Whereas more than half of Canadians want marijuana legalized;
Whereas harm reduction measures have been more effective at curbing social harms from drug use than criminal penalties;
Whereas the Drug War has failed to achieve any of it's goals despite more than $1 Trillion spent;
Whereas Mandatory Minimum Sentences have failed to curb drug use or availability in any jurisdiction which has implemented them;
Whereas the Conservative Government was unable to provide any evidence that S-10 or it's predecessors would achieve their stated goal of decreasing crime;
Whereas all expert opinion oppose S-10;
Whereas all newspaper editorials oppose S-10;
We the undersigned demand our Representatives in the House of Commons stand up against this unconscionable Conservative agenda and Vote NO on Bill S-10. Read more »
Rob Nicholson today reintroduced C-15 as Bill S-10, the bill is slightly different, with mandatory minimum sentences kicking in at 6 plants, not 1. So, to say again, the bill no longer has a mandatory minimum sentence for 1 marijuana plant.
That being said, the bill is a disaster for Canada. S-10 will imprison thousands of Canadians for victimless crimes, send people to jail for growing 6 marijuana plants, making any hashish (or baked goods) and a host of other offences.
There is no evidence that S-10 will work, indeed, every scientific study says it will fail. We know that prohibition has never worked, and we know that mandatory minimum sentences only increase the violence in our society.
Please contact your Member of Parliament (Login to WhyProhibition.ca, your MP will display in the top Right of the page) and let them know you oppose S-10 or any mandatory minimum sentence for marijuana.
Additionally, please, call (866) 808-8407 to let the Conservative Party of Canada know you oppose their harmful and dangerous so called "tough on crime" strategy. The evidence is clear, S-10 will do nothing but harm our society and cost billions of dollars. Read more »
The federal government has it half right. We have a drug problem. But it’s not marijuana, which has never killed anyone. It’s the abuse of prescription drugs which kills hundreds of Canadians annually.
Whether it’s because of ongoing pain, depression or the urge to get high, more and more people are heading to their doctors — not the neighbourhood pusher — for a fix.
As the International Narcotics Control Board noted in its 2009 annual report, the abuse of prescription drugs in North America is second only to the abuse of cannabis.
We love our pills. North America has the world’s highest consumption of prescription opioids, such as OxyContin, and we’re gobbling them up faster than ever. Read more »
An article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal slams the federal government for its efforts to shut down Insite in downtown Vancouver, Canada's only safe injection site for drug addicts.
An article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal slams the federal government for its efforts to shut down Insite in downtown Vancouver, Canada's only safe injection site for drug addicts.
A co-author of the paper has told CBC News he believes the federal government should stand aside, allow the centre to operate, and abandon an appeal to the Supreme Court Read more »
Canada's Conservative minority government hopes the third time is the charm for its controversial measure to increase sentences for marijuana cultivation and introduce mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses. Now known as S-10, the measure will be taken up by the Senate when it returns from recess at end of next month.
The bill is designed to "send a message" that "if you sell or produce drugs, you'll pay with jail time," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said when re-filing the bill in May.
Under the bill, anyone growing six or more plants for the purpose of drug trafficking could face a mandatory minimum six month jail sentence, with a one-year mandatory minimum for up to 200 plants and two years for up to 500 plants. Hash makers also face a one-year mandatory minimum.
The mandatory minimum sentences could be increased by half if any of a number of aggravating factors are claimed. These include whether a weapon was found on the premises, if minors were involved, if the location was unsafe, and whether pot production posed a danger to the public in a residential area. Read more »
Lawyers took federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to task for his party’s tough-on-crime agenda during a question-and-answer session at the Canadian Bar Association’s annual conference in Niagara Falls, Ont., last week.
But a defiant Nicholson held firm throughout while insisting that harsher sentences and changes to the Criminal Code are necessary to maintain public confidence in the justice system.
Nicholson spearheaded the Truth in Sentencing Act, which ended two-for-one credit for pretrial detention. The government has also eliminated conditional sentences for crimes involving serious personal injuries and has vowed to continue the push to toughen up the Criminal Code in other areas. Read more »
It would have been quite a news conference, and it very nearly happened. Last fall, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, after months of intense, private talks, agreed to face the media together to declare their agreement that research shows the “benefits” and “positive impacts” of supervised injection sites for intravenous drug users.
For the RCMP, making such a statement would have been a turning point: the Mounties would have had to distance themselves from dubious studies, commissioned by the force itself, that were critical of Insite, Vancouver’s pioneering safe injection facility. And that would have been a politically awkward move for the federal police, since Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is firmly committed to shutting down Insite. Read more »
Marc will be sentenced on September 10, and shortly thereafter the Canadian Government will be able to transfer Marc Emery back to Canada.
We need organizers to get events going in their towns! Organizing a protest isn't hard, and there's lots of information on WhyProhibition.ca to get you started!
Check out FreeMarc.ca for all the latest info about Marc, downloads of posters and handbills and much more!
Marc Emery gave millions of dollars and now years of his life to help legalize marijuana, help return the favour and help Free Marc Emery! Help spread the word, add whyprohibition.ca/freemarcrally to your facebook profile!
It is now taken for granted that any senior, or even semi-senior, official who loses, quits or otherwise departs from their job in Ottawa is doing so because he/she somehow fell afoul of Tory policy and is being hounded from office by Stephen Harper’s demand for blood.
It has become part of the narrative. When a plane crashes anywhere in the world, the default response of Canadian news editors is: “Were any Canadians on board?” When a bureaucrat gets the boot in Harper’s Ottawa, the equivalent reflex is: “Did he offend the Tories?” Read more »
The Parliamentary Budget Officer would prefer not to do any more studies into the costs of the Harper government's slate of law and order legislation, saying it's now up to Parliamentarians to demand that full cost estimates are provided for the rest of the proposed changes to the justice system.
Liberal Public Safety critic Mark Holland (Ajax-Pickering, Ont.) asked Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page to analyse the costs of all the government's proposed justice legislation. To date, the PBO has only reported on the costs of Bill C-25, the so-called truth in sentencing act, a bill to limit credit given for time served in pre-sentencing custody. Read more »
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Whereas crime in Canada is at a 30-year low;
Rob Nicholson today reintroduced C-15 as Bill S-10, the bill is slightly different, with mandatory minimum sentences kicking in at 6 plants, not 1. So, to say again, the bill no longer has a mandatory minimum sentence for 1 marijuana plant.
By MINDELLE JACOBS, QMI Agency
By. CBC News
By Michael McKiernan, Law Times
By. John Geddes, Macleans
On September 18, we need your help to Free Marc Emery! 
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