civil rights
Failed drug war tactics won't curb human smugglers
The StarPhoenixWhile Canadians justifiably have been preoccupied with a system that allowed 490 Sri Lankan Tamils to end up on West Coast after each paying human smugglers tens of thousands of dollars, the truly dark side of this odious industry came to light in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.
The bullet-riddled bodies of 72 migrants from Central and South America were found there last week, victims of human traffickers who disposed of their suddenly inconvenient human contraband as they might flush a bag of dope rather than get caught.
Liberty in Canada? Don't count on it
By KAREN SELICK, FreelanceWidespread ridicule from abroad has apparently caused the Iranian government to back down on outlawing certain hairstyles for men -ponytails, for instance.
Nevertheless, Iranians have been subject to grooming and dress codes for decades. This summer, Iranian police have been arresting women for such heinous offences as wearing too much lipstick or sporting sun tans. Barber shops have been ordered by police not to pluck men's eyebrows.
Do the people of Iran enjoy liberty? Most Canadians, upon hearing of these bizarre rules, would respond with a resounding "No!" Such regimentation, enforced by law, spells full-fledged authoritarianism to us -the very antithesis of liberty.
Man says theme park censored Bob Marley shirt
By: ANDY BLATCHFORD, The Canadian PressMONTREAL - A man plans to file a human-rights complaint against an amusement park after security guards told him to cover up his Bob Marley T-shirt or leave the premises.
But Montreal's La Ronde insists it didn't have a problem with the shirt's portrait of the late reggae legend — just the cluster of green, marijuana-shaped leaves that surround it.
Brunaud Moise alleges they targeted him because he's black.
He says security staff singled him out because they associated a black man wearing a Marley shirt with something criminal.
Libby Davies: An open letter to the foreign affairs minister on Marc Emery's solitary confinement
Today (June 9), MP Libby Davies (Vancouver East) sent the following letter to Minister of Foreign Affairs Lawrence Cannon on the issue of the solitary confinement of Marc Emery.June 8, 2010
The Honourable Lawrence Cannon
Minister of Foreign Affairs
418 N Centre Block
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Dear Minister Cannon,
I write to ask for your immediate intervention into the seemingly harsh treatment of a Canadian citizen currently serving a sentence at the SeaTac Federal Detention Centre in Seattle, Washington.
Pot Suit Brought To Bring Insight
By. Kelowna Daily CourierPio says he wants police in B.C. to better understand medical marijuana
Don Pio is authorized to smoke marijuana, and he wants every sheriff and police officer in B.C. to leave him alone.
Six months after his arrest for carrying pot into the Kelowna Law Courts, the 35-year-old Kelowna man is suing the provincial sheriffs service and the RCMP. He claims authorities humiliated him and made him suffer by depriving him of his medicine.
Pio is allowed to light up to control his nausea, and he wants people in uniform to stop harassing him, he said.
Minimum sentences prove unsuccessful
By Greg Vandermeulen, Altona Red River Valley EchoThe dark side of mandatory minimum sentences was revealed in provincial court last week.
Long trumpeted as the fix-all for the justice system, the Conservatives and other proponents loudly proclaimed the glory of mandatory minimums.
The idea was that judges are flawed, tied to precedent and too inclined to be merciful. Some types of offenses are so terrible they must have minimums attached.
Killing or hurting someone with a firearm was one of those categories that most of us couldn't imagine why we wouldn't have a mandatory minimum.
Turns out we should have left that decision to the judges.
Lawyer of the Week: Isabel J. Schurman
Isabel Schurman, a lawyer with Schurman Longo Grenier and vice-chair of the Canadian Council of Criminal Defence Lawyers, was last week honoured by l’Association des Avocats de la Défense de Montréal, an organization representing 425 defence lawyers, for more than 25 years of contributions to the defence bar and the advancement of criminal law in Canada.
What is the importance of the defence bar in Canada and why do you feel so strongly about it?
Mounties back off request to B.C. Hydro for records
Canwest News ServiceNorth Vancouver RCMP have backed off on a request that would have forced BC Hydro to turn over the records of more than a thousand North Vancouver homeowners using large amounts of power to police.
On Thursday, at a closed-door hearing in North Vancouver provincial court, the federal department of justice withdrew the request for the Hydro records after facing a court challenge by the power authority.
BC Hydro filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court this month fighting the request after a North Vancouver judge ordered the power company to hand over a list of residential addresses to police of anyone in North Vancouver whose power consumption averaged more than 93 kilowatt hours per day.
Process to obtain medicinal pot very difficult, says Nanaimo patient
By: Walter Cordery, Daily NewsA Nanaimo woman who suffers with a brain tumour wants to know why she can walk into any clinic in the city and get narcotics that may do her more harm than good, but can't get confirmation from Health Canada that her medicinal marijuana licence has been renewed.
Carolejean Heaver, 56, claims she grew wary of prescription medication after nearly dying from a seizure brought about by an anticonvulsant drug. She said the drug permanently damaged her liver.
Before getting authorization for medicinal marijuana use, she had been prescribed a variety of other drugs, all of which are metabolized by the liver, unlike marijuana that goes into the bloodstream through the lungs.
The provinces' jailhouse blues
The cost of new federal crime legislation is high, much higher that previously announced. Bill C-25, limiting the credit that offenders receive for pre-trial custody, was supposed to cost around $90 million. The actual cost, the government now admits, is in the $2-billion range, and parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page,will release a report this week that might show the actual amount to be very substantially higher.
Legislation that increases Canada's inmate population is, inevitably, costly.
