The Senate’s Legal Affairs Committee yesterday adopted the ‘Cotler’ amendments to Bill C-10.  In addition, its report made a number of useful observations, but it remained obstinately silent about mandatory minimum sentences.   Voting at the Committee, as predicted, followed party lines. 

In the meantime, The Global Drug Commission today sent an open letter to Prime Minister Harper stating once again that “tougher drug law enforcement tactics such as mandatory minimum sentencing for minor drug law offences will put a huge strain on Canadian taxpayers, will not have the intended effect of creating safer communities, and will instead further entrench the marijuana industry in the hands of organized crime groups.” 

The Commission’s plea will in all likelihood go unheeded, along with the testimony of the Canadian Bar Association and others whose experience has led them to conclude that the government is pursuing a counter-productive course of action.  Instead, I’m told that the Conservative majority in the Senate is planning to limit debate on Bill C-10 to a total of six hours in order to force a final vote tomorrow.  Not that the controversy will end there … it may take several more attempts, but ultimately the preponderance of expert opinion will surely succeed in gathering sufficient public support to put Canada back on the right track.

You go Girl, keep fighting against this disaster until you prevail.  I am a retired VP of Human Resources and Industrial Relations in the oil/gas/chemical industry and spent a life time trying to improve the acceptance and tolerance in the community and see this legislation as a draconian step backwards.  I am not in favour of drugs but I cannot abide the intolerance of those who refuse to see the problem in the narrow definition of criminal acts.  As a retired guy I spend a lot of time volunteering for Youth and their causes.  I know a lot of the kids that I work with do recreational drugs but they are not criminals.  They are bright, dedicated, and most often troubled kids who need a chance to find their place in a society filled with an amazing range of choices. Some make troubling choices in an effort to find a place in their world which is a very inhospitable and challenging world to be.  So what if they get high now and again?  Its no different than the beer and frat parties that many of the MP's and senators enjoyed in their rebellious youth in highschool and university !  Damn these hypocrites for threatening to put young people in jail for doing the same things that they did as youth.  If they want to do something positive about the "problem" spend resources going after the importers, the growers and the manufactures and when captured let the judges do their jobs and sentence the guilty suppliers to well considered penalties.  DEFEAT BILL C-10 !