HALIFAX: Lorne Grabher, whose personalized GRABHER licence plate was deemed “socially unacceptable” by the Nova Scotia Registrar of Motor Vehicles, will be in court on Wednesday, September 6, 2017 …
THE WAR ON DRUGS – How Massive Busts Could Create More Harm for People Who Use Drugs
It’s all wrong. It’s backward. We need to deal with the demand side. This proudly violent war on the supply side has unconsidered consequences.
With the biggest drug bust in Ontario history—$250-million—the province’s cocaine supply may have just gotten more dangerous.
Source: How Massive Busts Could Create More Harm for People Who Use Drugs
THE WAR ON DRUGS – “It’s been obvious for 40 years.” Just think of all the unnecessary suffering that could have been prevented for all those years but wasn’t because it was illegal … for some reason.
“It’s been obvious for 40 years.”
Source: Ecstasy Was Just Labelled a ‘Breakthrough Therapy’ For PTSD by The FDA
HARPER’S CONTINUING TOUGH ON CRIME LEGACY
“These policies continue to bring more people than ever in conflict with the law and make it more difficult for those caught up in the system to get out. They have clogged our prisons, drained the public coffers, unnecessarily criminalized minor offenders and contributed to a national crisis of court delays that profoundly undermines both justice and public safety.”
Source: Toronto Star’s View: The Trudeau government should not delay on sentencing reforms
HAVE YOU SENT YOUR DNA TO ANCESTRY.COM? Do you know what they can do with it?
A word to the wise: Read the complete terms of service.
Source: Ancestry.com takes DNA ownership rights from customers and their relatives
MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCES INCREASE INJUSTICE. PERIOD.
News item: The federal Justice Department has hired a pollster to sound out Canadians on their appetite for criminal sentencing reform – a political “testing of the waters,” as it were.
Source: Globe editorial: You don’t need a poll to know mandatory minimum sentences are bad
MARIJUANA AND ORGANIZED CRIME – Organized crime’s interest in the illegal pot business is going up in smoke
It seems they’re being forced out of the market as it becomes, during this legal hiatus, occupied by a myriad of other suppliers. The coming government scheme will have to compete with an established market when they finally jump in.
There wasn’t much need to smuggle pot into the country when Canadian cannabis connoisseurs liked the homegrown stuff better, experts say.
Source: Organized crime’s interest in the illegal pot business is going up in smoke | Toronto Star
THE JUDICIAL BENCH STANDS STRONG – ‘Believe the victim’ has no place in courts
Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy said she could not rely on the complainant’s testimony, which she found inconsistent, implausible at times and contradicted by – on the key issue of her capacity to consent – video recordings and a toxicologist. “Although the slogan ‘Believe the victim’ has become popularized of late, it has no place in a criminal trial,”
Justice Anne Molloy, who presided over the case, said in her ruling that the rising movement to ‘believe the victim’ has no place in the courts
Source: ‘Believe the victim’ has no place in courts, judge says in sexual assault ruling
TO SERVE AND PROTECT – Police got caught with “their hand in the cookie jar”. No wonder they have an aversion to their conduct being recorded. No, you don’t have to give up your phone if you’re a witness.
It’s the video that shocked a city. Recorded by a citizen who says he feared for a man’s life while watching a Toronto Police Sergeant repeatedly taser and stomp on what appeared to be, an unresponsive, limp suspect, face down on the cold January pavement near Dundas Street East and Church Street. Waseem Khan, the […]
THE CANADIAN WAR ON DRUGS – Toronto marijuana arrests reveal ‘startling’ racial divide | Toronto Star
We bought into the American “war on drugs” hook, line and sinker and this is the result: “What it’s really done is criminalize an entire generation of young Black males, over something that’s now on the verge of being legal.” “So what we have is a situation where police officers benefited personally from the further marginalization of vulnerable Torontonians.”
Toronto police data obtained by the Star breaks down arrests by neighbourhood and shows disproportionate numbers for Black people when it comes to pot possession charges.
Source: Toronto marijuana arrests reveal ‘startling’ racial divide | Toronto Star