BC GREEN PARTY:
GO GREEN:
FAIR VOTING:
Jodie In The News
The Province Video: Dana Gee TV and Jodie Emery
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Province newspaper's DGTV online show host Dana Gee caught up with Green Party candidate for Vancouver-Fraserview Jodie Emery, who wants to end what she says is the failed policy of drug prohibition. Click here to watch the video at www.TheProvince.com
Legal weed accusation puts Heed on defence: Vancouver-Fraserview race turned bitter
By Mike Howell
Friday, May 08, 2009
Vancouver Courier
The race in Vancouver-Fraserview has become possibly the nastiest provincial election campaign in the city. The main combatants are Liberal candidate Kash Heed and NDP challenger Gabriel Yiu, who has spegnt a great deal of his campaign criticizing Heed.
The biggest fight has been over drug policy. Yiu has accused Heed, the former police chief in West Vancouver, of wanting to legalize marijuana. Yiu claims Heed supported legalization when he was a member of the Vancouver Police Department, where he served for more than 28 years.
Heed denies the claim, saying he spoke to a federal Senate committee and suggested more discussion was needed on the decriminalization of marijuana.
Yiu's comments, particularly to the Chinese media, prompted Heed to have his lawyer send a letter to Yiu to insist that he stop spreading misinformation. "Having to put up with these drive-by smears by the NDP has left a sour taste in my mouth,' said Heed, who is taking his first run as a politician. "I cannot believe the behaviour they've resorted to."
Yiu, who is against the legalization of marijuana, is a member of the same party that in 2006 passed its own drug policy resolution. The party called for "the creation of an explicit cannabis policy based upon a non-punitive, regulatory approach, including support for a legal supply of cannabis," according to the NDP's convention resolution handbook.
"I know drugs is a very, very serious issue in the Chinese community, and as a person running to represent a riding that has almost half of the population, I have to reflect their position," said Yiu, in explaining his drug policy position and the Chinese community's opposition to legalizing marijuana.
Yiu also criticized Heed for using a photograph of himself in a police uniform in his campaign literature. Yiu cited a section of the Police Act that he says shows Heed is using the photograph for personal gain. "What kind of character, what kind of honesty does this person hold--it's a crucial issue," said Yiu, a 47-year-old journalist and small business owner.
Heed, who is no longer a police officer, said he can't believe Yiu would make an issue out of the photograph. Heed said he used the photograph because he's proud to have been a police officer for more than 30 years.
In the early days of the campaign, Yiu criticized Heed for not living in the riding. Heed lives in Richmond and Yiu has lived in the riding for 17 years. He pointed out that he was police commander in southeast Vancouver, led the VPD's drug squad that took down marijuana growing operations in the riding and was a member of several committees to combat Indo-Canadian gang violence.
"I know this riding inside out, I know every laneway, every nook and cranny," said Heed, who added that he and his wife have been looking for a house near Fraserview golf course for more than three years.
In the 2005 provincial campaign, Yiu was the NDP candidate in Burnaby-Willingdon. He didn't live in the riding and defended his run in Burnaby as "a last minute decision because it was the only riding available to me."
Jodie Emery, wife of so-called Prince of Pot Marc Emery, is the Green Party's candidate. Emery advocates the legalization of marijuana to stop gang violence and the war on drugs.
Immigrant-heavy riding riddled with crime: Longtime police officer replaces outgoing incumbent as Liberal candidate
By Mike Howell
Friday, May 08, 2009
Vancouver Courier
VANCOUVER-FRASERVIEW -- Where is it: The riding borders the Fraser River to the south and East 49th Avenue, East 41st Avenue and East 45th Avenue to the north. It begins at Fraser Street/Nanaimo Street from the west and runs east to Boundary Road.
Its newest building is a community ice rink next to Killarney Community Centre that will be used for short track speed skating training sessions during the 2010 Winter Games. The riding is park heavy and features the 100-acre Everett Crowley Park, which is a popular destination for hikers, bikers and nature enthusiasts in the southeast quadrant. Just west of the park is Fraserview golf course, which covers 225 acres that slope towards the Fraser River. Largely residential, with homes rather than condos, the riding has a scattering of small retail shops and an industrial strip along the river.
Who lives there: Sixty per cent of residents in the riding are immigrants, according to the 2006 Census. The biggest group hails from China, followed by Hong Kong, India and the Philippines. No surprise then that 75 per cent of residents are identified as visible minorities. Only 30 per cent of residents list English as their mother tongue. The primary occupations are in labour, clerical, sales and retail work. The average value of an owner-occupied home was $554,104.
The issues: Crime. Over the years, and in recent months, the riding has experienced its fair share of gang shootings and homicides. Police recently announced arrests in Project Rebellion, which targeted members of the Sanghera crime group in southeast Vancouver. Home invasions, purse snatchings and a preponderance of marijuana growing operations have plagued the riding. Many homes are fortified with metal bars. Seniors have also been leading a campaign to get more seniors' centres.
Who's running: Incumbent Liberal MLA Wally Oppal decided to run in Delta-South, opening up a spot for Liberal newcomer Kash Heed, the former chief of the West Vancouver Police Department. Before he landed the chief's job less than two years ago, Heed worked almost 30 years as an officer with the Vancouver Police Department. Naturally, Heed is campaigning as a crime fighter and has the support of two former police chiefs, Bob Stewart and Terry Blythe.
His NDP challenger is Gabriel Yiu, a media commentator and a floral shop owner. He last tried to get elected as the NDP candidate in Burnaby-Willingdon in 2005.
He and Heed have spent most of the campaign arguing about drug policy, an issue that is central to Green Party candidate Jodie Emery. She wants pot to be legalized. Emery is the wife of Marc Emery, the so-called Prince of Pot, who is facing extradition to the United States for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet. Jodie ran unsuccessfully in the 2005 provincial election and 2008 provincial byelection in Vancouver-Fairview. Both times she ran under the B.C. Marijuana Party banner.
Election results from 2005: Former B.C. Court of Appeal justice Wally Oppal defeated the NDP's Ravinder Gill by 1,112 votes. It was Oppal's first run for political office. Oppal took over the Liberal banner from Ken Johnston, who was the Liberal MLA in the riding from 2001 to 2005. The Greens' Doug Perry finished third in 2005 with 1,374 votes while the Marijuana Party's Shea Campbell collected 650.
MLA candidate quiz reveals 'Happy Hooker' influence: Green Party educated by pro-prostitution lobby, NDP and Liberals dodge questions
By Mark Hasiuk
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Vancouver Courier
Last week, acclaimed journalist Victor Malarek visited Vancouver to promote his new book The Johns, which explores the world of men who buy sex. According to Malarek, and other international experts such as Sheila Jeffreys and Melissa Farley, most prostitutes are trapped in the sex trade due to addiction, mental illness, and abusive pimps and traffickers.
