BILL C-26 - CONSERVATIVE ASSAULT ON THE JUDICIARY

Our federal Conservative government has a disturbing tendency to
circumvent judicial deliberation by imposing upon courts their own
authoritarian sense of justice.

Whenever 'public' fears of rampant crime within the country must be
quelled, Prime Minister Harper and his minions consider the most
effective political maneuver to be the cobbling together of bills
which aim to impose mandatory minimum prison sentences for myriad offences.

This supposedly 'tough on crime' strategy embodies the curious
mentality with which the Harper Conservatives regard crime: that all
transgressions are committed by individuals or groups of individuals,
and extenuating circumstances surrounding their offences count little
compared to the fact that they are naturally immoral and should be
punished.

No doubt taking their cue from their Republican mentors of the great
republic to our south, the Conservative government has introduced a
series of amendments to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act known
collectively as Bill C-26, which would allow them to wage a home-grown
version of the American 'war on drugs.'

As federal legislation goes the bill is in its rudimentary stages, and
thus is vague and confusing, yet its central and most objectionable
tenet is an obsession with mandatory minimums.

This despite a wealth of thoughtful research conducted in recent times
that discredits the federal government's fossilized sentiments about
drug offence prevention. For example, the Justice Department concluded
in 2002 that "mandatory minimums are least effective in relation to
drug offences." Mandatory minimums have drastically increased the
population of American prisons, since offences which would routinely
result in fines or probation (possession of small amounts of cannabis,
for example) are now dealt with by automatically jailing the convicted
offender.

It is illogical that a government made up of politicians so disgusted
by the idea of federal overspending should wish to implement measures
that would inflate the number of Canadian prisoners; the average
annual cost of imprisoning one adult male in Canada is over $70,000.

In keeping with the Conservatives' perverse conception of
jurisprudence, Bill C-26 proposes that possession of anywhere from one
to 200 marijuana plants-the very same plant that we were having a
national debate over decriminalizing/legalizing before the
Conservatives crashed the party-should warrant at least six months in
prison.

To consider the possession of one plant as being as detrimental to
society as 200 is both uninformed and highly irresponsible on the part
of the government. Of more importance is the distinct possibility that
should this bill become law, and one chose to support a cannabis plant
in their home for personal use, this person may then consider growing
up to 199 more and distributing them for profit, since the penalty
either way would warrant no less than six months in prison.

In another bizarre twist, Bill C-26 also considers production with
intent to traffic more than 200 marijuana plants as nearly tantamount
to the production with intent to traffic much more dangerous (and
addictive) substances such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. The
punishment for the former would be a mandatory 1-2 years in prison,
while offences of the latter variety would result in at least 1-3 years.

This method of painting all drugs with the same brush also underscores
another Conservative objective: to hold influence over that most
independent sphere of power, the judiciary.

Mandatory minimums allow governments to influence judicial decisions
by making it law that an offender must be punished in a certain way
for a minimum amount of time. As retired Justice John Gomery explains,
"this legislation basically shows a mistrust of the judiciary to
impose proper sentences when people come before them." It is central
to the judicial system of Canada that sentences for criminal acts
reflect informed deliberation by experts of law, not the whims of a
particularly boorish and partisan government.

A 'war on drugs' in Canada has been declared by Harper's Conservatives
via the misguided amendments proposed in Bill C-26. It mimics many of
the tactics which have failed so dramatically in the American approach
to illegal substances, and embodies all that is ominous, archaic, and
erroneous about our federal government in their policies and practices.

It is the responsibility of citizens and the federal parties of
opposition to counteract these proposals which pose such dangers to
Canada. The consequences of support for Bill C-26 will not be
significant impacts on the problems illegal drugs cause in Canadian
society but rather, as many in the United States can attest, an
industrial prison complex vastly disproportionate to the national
population and a correlated annual federal spending spree of
monumental proportions.

Andrew Tod is the Media and Promotions Officer for Canadian Students for
Sensible Drug Policy: University of Winnipeg