The government’s omnibus crime bill was being pushed through its final test in the Senate for no good reason, Liberal senators charged Thursday.
Their words, however, were unable to change the trajectory of the bill’s path to becoming law, as the Conservatives used their majority in the Senate to give final approval — by a vote of 48 to 37 — to the bill before it returns to the House of Commons.
Once in the Commons, MPs would have to approve the six changes Conservative senators made to the bill that more clearly define terrorism activities and how victims of terrorism can sue groups or states that support terrorism.
Bill C-10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, passed its final vote in the Senate at about midnight Friday. Read more »
As Canadian senators meet this week to vote on comprehensive anti-crime Bill C-10, they need to reflect upon the U.S. experience and reject the bill’s entrenchment of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences in Canada. As has been the case in the U.S., mandatory minimums can easily go wrong in Canada, too, in ways entirely predictable. Exploding court and correctional costs for resource-strapped national and provincial governments is one likely calamity that Canadians can expect from mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Read more »
The Harper government is prioritizing new prison spending over maintaining seniors' retirement benefits, for reasons known only to itself.
It's a puzzling choice. If real benefits were to be achieved as a result of the additional billions being put toward incarceration, the choice would make more sense.
But, as a warning letter last week from a group of U.S. law enforcers advised Canada's senators, there will be no payoff.
This, when Human Resources Minister Diane Finley has just confirmed the upcoming federal budget will outline age-based eligibility delays to Old Age Security, for even the neediest seniors.
Elderly single women likely will bear the brunt of any Conservative move to delay OAS eligibility to 67. Read more »
I haven't spent a lot of time in the United States, but I've gotten the impression that among drug policy activists, Canada gets a lot of respect. The city of Vancouver is well known for InSite, the only legal safe-injection site in North America; busting marijuana users is a low priority for Canadian law enforcement; and so far, we've avoided locking people up at the unprecedented rate that Americans have.
It's not that life is perfect, or that the winters don't get you down. But as far as drug policy went, Canada just seemed more sensible. In 2003, Hendrik Hertzberg of the New Yorker ended a commentary on our relaxed approach to marijuana (and gay marriage) with this much-repeated gem: Read more »
The federal government's omnibus crime bill will be heading back to the House of Commons after senators approved changes to Bill C-10 early Monday.
The changes, proposed by Ontario Conservative Senator Bob Runciman, were approved easily, but changes Liberal senators wanted to the Safe Streets and Communities Act received a tougher ride, including a failed proposal to raise the number of marijuana plants one could legally grow to 20 from six.
The Conservative senators on the Senate legal affairs committee used their majority to reject all 17 changes the Liberals proposed. Read more »
Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson is standing by mandatory minimum sentencing legislation despite a new warning such laws don't work.
Nicholson said the law, which includes mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences, is "very targeted."
"We develop our criminal law legislation looking at the experiences from around the world, from Britain and other countries," Nicholson said at a news conference Wednesday in Regina. "But again, ours is a Canadian solution to Canadian issues, and we make no apology for that."
The comments came after an attorney who helped U.S. politicians write mandatory minimum-sentencing laws during the 1980s issued a warning for Canadian parliamentarians. Read more »
On Wednesday, 28 current and former American law enforcement officials wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and members of the Canadian Senate urging the decriminalization of marijuana and warning against the effects of harsh mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug crimes.
Before anyone gets up-in-arms about Americans sticking their noses into our business, consider that many of these people have been directly involved in crafting and enforcing America’s war on drugs. They all belong to the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), which includes a number of Canadian board members. Read more »
The Canadian branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is asking a select group of Conservative Senators to "vote with their conscience" and oppose crime bill C-10 and mandatory minimum prison terms for marijuana offences.
The Conservative majority in the house has already passed Bill C-10, and the Conservative-controlled Senate will soon vote to determine if the legislation will become Canadian law. Read more »
Not having time to brush, I rinsed my mouth out with a capful of Listerine the other morning. Burn, baby, burn. Did someone just light a gasoline fireball in my mouth?
That brief unpleasantness brought to mind last Friday's cover story. In the first of a series of stories on the topic, reporter Cheryl Rossi wrote about a program called MAP that gives free alcohol to extreme alcoholics, the kind who knock back mouthwash, hand sanitizer and hair spray.
My initial reaction to the idea was, "Seriously? Have we completely tipped the balance and morphed into a society of enablers?" Read more »
An attorney who helped U.S. politicians write mandatory-minimum sentencing laws during the 1980s has a warning for Canadian parliamentarians.
Imposing long jail terms for minor drug offences has been a mistake in the U.S. and won't work in Canada," said Eric E. Sterling, who once served as counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.
"When you start going down this road of building more prisons and sending people away for long periods of time, and you convince yourself that this is going to deter people you've made a colossal mistake," said Sterling, who is the president of the Maryland-based Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. Read more »
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The government’s omnibus crime bill was being pushed through its final test in the Senate for no good reason, Liberal senators charged Thursday.
As Canadian senators meet this week to vote on comprehensive anti-crime Bill C-10, they need to reflect upon the U.S. experience and reject the bill’s entrenchment of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offences in Canada. As has been the case in the U.S., mandatory minimums can easily go wrong in Canada, too, in ways entirely predictable. Exploding court and correctional costs for resource-strapped national and provincial governments is one likely calamity that Canadians can expect from mandatory minimum sentencing laws. 
The Harper government is prioritizing new prison spending over maintaining seniors' retirement benefits, for reasons known only to itself.
I haven't spent a lot of time in the United States, but I've gotten the impression that among drug policy activists, Canada gets a lot of respect. The city of Vancouver is well known for InSite, the only legal safe-injection site in North America; busting marijuana users is a low priority for Canadian law enforcement; and so far, we've avoided locking people up at the unprecedented rate that Americans have.
The federal government's omnibus crime bill will be heading back to the House of Commons after senators approved changes to Bill C-10 early Monday.
Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson is standing by mandatory minimum sentencing legislation despite a new warning such laws don't work.
On Wednesday, 28 current and former American law enforcement officials wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and members of the Canadian Senate urging the decriminalization of marijuana and warning against the effects of harsh mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug crimes.
The Canadian branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is asking a select group of Conservative Senators to "vote with their conscience" and oppose crime bill C-10 and mandatory minimum prison terms for marijuana offences.
Not having time to brush, I rinsed my mouth out with a capful of Listerine the other morning. Burn, baby, burn. Did someone just light a gasoline fireball in my mouth?
An attorney who helped U.S. politicians write mandatory-minimum sentencing laws during the 1980s has a warning for Canadian parliamentarians.