In recent years, many of Europe's most liberal governments--Sweden's parliament, Amsterdam's city council--have cracked down on johns and brothels, citing the inherent danger, abuse and inequality associated with prostitution. Despite all this, a vocal minority of "activists" press for legalization. Malarek dedicated an entire chapter to this group, dubbed the "Happy Hooker Lobby."
The lobby's Vancouver chapter, featuring folks such as Esther Shannon and transsexual prostitute Jamie Lee Hamilton, has been effective in forming public sentiment and framing political debate. It's a remarkable example of what a few dedicated people can do when politicians and the media blindly accept fiction as fact. The lobby serves no constituency other than itself. It provides no evidence other than the experience of its members, who claim to represent prostituted women.
When challenged, it stakes a false claim on women's rights, despite opposition from virtually every feminist and women's group in the city. To better understand the lobby's influence on local politicians during this provincial election season, I contacted MLA candidates from the three major parties--Liberal, Green and NDP--in four Vancouver ridings.
To their credit, only Green Party candidates agreed to be interviewed about this issue.
Do you support legalizing prostitution?
Doug Warkentin, Green Party candidate, Vancouver-Kensington: "I believe in the harm reduction approach, to basically reduce the damage that it does to the people that are involved."
Jodie Emery, Green Party candidate, Vancouver-Fraserview: "Yes. It would be much safer to have a legal environment. Because as it stands now, if a gentleman wants to find a women to procure services from he would have to drive around and find somebody standing on a street corner, which is unsafe in the first the place. And the money being spent goes into the hands of pimps."
John Boychuk, Green Party candidate, Vancouver-Mount Pleasant: "I do support the party platform. We do need to end the history associated with downplaying what is human nature."
Vanessa Violini, Green Party candidate, Vancouver-Fairview: "Yes, because the demand isn't going away. We need to help end the social stigma of being a prostitute, and we also need to empower [prostitutes] to help with the regulation of the industry."
What service is most important for Vancouver prostitutes--a safe work environment, or a provincially funded exit program, which removes women from the sex trade?
Emery: "I would say a safe environment because once it was made safe the women who wanted to leave that occupation would be able to do so."
The provincial government is responsible for enforcing federal prostitution law. Is the province doing enough to target johns who buy sex?
Emery: "It's a crime that never stops, and the only way to lessen the harms of that crime is move it into a safe environment."
How do you form your opinion on prostitution? Where do you get your information?
A dose of common sense from the Green Party: Brave young candidate urges economic belt-tightening
By Jon Ferry
Monday, April 27th, 2009
The Province
Click to enlarge
I couldn't believe my ears Friday when listening to a radio debate between the provincial candidates in Vancouver-Fraserview (listen to the Friday, April 24th 1:00pm show here at CKNW or here on YouTube). Asked by a caller about the current paramedics' strike, Jodie Emery, the Green Party candidate, was far from supportive of the union's position.
Indeed, the 24-year-old Emery, wife of pot prince Marc Emery, urged the workers to exercise some wage restraint. She made the point that, in these hard economic times, "we all need to sacrifice a little -- there's not an unlimited government bucket of money."
It was the kind of fiscally conservative comment that wouldn't exactly endear her to B.C.'s powerful union lobby. And I thought it was politically brave, to say the least. So I phoned Emery after the Christy Clark show on CKNW to confirm I hadn't misheard what she was saying. And the photogenic editor of Cannabis Culture magazine confirmed every word of it.
"As the economic situation worsens, it's not time to be asking for more money from anywhere," she told me. "It's time to make sure that everybody gets through this at least OK and, you know, we need to all tighten our belts."
Emery is right. If this province is to get through the Great Recession without too much grief, everybody is going to have give up a little, including public-sector workers with relatively decent wages and benefits.
It's something my parents, who lived through the Great Depression, understood well. But then they were green long before it became a fashion statement. They grew their own vegetables, made their own jams and composted. They knew about making do with what you had, and not whining or complaining.
It took a bubbly young Green Party candidate, however, to resurrect this concept. And it got me thinking that, while the mainstream parties are going through their usual motions and meltdowns, the energetic Greens are coming up with some interesting ideas.
In its Green Book, the party says it wants to create a business climate "in which more locally owned business across a range of industries can prosper."
It wants to diversify our power-generation sources and reduce our dependence on gambling and oil-and-gas revenues. And it wants to encourage greater participation in our democracy -- and reduce the power of the premier's office.
A lot of its ideas, though, are cuckoo. And you get the feeling a Green convention would be about as much fun as a convent get-together, with everybody worrying about whether the straws were organic.
That said, at least the Greens seem to believe strongly in something, which is more than you can say about the NDP and the Liberals, unless, that is, you consider speeding evidence of political passion.
No, the Greens' main weakness is their intolerance of those who, like me, question the hysteria surrounding alleged human-induced global warming.
During a Province editorial-board meeting last week, Green Party Leader Jane Sterk referred to us as "deniers," as in Holocaust deniers, highlighting the shameful bigotry of so many eco-zealots.
Besides, don't they know marijuana smoking itself contributes to climate change?
Jenny Kwan, Ujjal Dosanjh, and Green candidates want B.C. to acknowledge Chinese past
By Charlie Smith
Saturday, April 25th
The Georgia Straight
Several politicians signed a document today (April 25) pledging their support for "providing funding to research to incorporate the missing history of Chinese pioneers" into the B.C. school curriculum. The declaration also called upon the B.C. government to take "redemptive actions towards the Chinese community" in cooperation with the City of New Westminster when the Royal City holds its 150th anniversary celebration later this year.
In a signing ceremony at a church in southeast Vancouver, NDP MLA Jenny Kwan, NDP MP Don Davies, Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, and a few Green party provincial candidates — Jodie Emery, Doug and Rev Warkentin, Helen Chang, Grant Fraser, and Stephen Kronstein — all supported the declaration created by Canadians for Reconciliation. Kwan told the Straight at the event that she was signing the document on behalf of the entire NDP caucus. No B.C. Liberal candidates were present for the signing ceremony.
New Westminster once had a thriving Chinatown bounded by Columbia, McNeely, Carnarvon, and Blackie streets. Much of it was demolished in 1919 after the fire marshall declared the district "a fire trap". The following year, the New Westminster building inspector ordered the demolition of 14 buildings, mostly in the core of Chinatown, according to a Canadians for Reconciliation presentation at today's event.
Bill Chu, president of Canadians for Reconciliation, told the crowd of about 50 people in the church that there hasn't been a provincial government or City of New Westminster demonstration of remorse for the past discrimination against the Chinese in B.C. He characterized New Westminster as the "epicentre" of racism against the Chinese in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but noted that this discrimination spread across the province.
"Reconciliation is about bringing back such groups to hear the truth in history, to express appropriate remorse, and to undertake to treat each other with respect," he said in his speech.
