human 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.
Federal Conservative government's new brothel penalty riles sex-trade worker Susan Davis
By Carlito Pablo, Georgia StraightSex-trade worker Susan Davis has a case of the creeps, and it’s not because of a bad date or a stalker.
The veteran sex professional says that what’s making her “just really terrified” are the regulatory changes to the Criminal Code announced by the federal Conservative government on August 4 of this year.
Maintaining a brothel wasn’t legal before: it previously carried a prison term of not more than two years. But under the new regulations, the minimum penalty is five years of jail time. That’s because keeping a bawdy house is now classified as a “serious offence”, along with 10 gambling and drug crimes.
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.
Closure of critical health centre hits Downtown Eastside hard
The sudden closure of the downtown Eastside’s Health Contact Centre has left volunteers from other agencies scrambling to provide late-night support for drug addicts.
But they say they have no idea how long they can afford to do so.
The centre provided some medical care for wounds, was open all night and was considered the first point of contact with the health system for drug addicts and homeless people in the area.
The Vancouver Coastal Health authority will save about $700,000 by closing the centre.
House passes billions of dollars in crime bills, doesn't know full costs
By HARRIS MACLEOD, The Hill TimesParliament's passing of a slew of a law and order bills that will bloat federal and provincial budgets to the tune of billions of dollars without first knowing how much they would cost is a "systemic failure," says Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page.
Mr. Page will release a report this week on the massive costs of Bill C-25, a bill to limit credit given for time served in pre-sentencing custody, which is just one of more than a dozen pieces of legislation that makeup the government's justice agenda. Most of the bills died on the Order Paper when Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) prorogued Parliament, but C-25 was one of the few that passed and last week Justice Minister Rob Nicholson (Niagara Falls, Ont.) reintroduced a bill to bring in mandatory minimum sentences for narcotics related offences [S-10].
