Harper's Angels

In 1973 the federal LeDain Commission called for the end of marijuana prohibition, and since then public opinion polls show a majority of Canadians of all ages and political stripes from right across the country agree.

How we doin' with that?

In 2010, nearly four decades later, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police handed Canadian pot activist Marc Emery over to the entirely discredited US War on Drugs machine to serve a five year prison sentence in Mississippi for selling seeds through the mail in Canada.

According to StatsCan, over 75,000 Canadians were busted for pot last year (56,870 for simple possession plus another 18,256 for trafficking or distribution), a 14% increase over 2009.

Steve's new Safe Streets and Communities Act- Bill C10, aka the Minimum Sense on Marijuana Bill, will introduce mandaTory sentences for possession :

• Six months mandatory jail time for growing six pot plants.
• Nine months mandatory jail time for passing a joint harvested from just one plant grown in the privacy of your own home if you are a renter.

In BC, where support for ending the doobie prohibition is currently running at 73%, the main beneficiary of the Cons Dumb-on-Crime Agenda is the Hell's Angels with their estimated $6-billion annual organized crime drug industry.
They must be thrilled that Steve is going to chill amateur grower competition for them, driving up prices and profits. They should look into making him an honorary member.
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New mandaTory minimum sense on marijuana

Dan Gardner blasts the Cons' proposed 'war on drugs' mandatory minimum sentences for growing pot :

• Six months mandatory jail time for growing six pot plants.
• Nine months mandatory jail time for passing a joint from one plant grown in the privacy of your own home if you are a renter.

I assume this represents the Cons' attempt to 'harmonize' Canadian policy within the security perimeter deal, or as US AG Eric Holder put it in his "Beyond the Border" speech : the need for "certain sentencing laws" to be "updated".
This, even as more than a dozen US states are currently repealing mandatory minimum sentences.and reducing sentences.


Besides, notes Gardner, they don't even deliver what they promise :

"The standard argument in favour of mandatory minimum sentences is that they deliver certainty. ... 

But mandatory minimums don't actually do away with discretion.

They merely transfer it from judges, by restricting their ability to choose the sentence, to prosecutors, who choose the charge. The system is still ambiguous, uncertain, and unpredictable. It's just ambiguous, uncertain, and unpredictable in a different way."

From the discretion of judges to the better nature of prosecutors. 
What could possibly go wrong?
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h/t Pogge
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Update :  Terry Milewski, CBC : Texas Conservatives reject Harper's crime plan
'Been there; done that; didn't work,' say Texas crime-fighters
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North American Security Perimeter Law and Order

A week ago US Attorney General Eric Holder told the Northern Border Summit :

"[T]here are areas in which the U.S. and Canada can enhance cooperation in criminal investigations and prosecutions. And I believe we must consider how extradition, and mutual legal assistance processes could be streamlined to avoid delays; and whether certain sentencing laws – and information sharing policies and practices – should be updated."

He also announced a joint DOJ, DHS, Public Safety Canada and Justice Canada pilot project they hope to launch next year.

Yesterday, despite a continuing 20 year decline in crime in Canada, Dumb-on-Crime Minister Rob Nicholson - flanked by Jason Kenney, cops, and crime victims’ advocates - introduced the 9-bill lawnorder omnibus C-10, which is ... wait for it ... primarily focused on tougher sentencing laws. Noting that "This is only the beginning. We’ll introduce other legislation as well," he explained:

"We're not governing on the basis of the latest statistics."

That's ok, Rob, we never thought you were. We already get the part about spending $3-billion on filling new prisons with pot smokers and First Nations and people with mental health problems while simultaneously diverting money from social programs, education, and health care - a Made in America strategy that ultimately resulted in California emptying its prisons in order to afford its pensions, social programs, and education. 

Also yesterday ... a commenter left a link to a "special ceremony" in Toronto in August at which the Canadian and American Bar Associations signed an agreement "committing them to closer cooperation, information exchanges and other joint efforts."
"Our people are really one people," said ABA President Stephen N. Zack at the ceremony.

The American Bar Association Canada Committee focuses on "programs and policy dealing with international and cross-border aspects of issues affecting Canada" including :

"national security, cross-border litigation, privacy, government procurement, product safety regulation, antitrust, trade remedies, insolvency, customs, immigration, economic sanctions and export controls, financing, M&A, public law, and bilateral and multilateral trade and investment agreements, including NAFTA and the agreements of the World Trade Organization."

Coincidentally, Steve and Barry's February agreement : Beyond the Border: a shared vision for perimeter security and economic competitiveness is also very big on joint law enforcement operations and information sharing.
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Middle-aged People Effing Up

Our story so far...
Bill C-10, aka McVety's 'Young People Effing' Bill, the film tax-credit legislation to block government funding of any film which might offend the delicate sensibilities of Canadian Heritage officials, sails through the House because no one really reads these effing things apparently. Off it goes to the Senate where someone who actually does read these things says, "Eff me! Hang on a sec" and proposes an amendment. The amendment causes it to go back to the House for a confidence vote because it's about money, whereupon the Libs have to vote to pass it rather than risk precipitating an election which would feature Con campaign ads like this :

"Stephane Dion wants to spend your hard-earned tax dollars on movies like Young People Effing. Is this how you want your government to spend your hard-earned tax dollars?"

causing voters right across Canada to turn to one another and ask, "What the fuck is "effing"?
G&M link