He added that it's important for the Chinese diaspora to learn about the history for the sake of their identities. "Here in B.C., without the current culture and curriculum painting Chinese as cofounders and builders of the province, non-Chinese will see themselves as the hosts and the Chinese as guests," Chu said. "This will likely result in inequities from school playgrounds to work."
One woman in the audience, Wendy Harris, said she was born and raised in New Westminster and lived there her entire life. "I never had a clue that New Westminster had a Chinatown," she said, noting that she is nearly 50 years old.
Canadians for Reconciliation presented the audience with a timeline demonstrating the depth of discrimination meted out to Chinese migrants in B.C. in the 19th and 20th centuries. It mentioned, among other things:
1875 to 1879: The revised Land Act 1875 made land available to settlers free of charge except for those of Chinese and aboriginal descent.
In an interview with the Straight earlier this month, Chu said that in the 1881 census, Chinese people comprised 20 percent of the nonaboriginal population in B.C.
He noted that life was miserable for Chinese people in China during the 19th century as a result of foreign powers importing opium into the country. This forced people to leave southern China. "After 1840, there were all these nasty things the colonial powers did to us," Chu said.
He added that when he attended school in Hong Kong while it was under British control, this history did not appear in his textbooks. "They don't even want to bother distorting history," Chu said. "They simply erased it."
He said this is why he's concerned about the missing history of the Chinese pioneers in B.C. "It happened to us once in Hong Kong as a colony," he said. "Now, we come to this place, and...how come our history is not really in the curriculum today?"
Chu said it's time to correct this. "Last year, we had this BC 150 [anniversary]. Not a word got spoken about this piece of history we're talking about."
He noted that his interest in New Westminster was piqued last year when he learned about a Chinese cemetery underneath what is now the local secondary school.
CKNW Radio debate, Vancouver-Fraserview candidates
Friday, April 24th
Jodie Emery (BC Green Party), Kash Heed (Liberals) and Gabriel Yiu (NDP) were in studio with Christy Clark for an hour-long candidate's debate. To listen to the debate, select the 1:00pm segment on "Friday, April 24th" at the CKNW Audio Vault here or by watching the following YouTube video:
Fairchild TV: Vancouver-Fraserview profile
Monday, April 20th
Jodie was interviewed while out campaigning in her riding for Fairchild TV's Monday, April 20th Vancouver-Fraserview Profile. Liberal candidate Kash Heed and NDP candidate Gabriel Yiu also appear. To watch the video, click here.
CBC French TV: BC Green Party
Wednesday, April 15th
The BC Green Party had a press conference at City Hall on Wednesday, April 15th and got a lot of press coverage. Jodie was filmed by CBC French TV and spoke about ending prohibition; see the article and watch the CBC French TV video by clicking here.
Replace RCMP with provincial police, say Greens
By Colleen Kimmett
April 14, 2009
The Hook, Tyee.com
The Green Party of B.C. announced today that if elected it would create a provincial police force to replace the RCMP in British Columbia. "The RCMP have demonstrated they are not accountable to the public, operate outside of civilian oversight, and cannot self-assess complaints," stated party leader Jane Sterk in a press release. "The deaths of Ian Bush and Robert Dziekanski are examples of recent failures to provide helpful enforcement services to the people of BC."
The creation of a regional police force in Metro Vancouver has been touted by Mayor Gregor Robertson and others, including former West Vancouver police chief Kash Heed, who announced his candidacy for the B.C. Liberal Party last week.
In February, the Georgia Straight's Charlie Smith opined that Heed's entrance into provincial politics could have a "cataclysmic" impact on policing in the region, and said a regional police force could only happen if the province does not renew the RCMP contract, which expires in 2012.
Given the potential of a Metro Vancouver regional police force, plans to construct an $80 million RCMP headquarters in Surrey are "disappointing," said Jodie Emery, Green Party candidate for Vancouver-Fraserview.
She said two advantages to a provincial police force would be a reduced cost (although the party does not have a budget estimate for a new force) and more control over policing priorities. The plan would include provisions for a civilian oversight body as well, said Emery.
"If B.C. wanted to pursue a more lenient drug policy, which is part of the Green Party platform...we would have huge cuts in the budget for that sort of law enforcement. We would redirect that money towards murders, kidnappings...and other crimes like identify theft," said Emery.
Six Seats the BC Liberals Will Fight Hard to Keep
By Monte Paulsen
April 8, 2009
www.TheTyee.ca
At first glance, this year's May 12 election looks a lot like the 2005 provincial contest. It features the same party leaders. They arrive bearing similar messages. But the BC Liberals enter this contest with 33 safe seats, according to The Tyee's review of data that considers how the 2005 vote would have played out in the 2009 ridings. All Gordon Campbell has to do is to carry those seats plus 10 more and he wins another four years as premier. Here's a quick look at six problematic ridings the BC Liberals will fight hard to keep: .....
Vancouver-Fraserview: BC Liberal Wally Oppal narrowly defeated the NDP's Ravinder Gill to win this heavily ethnic riding by just a few points in 2005. Oppal's decision to move to his home riding of Delta South leaves no incumbent to defend one of the most dynamic neighbourhoods in the province.
Former West Vancouver police chief Kash Heed is expected to run for the BC Liberals. Heed worked in the Vancouver police force for almost three decades prior to taking the West Van job. He should do well in a riding dominated by extended families who are opposed to liberal drug laws and shocked by recent shootings, many of which appear drug related.
Heed would face NDP candidate Gabriel Yiu in a riding where more than half of the residents are Chinese. Yiu is a Hong Kong-born florist and newspaper columnist who was named as among 25 future leaders by the Vancouver Sun. Yiu worked in the Chinese Head Tax Redress Campaign during the 2006 federal election, helping pave the way for the historical redress. And he coordinated the campaign to oppose a funding cut to the Mount St. Joseph Hospital's Emergency Room.
However, South Vancouver's Chinese voters have tended to vote BC Liberal, while the area's South Asian voters (who make up about a fifth of the population) have tended to back the NDP. Thus Heed's entry into this race would create an interesting new dynamic in which identity politics would appear to be at odds with ethnic voting trends.
The Green Party is running drug-rights activist Jodie Emery in Fraserview. Emery, who ran as a B.C. Marijuana Party candidate in the 2005 election and the 2008 byelection, has worked as an editor of Cannabis Culture Magazine, and is married to activist Marc Emery. Her presence will likely influence the outcome of what would otherwise be a very tight race.
Ending drug prohibition could save our economy and stop gang violence
By Jodie Emery
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Georgia Straight: Commentary
Gang violence is a major concern for Vancouver and British Columbia. Shootings and murders happen so often that people feel unsafe in their own homes and communities. There was another time in history when gangsters terrorized society, bought fancy cars and weapons, lived lifestyles only criminal activity could afford, and shot rivals as they fought for control over the market. Law enforcement was unable to stop the violence, regardless of how severe the penalties and policing were. This happened under alcohol prohibition, and it’s happening again now under drug prohibition.
