. They are appointed to the Senate until age 75 and cannot be removed. Nolin has 16 years to go and knows he'll still be in Parliament drawing a paycheque long after Harper is gone.

It should be interesting.