12-GRAM AUTOGRAPH

Toronto -- Re MacIsaac Discharged For Fiddling With Pot (Arts Notebook --
Aug. 23): Granting an absolute discharge with no fine for a guilty plea,
the trial judge joked, "The only condition I'd like to attach is if you
could get my wife an autograph."

I like to hear that judges have a sense of humour, but you can't help
wondering what the sentence might have been if the accused were a First
Nations street kid, or a bored suburban high school kid going to an Ashley
MacIsaac concert. Dollars to doughnuts, those kids would have got at least
a lecture for copping a guilty plea to half an ounce. I'll bet the Mounties
are warmed by the thought that 12 grams gets a request for an autograph.