The modern-day example of prohibition’s absolute failure is Mexico. The United States’ southern neighbour is awash with gangs and drug cartels. These violent groups are murdering not just rivals, but also police, military personnel, politicians, and innocent victims. Over the years, Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón, has called for more law enforcement and military deployment, but every escalation of policing and imprisonment has resulted in rising gang violence and executions. In addition, government and law enforcement officials have been corrupted by the cartels, paid enormous sums of money in order to turn a blind eye towards drug-related criminal activity.
Is this what the province of British Columbia is headed towards? I strongly believe that, if we continue to fund and expand the failed policy of drug prohibition, Mexico’s drug war situation is a harbinger of our future. But there is a solution. Numerous experts and organizations are coming out en masse with the suggestion that repealing prohibition—ending the “war on drugs”—is the only way to stop the increasing violence, drug production, and gang growth happening across North America.
Additionally, with the worldwide economic situation getting worse every day, it’s become clear that the financial expense of investigating, arresting, prosecuting, and imprisoning drug users and dealers is too much a burden to bear. Even the Americans are repealing mandatory minimum prison sentences for drugs because the enormous cost of jailing one in every 100 Americans is bankrupting many states.
At this very moment, California and Massachusetts are both proposing a tax-and-regulate model for marijuana to bring the enormous underground criminal industry into government control. British Columbia can lead the way in Canada by introducing similar legislation for cannabis marijuana, which would eventually result in taxing and regulating all psychoactive substances. The cannabis industry in B.C. is worth currently $7 billion to $12 billion, and in a legal environment, the gross revenue to producers would be about $1 billion with a corresponding $2 billion in tax revenues at the retail level.
B.C.’s legislative assembly would implement a taxed and regulated system for marijuana. The health minister will establish regulations for the production and distribution of cannabis in the same way the province is responsible for regulating the distribution of alcohol and tobacco. (The B.C. regulatory system for alcohol is, in fact, how we emerged from alcohol prohibition.) The solicitor general would instruct all police to cease arrests for marijuana, and the attorney general of B.C. would no longer accept any prosecutions of marijuana-related cases. The reduction in imprisonment would reduce incarceration costs, keep families together, and prevent youth from joining gangs. Children who have a parent in prison are at greater risk to seek life guidance from gangs, and prisoners are often recruited into gangs while behind bars.
The minister of finance would determine taxes and licences for the production and distribution of cannabis products, and collect income taxes from producers, and retail sales tax from retailers. (California’s proposal is a $50 tax per ounce.) The Ministry of Small Business would issue licenses for producers, giving preference to outdoor greenhouse cultivation using the sun and organic nutrients, and employing numerous farmers and agricultural technicians in B.C.’s economically depressed resource towns and regions. Municipalities would have the prerogative of inspecting unlicensed grow-ops and ordering them removed if they pose a safety hazard. The education minister would abolish the DARE program and teach drug education in schools through programs run by health officials. Youth drug education outside of the schools would operate similar to alcohol and tobacco campaigns, which have been proven to reduce the use of these substances among young people.
This model would be effective in drastically reducing gangs, their control over the drug market, and the related violence and murders. Repealing prohibition in favour of a legal model would not only save billions of dollars in law enforcement, courts, and prosecutions, but would also move billions of dollars from the underground economy into the legitimate market to be taxed and regulated. Criminals who try to produce and distribute marijuana outside the regulated industry would be investigated and tried for tax evasion, just as the gangsters were in the 1930s when alcohol prohibition was repealed. Once we end prohibition, gangs will be dealt a severe financial blow, our economy will be buoyed, the streets will be safer, and B.C. will be a leading example for the rest of Canada.
Green candidate Jodie Emery meets Attorney General Wally Oppal
By Carlito Pablo
Monday, March 30th, 2009
Georgia Straight Blog: Politics
Green candidates Drina Read (left) and Jodie Emery pose at the booth where Emery handed a pamphlet on prohibition to B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal.
Did Jodie Emery intimidate Wally Oppal enough for the B.C. attorney general to hightail it out of Vancouver-Fraserview? Emery says a part of her wants to believe that. Emery, who is running as the B.C. Green Party’s candidate in the constituency ditched by Oppal in favour of Delta South, blogged about her encounter with the province’s No. 1 prosecutor on the rain-swept steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery last weekend. Here’s some of what she wrote:
At about 1:30 pm, a distinguished-looking gentleman approached our table after seeing the sign for my candidacy in Vancouver-Fraserview. I thought he looked familiar, but couldn’t quite place his face to a name. I said my standard pitch aloud – “Do you live in BC?” – and he responded, “Yes”, and seemed to be looking at me for some signal of recognition. I asked if he would like to sign our nomination papers, still trying to place where I knew him from, when Marc interjected, “Mr. Oppal, how are you? This is my wife, Jodie Emery, who is running against your record in Fraserview.”
Sure enough, it was Wally Oppal – the BC Attorney-General (“top prosecutor”), former BC Court of Appeal judge, and sitting MLA for Vancouver-Fraserview. I had been slated to run against him in Fraserview, but he switched ridings after I was nominated. I introduced myself and shook his hand, feeling sheepish about not being able to recognize who he was; after all, the Georgia Straight newspaper had run an article with the headline “Green Party siren Jodie Emery targets Wally Oppal the prohibitionist” when my candidacy was first announced.
He gingerly remarked, “You can say you scared me off, that you intimidated me to seek another riding!” He was facetious and good-humored, but part of me really believes it. In the Georgia Straight article, I was quoted saying: “There is a lot that needs to be said that he needs to hear … He used to be a bit more progressive, but he’s since turned to become more prohibitionist and [is] supporting the policing, even though he and everyone can see that hasn’t worked thus far. I think I will have a good time discussing some of these issues – gang violence and prohibition and organized crime – with Wally Oppal. I am quite excited about it.”
Mr. Oppal graciously stayed for a brief chat, and Marc, ever helpful with his knowledge, continued: “Jodie may not have recognized you right away, but she’s very familiar with your 1994 Report of Policing in British Columbia. Do you think your government has made suitable progress on your recommendations from that report?” Mr. Oppal replied that, yes, in his opinion, the BC Liberals had done some significant work on the proposals of the groundbreaking report from the bench fifteen years ago.
As he prepared to leave, I handed him my “How do we end the gang violence? End prohibition!” pamphlet and Marc asked if he thought the policies of prohibition have been working. He didn’t answer definitively yes or no, but took the pamphlet, shook my hand, and wished me good luck in the election. I saw him reading the information as he walked away. Perhaps he’ll take it to heart and begin talking about how gangs are created and funded by prohibition – who knows? Stranger things have happened!
Bill C-15 could fill Canadian prisons with drug offenders
By Carlito Pablo
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Georgia Straight
Marc Emery (pictured with his wife, Jodie) says mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offences is a “failed policy” in the U.S.
On March 2, the Pew Center on the States, a Washington, D.C.–based think tank, released a report on the staggering growth of the American correctional system. Entitled One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections, the report noted that “sentencing and release laws passed in the 1980s and 1990s put so many more people behind bars that last year the incarcerated population reached 2.3 million and, for the first time, one in 100 adults was in prison or jail.”
It also cited the tremendous increase in the number of people on probation or parole, such that “combined with those in prison and jail, a stunning 1 in every 31 adults, or 3.2 percent, is under some form of correctional control.”
Why is this relevant to Canada? “We only need to go south of the border and see a nation that enacted mandatory minimums related to drug offences from the mid-1980s on,” criminologist Susan Boyd told the Georgia Straight. “It didn’t reduce violence and drug use. So here we are saying, ‘We’re going to do this.’ ”
Boyd—an associate professor at UVic and research fellow at the Centre for Addictions Research of B.C.—was referring to the reintroduction in Parliament by the Conservative government of a bill that proposes mandatory minimum jail sentences for drug offenders.
If passed into law, Bill C-15 would, among its other provisions, throw people caught with one marijuana plant into the slammer for a minimum of six months. If growing a single plant is done on a property that belongs to another person or in an area where it may present a hazard to children, minimum jail time is nine months.
Worse, the bill seeks to increase the maximum penalty for this particular offence to 14 years.
Vancouver’s so-called Prince of Pot, Marc Emery, who is fighting extradition on charges of selling marijuana seeds to American growers, is a potential U.S. prison statistic.
Emery was handing out leaflets condemning drug prohibition, along with his wife, Jodie, on the south side of the city when the Straight asked him about Bill C-15. “Anything that puts more people in jail for drugs is going to fill prisons,” he said. “It’s a very expensive and failed policy that will only bring us more misery.”
The Pew Center on the States report pointed out that many states in the U.S. “appear to have reached a ‘tipping point’ where additional incarceration will have little if any effect on crime”.
In Washington state, which shares a border with B.C., the report stated, “from 1980 to 2001, the benefit-to-cost ratio for drug offenders plummeted from $9.22 to $0.37.
“That is, for every one dollar invested in new prison beds for drug offenders, state taxpayers get only 37 cents in averted crime,” it noted. “An updated analysis from 2006 found that incarceration of offenders convicted of violent offenses remained a positive net benefit, while property and drug offenders offered negative returns.”
Conservative Abbotsford MP Ed Fast deflected criticism that mandatory jail times haven’t worked in the U.S.
“First of all, on the issue of deterrence there’s contradicting evidence,” Fast told the Straight. “I don’t base my support for the legislation on the deterrent effect. I base it on the prophylactic effect of the legislation. Prophylactic means taking repeat, violent offenders out of our communities for longer periods of time.”
Bill C-15 is a reincarnation of Bill C-26, which the Conservatives introduced in November 2007.
In February 2008, a few months after Bill C-26 was tabled in Parliament, Boyd started sending Prime Minister Stephen Harper a weekly letter in an attempt to educate the Conservative leader about harm reduction and drug regulation.
Boyd did this for a year, and she sent her 52nd and final letter in early February this year. Bill C-15 was introduced on February 27, a day after the Conservatives filed Bill C-14, which toughens penalties for gang-associated violent activities.
As an educator, Boyd has this to say about mentoring Harper: “The prime minister gets a failing grade on drug policy.”
The economics of prisons in Canada
- Total correctional-services expenditures in 2005-06: almost $3 billion
- Share spent on custodial services or prisons: 71 percent
- Associated policing and court costs in 2005-06: more than $10 billion
- Number of correctional facilities in Canada in 2005-06: 192
- Annual cost of incarcerating a federal female prisoner in 2004-05: $150,000 to $250,000
- Annual cost of incarcerating a federal male prisoner in 2004-05: $87,665
- Daily cost of incarcerating a provincial prisoner in 2004-05: $141.78
- Daily cost of alternatives such as probation, bail supervision, and community supervision: $5 to $25
Will Bill C-15 kill the twin scourge of illegal drugs and gang violence?
Libby Davies
NDP MP, Vancouver East
“There’s a lot of information, both in the United States and in Canada, that shows that mandatory minimum sentencing regimes for drug offences are ineffective. This is all about window-dressing for the Conservatives’ crime agenda. They want to impress people with their tough-on-crime approach. One thing that will happen is that it could very much overcrowd our prisons. We find the bill to be misdirected and based on a very faulty premise. It’s based on the U.S.’s war on drugs, which has been a complete failure.”
Ed Fast
Conservative MP, Abbotsford
“What Bill C-15 does is it’s connecting the sale of drugs to aggravating factors. If there’s a sale or production or growing of drugs that occurs and violence is present, we will put those guys behind bars. But we also want to make sure that low-level dealers that are dealing in drugs simply because they’re addicted can actually get the help that they deserve. We believe it’s a balanced approach. We’re not going after the marijuana users. We’re going after the guys who really present an ongoing danger to our community.”
Ujjal Dosanjh
Liberal MP, Vancouver South
“Bill[s] C-14 and [C-]15? We have said that we’ll support both of them. We agree with tougher penalties for serious and violent and chronic offenders. But that alone isn’t going to do the job. That’s why we believe this government is failing significantly in their drive to deal with the issue of crime. They’re failing Canadians because they’re not emphasizing crime-preventing, they’re not providing resources for youth programs, they’re not providing actual police officers on the ground, [and] they’re not providing prosecutors.”
Adrianne Carr
Deputy leader, Green Party of Canada
“The Green party doesn’t support mandatory sentencing because it has proven to not work. It’s coming from this tough-on-crime perspective. What we’ve seen is that our court system wastes extraordinarily high resources in prosecuting the petty criminals involved in drug cases, particularly marijuana. We should be legalizing marijuana, which has been suggested by the Senate of Canada and the Fraser Institute, and these are hardly radical institutions. What we have to do is delink the profit motive from drugs.”
B.C. Green party's platform promises to end drug prohibition
By Carlito Pablo
March 20th, 2009
The Georgia Straight
The Green Party of B.C. will work to end drug prohibition (see "Prohibition benefits Vancouver gangs"), and would kick the RCMP out of the province. These policy positions are contained in the party’s platform released March 19th.
The party stated in its “Green Book” that it is “prepared to support an end to prohibition on psychoactive substances and begin regulating and controlling modes of production and access”. The BC Greens also promised to bring back a provincial police force, which British Columbia had until 1950, when the RCMP was brought in to do contract police work for many jurisdictions.
The party stated that its “Green Strategy for Substance Use” will “take away power from organized crime without criminalizing those who struggle with addictions”. The provincial Greens also pledged that they will work toward “regulation and control of the production and distribution of cannabis through licensed outlets” as well as support “regulated access to currently illegal drugs through a physician’s recommendation”.
“We believe that enforcement can and should play a role in a public health approach to substance use,” the Green Book read. “However, it should be focused on protecting the public from serious crime, rather than on personal substance use.”
B.C. Marijuana Party leader Marc Emery has said that his group is throwing its support behind the Greens in this year’s provincial election. His wife Jodie Emery is running as the Green candidate in Vancouver-Fraserview.
In the area of law enforcement, the Greens said that aside from bringing in a provincial police force, they would also appoint an “independent Provincial Police Commissioner to oversee investigations of police conduct and process for all jurisdictions”. Under the present setup, RCMP officers are not subject to provincial oversight processes.
In their platform, the B.C. Greens also stated that they would remove tasers “from all law enforcement agencies” in the province.
B.C. Green party wants pot decriminalized and Tasers prohibited
March 19th, 2009
Canadian Press
VANCOUVER, B.C. — If they're able to elect even a single member in the upcoming provincial election, the B.C. Green party says it would work toward having marijuana decriminalized and prohibiting a newly established provincial police force from using Tasers. The party released an election platform with some 500 measures on Thursday, in anticipation of the May 12 provincial vote.
Party leader Jane Sterk said she recognizes that the federal government has jurisdiction over the criminal aspects of marijuana, but she feels the province can play a role even without the power to decriminalize the drug.
"We do believe at the provincial level we can (at least) take charge of the negative aspects of what's happening as a consequence of the war on drugs," said Sterk, a 62-year-old grandmother of two with a PhD in counselling psychology. "We can treat the problems related to substance abuse within the public health system as opposed to the criminal justice system."
Sterk said that she would prefer that the province had control over the regulation, production and distribution of marijuana - and reaped the tax benefits. "Not only are we losing potential tax revenue but we are putting this in the hands of criminal elements and they have no morals or ethics." While she doesn't envision a scenario like the Netherlands, where marijuana can be consumed in cafes and restaurants, she believes it should be sold in venues like provincial liquor stores.
Establishing a provincial police force - replacing the RCMP in some jurisdictions and municipal police in others - would also help alleviate the problem with gangs and the shootings in Metro Vancouver, she said.
The Greens would also like to ban use of conductive energy weapons by police. The weapons have come under great scrutiny since the death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver's airport after being hit with an RCMP Taser. "The evidence related to Tasers is strong enough that we need to eliminate them," she said.
Sterk declined to predict a breakthrough seat for the Greens, who have never elected an MLA in British Columbia or anywhere else. She is running in Esquimalt-Royal Roads, on Vancouver Island, and says the party so far has nominated 41 candidates and may have hopefuls in place in all 85 ridings by the end of the month.
Sterk said she is not worried that voters might split between the Greens and the NDP, making it easier for the Liberals to get re-elected. "Our desire in this election is to present a viable third party alternative to B.C.," she said. "It's a very tired argument that we split the vote and therefore we get the wrong government as a consequence of the Green party."
Sterk, who has taught in the public school system, worked as a psychologist and been a small business owner, joined the provincial Green party in 2001 and ran federally for the party in 2004. She ran again provincially in 2005 before being elected as a councillor in the 2005 Esquimalt municipal election. Sterk became Green party leader in 2007.
Protesting Stephen Harper in Vancouver
Watch news coverage of this event!
• CBC, The National (0:20 mark)
• Global BC News (5:50 mark)
• CTV News (1:10 mark)
Victims' advocates happy after meeting with Harper
The Province
Friday, February 27, 2009
Victims' advocates emerged from a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper yesterday happy they got a chance to speak their minds, but vowing to keep pressing for tougher anti-gang laws.
On yesterday's shopping list were legal changes, such as putting a stop to letting gangsters charged with gun offences out on bail, an end to criminals getting double-credit for time served before their day in court, and minimum sentences for gang-violence crimes.
"The court system offers bail to the most psychopathic criminals," said Steve Brown, whose brother-in-law Ed Schellenburg was killed in October 2007 while innocently repairing a gas fireplace in a Surrey apartment when gangsters carried out a hit. "We're going to stay with this -- we're going to press until we get what we want."
Brown said he was fortunate to have the PM's ear, as politicians from top to bottom are promising changes in the wake of an unprecedented wave of gang violence in B.C. "I had the privilege of speaking to the prime minister," said Brown. "The justice system has failed us. We need stiffer sentences for gang violence."
Eileen Mohan, whose son Chris was also killed in the October shootings, called for consecutive sentences, so that criminals would serve one sentence after another, rather than concurrent ones.
Michele Holifield, whose son Kirk was killed in January 2007 in a case of mistaken identity -- his Dodge Ram pickup was identical to that owned by a gang target -- said she tried to impress upon Harper that her son died from gang violence, leaving her 10-month-old granddaughter Amelia without a father. "These criminals took away my son's life," she said with tears in her eyes.
Abbotsford police Chief Bob Rich, president of the B.C. Association of Chiefs of Police, said he'd like to see dangerous criminals refused bail. "These criminals are out, so we're spending thousands of dollars to keep our communities safe," he said. "If they had been kept in jail, the community would be safe."
While the families of crime victims lobbied Harper for tougher laws, outside the library complex chanting protesters argued that repealing drug laws would make Canada a safer country.
"We're saying that the gangsters wouldn't exist if there wasn't drug prohibition," said Jodie Emery, a Green Party candidate in the upcoming B.C. election. "If the sentences are more severe, gangs would be more violent toward police."
Later, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who also met Harper yesterday, said Canada's prohibition on marijuana use "certainly is contributing to the gang problem right now.
The government should "regulate, control and tax marijuana," said Robertson. "I think the prohibition approach to it is not working."
Click here to see the full newspaper article as an image
Green party siren Jodie Emery targets Wally Oppal the prohibitionist
By Matthew Burrows
February 19th, 2009
The Georgia Straight
She’s an editor of Cannabis Culture magazine, she’s 24 years old, she supported U.S. presidential candidate Ron Paul, and she’s married to pot crusader Marc Emery. She’s Jodie Emery, and the Georgia Straight has learned that she will run for the B.C. Green party against B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal in Vancouver-Fraserview in May.
“There is a lot that needs to be said that he needs to hear,” Emery told the Straight by phone. “He used to be a bit more progressive, but he’s since turned to become more prohibitionist and [is] supporting the policing, even though he and everyone can see that hasn’t worked thus far. I think I will have a good time discussing some of these issues—gang violence and prohibition and organized crime—with Wally Oppal. I am quite excited about it.”
B.C. Green party deputy leader Damian Kettlewell, who confirmed he is running in his newly created home riding of Vancouver–False Creek, said Emery “has got the full package”.
“In these revenue-challenged times, our province is losing up to $2 billion in tax revenues annually by criminalizing cannabis,” Kettlewell told the Straight in a phone interview. “Jodie is going to be running against Wally. She is quite articulate and she is a thoughtful person. She is very passionate about cost overruns and homelessness. She’s got the full package and we’re excited to be partnering with her.”
Kettlewell was quick to point out that the B.C. Marijuana Party will field its own candidates, so the partnership with Emery is “unofficial”.
For her part, Emery said her platform will focus on one simple message: ending prohibition. “Nobody is making big money or shooting each other over coffee or alcohol or cigarettes,” she said in relation to the recent spate of gang-related shootings. “It’s just that the illegality sends that whole market into the underground, where there is no legitimate recourse for disputes. Prohibition hasn’t worked at all, and if gang members don’t fear prison, they don’t fear getting shot down in the streets either. So stricter enforcement is not going to deter them. It will only raise the stakes and make them more violent in their efforts to control their territory and their marketing.”
B.C. Green party leader Jane Sterk ran against Emery (then with the B.C. Marijuana Party) in the October 29 provincial by-election in Vancouver-Fairview. Sterk, based in Esquimalt, ultimately approved Emery’s candidacy this time.
“She must have been impressed by what I had to say,” Emery said. “They asked me if I would be all right with them nominating me, and I thought that would be great, because the environment is another passion of mine, along with sustainability. I am very much in line with them on that.”
For his part, Kettlewell will face off against B.C. Liberal candidate, and former federal Conservative nominee, Mary McNeil. In 2005, Kettlewell garnered more than 15 percent of the popular vote in Vancouver–Point Grey running against Premier Gordon Campbell and NDP challenger Mel Lehan, who are both running again in May.
“My chances are improved running in Vancouver–False Creek, and that’s why I decided to run there,” Kettlewell said. “Mary McNeil has been around a lot longer, but she has lost the only political campaign she’s ever been involved with. She lost to Deborah Meredith [for the Conservative Vancouver Quadra by-election nomination], so she’s a real Conservative. She is a federal Conservative, and the federal Conservatives aren’t really popular in the city centre, so I’ll be putting it out that she’s extremely right-wing. The NDP have not found a person yet.…We’re running an aggressive campaign and we’re ready to make history and elect some Green MLAs under the first-past-the-post system.”
Kettlewell said his major policy focuses are making the city centre and Vancouver–False Creek areas the “greenest in North America” and pushing for the adoption of the single transferable vote (STV) voting system. Voters can vote for the latter at the ballot box this May.
Other declared Vancouver-based B.C. Green candidates are Vanessa Violini (Vancouver-Fairview), Jamie-Lee Hamilton (Vancouver–Mount Pleasant), Ryan Conroy (Vancouver-Hastings), Drina Read (Vancouver–West End), Rev Warkentin (Vancouver-Kingsway), Doug Warkentin (Vancouver-Kensington), and Laura-Leah Shaw (Vancouver-Quilchena).
Published Letters to Editors
To see the Media Awareness Project's archive of Letters To The Editor that Jodie Emery has had published in newspapers, click here and here.
Here are Jodie's favorites:
Impaired charges should rely on driver's actions
Wed, 18 March 2009
Nanaimo Daily News
Concluding that someone is impaired based on the substances in their body, rather than their performance on the road, is not about detecting and stopping impaired driving at all.
The drug recognition experts are seeking out and punishing marijuana users, not just impaired drivers. Performance, not the contents of one's body fluids, should be the deciding factor when it comes to detecting impairment.
<hr>Prohibition, Circa 2009
Mon, 09 Feb 2009
Globe and Mail
Len Garis, the fire chief in Surrey, B.C., has this to say about grow-op fires and hazards, "If [only] we can separate the product [marijuana] and the situation." We can ( Seeing Pot Through Benign Soft Lens Ignores Hard Realities Of Grow Ops - Feb. 7 ). The dangers of grow ops only exist because marijuana is illegal, which means plants have to be grown clandestinely with no safety or health regulations. Marijuana can be separated from hazardous grow-op situations simply by ending marijuana prohibition.
Consider alcohol prohibition: Homemade basement booze distilleries were popping up everywhere to supply demand, but they caused fires and explosions, attracted gang violence and created other problems akin to what we're seeing under marijuana prohibition. Legalizing and regulating the safe production of marijuana in greenhouses or outdoors, like most flowers and produce, would eliminate grow ops from homes and neighbourhoods.
<hr>Waste of Tax Dollars
Mon, 15 Dec 2008
The Province (BC)
I was disturbed to read "Banners beckon new cops." This police recruitment and hiring campaign is a waste of our tax dollars.
In these uncertain economic times and with crime rates at their lowest point in 30 years, how can Vancouver police and the RCMP justify spending $46,000 to $74,000 on thousands of new police officers over the next few years? We can hardly afford Vancouver's most urgent essential services, such as emergency housing and transit.
Why not reorganize and restructure police, just as other organizations and businesses must do? They should allocate their resources more efficiently.
A start would be to immediately stop arresting and processing thousands of people every year for simple marijuana possession.
What a waste of money and resources. Don't they have more important work to do?
<hr>Reducing Habit
Wed, 04 Jun 2008
Ottawa Citizen
Margret Kopala claims that "smokers use nicotine gum, not more cigarettes, to kick the habit," but, because cigarette smokers are addicted to nicotine, when they use gum or patches they are actually using the substance that caused the problem to cure it.
Similarly, when people are addicted to pharmaceutical drugs, they slowly reduce the dosage to quit. Reduction is part of harm reduction.
Ms. Kopala also states that cigarette smokers "don't steal to feed their habit" but fails to consider that drug addicts have to steal because their drugs are illegal, and cannot be prescribed or sold through pharmacies.
Ritalin or Paxil users would never need to steal for their drugs because they can legally, safely obtain them.
Our drug problems of addiction and gang crime get worse every year, yet police and politicians keep advocating for the same prohibitionist approach. It seems they benefit the most from prohibition because prohibition means guaranteed funding for them and for the drug dealers.
Drug prohibition and abstinence are not solving our drug problems.
How many more prohibition-fuelled deaths are needed before we commit to trying something radically different?
<hr>Decades After Woodstock, The Pot Debate Still Rages
Tue, 27 May 2008
National Post
Cannabis prohibition has created the harms and dangers associated with growing, selling and consuming marijuana. The Special Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs declared in their 2002 report, Cannabis: Our Position for a Canadian Public Policy that "the continued prohibition of cannabis jeopardizes the health and well-being of Canadians much more than does the substance itself."
Once people realize that the prohibition of cannabis is the root of the dangers associated with it ( unsafe grow-ops, uncontrolled sales to underage buyers, gang turf wars, etc. ) they will realize that drug prohibition has failed to stop any drug-related problem.
In fact, it has made them worse.
I urge readers to ask themselves who benefits from prohibition? As far as I can tell, those who benefit the most are criminal organizations and police associations. How many more gang turf shootings are needed before we try something different?
<hr>New Drug Laws 'Guaranteed to Fail'
Tue, 27 Nov 2007
National Post
The Conservatives say the proposed mandatory minimum prison sentences for growing, possessing and trafficking marijuana are aimed at organized crime, but when I went to the Canadian government's own Web site dedicated to organized crime ( www.organizedcrime.ca ), I was surprised to see the definition of that term: "Serious crime planed and carried out by a group of at least three people to benefit one or more members of the group."
Does this mean that under the proposed changes to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, a pot smoker, the seller and anyone they know - a friend, spouse, co-worker, roommate - could be considered part of organized crime, and therefore subject to even longer jail terms?
Don't think that only dealers, and not users, will be imprisoned. My husband, Marc Emery, was sentenced to three months in prison for "trafficking" marijuana - he passed a joint to a friend. That means every Canadian who smokes marijuana with someone else can go to prison. It seems our government would love to see that happen.
<hr>Just The Facts
Tue, 17 Jul 2007
Ottawa Citizen
Thank you, Dan Gardner! I've been waiting for someone to point out that the police are not health or science experts, and we should not swallow as truth their so-called facts about marijuana.
The police should simply enforce laws instead of trying to influence what the laws are, which they do with police association lobbyists and regular press announcements aimed to scare the general public about "the demon weed."
No more quoting police officers in the media when it comes to marijuana use. Let's hear from qualified experts in the right field of knowledge.
<hr>Refreshing Read
Tue, 20 Feb 2007
Winnipeg Sun
Thank you to John Gleeson for writing such a sensible and honest article ( Drug profits and the big picture, Point of View, Feb. 18 ). It was so refreshing to read a drug-prohibition news piece backed up with science, facts and logic instead of quotes from police about their "beliefs" and ( questionable ) statistics.
When discussing public health and safety issues, it's absolutely essential to be unbiased, unemotional and factual -- especially by referring to reputable and independent studies, such as the Fraser Institute report, which Gleeson mentioned.
This is the kind of newspaper article we should see more often. Kudos to the Winnipeg Sun for running this important information.
<hr>Scary Agenda/Expanding Prison Industry Won't Reduce Crime
Mon, 08 May 2006
The Ottawa Citizen (& The Province, 07 May 2006)
Criminologists and studies worldwide prove that mandatory minimum sentences do not work.
The U.S is a perfect example of how mandatory minimum sentences and prison expansion cost far more than the taxpayers and government can afford, and create a corrupt, costly and unaccountable industry. The enormous expense of housing people in cells, paying for their food, and paying for guards to watch them is beyond what Canada can support - -- and Prime Minister Stephen Harper won't even disclose the projected costs for the jail building plans. How do the Conservatives expect to pay for a prison boom after making such bold promises on child care?
This government scares me more and more every day. I pray that Canadians will pressure their members of Parliament to not support this proposal or the Conservative party's U.S-influenced agenda. It's a cost that Canada can simply not afford -- financially, ethically and morally.
<hr>Innocents Get Caught In War On Grow Ops
Wed, 26 Apr 2006
Surrey Leader
This is a perfect example of why Bill 25 should not be approved by the provincial legislature.
We all know that any organized crime marijuana grow op is "hidden" from BC Hydro and the police through elaborate measures -- such as purchasing entire gas stations to fuel the lights and equipment, as we saw recently.
This new BC Hydro, fire department and police collaboration will only net innocents like the Kucukgozen family, and perhaps small-time personal-supply marijuana growers who have one to 10 plants at home.
It's not going to have any effect on the large organized crime supply and exports.
They know how to stay undetected, and the only people who suffer are honest tax-paying citizens.
<hr>Decriminalize Marijuana
Sun, 06 Mar 2005
The Province
Stricter prohibition and heavier penalties only generate massive illegal profit for criminals, who are willing to take great risks to make that bundle of tax-free cash.
Marijuana cultivation is extremely profitable under the tough drug laws we have now.
If marijuana were as common as peanuts or daisies, there would be no incentive for organized crime to grow and distribute it for profit.
Legalizing and regulating marijuana will eliminate the problems associated with organized crime.
<hr>Oust Criminals
Sat, 05 Mar 2005
Calgary Herald
Illegality - Following the terrible tragedy in Alberta on Thursday, Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan stated that the Liberal marijuana decriminalization proposal must be reviewed and changed to hand out harsher penalties to growers.
However, stricter prohibition and heavier penalties only generate massive illegal profit for criminals, who are willing to take great risks to make that bundle of tax-free cash. Alcohol was a massive moneymaker for the gangsters during liquor prohibition, just as marijuana cultivation is extremely profitable under the tough drug laws we have now. If marijuana were as common as peanuts or daisies, there would be no incentive for organized crime to grow and distribute it.
Legalizing and regulating marijuana will eliminate the problems associated with organized crime. There would be no reason to protect grow ops with guns and violence if they were controlled properly with no risk of arrest, jail time, break-ins, seizure of property or other consequences of growing an illegal substance.
It's time to get rid of organized drug crime by cutting off its largest means of funding: illegal, mass-scale marijuana cultivation.
Remember, the end of liquor prohibition ended the illegal liquor trade, which shut down the gangs and criminal activity of the 1920s.
Make marijuana legal and watch the problems disappear.
<hr>It's Time To End Foolish War Against Marijuana
Mon, 30 Aug 2004
The Ottawa Citizen
I commend the Citizen for this editorial. It's about time we started discussing the real facts about marijuana.
No one seems to remember that a Senate special committee concluded two years ago that our marijuana laws and their enforcement are harmful to Canadians.
The report stated that "the continued prohibition of cannabis jeopardizes the health and well-being of Canadians much more than does the substance itself," and that scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than cigarettes or alcohol and should be treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and public-health issue.
This report has been ignored. Why?
The claims that marijuana is deadly and brain-damaging have been discredited many times, so why should anyone go to jail for using marijuana?
Prohibition has failed in the past, and the illegality of alcohol made it a lucrative business for criminals. It's no longer just grandma growing marijuana in her backyard; it's the Hells Angels and other gangs producing field upon field. That's who we should be putting behind bars, the crack cocaine and methamphetamine makers, the street drug dealers, the people who make an enormous profit from a simple plant, just because it's illegal.
If prohibition continues and the new decriminalization bill is not revised, we will continue to see friends and loved ones put away for smoking a herb -- and even for simply passing a joint.
I hope that isn't the Canadian way. We should all demand an end to this failed and unjust war on marijuana.
<hr>