MANDATORY JAIL TERMS IN TORIES' DRUG PLAN

Critic Compares Strategy To U.S. Prohibition

The Conservative government unveiled legislation yesterday to create
the first mandatory prison terms in Canada for people convicted of
trafficking illicit drugs.

The proposed changes are the newest chapter in the Harper
government's sweeping crackdown on crime, which includes bills before
Parliament to toughen rules for repeat violent offenders, to keep
accused young offenders in jail before their trials and now to impose
automatic prison penalties on serious drug offenders.

Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act contains no mandatory
prison sentences for anyone convicted under the act. Judges use their
own discretion about whether to send drug pushers and growers to jail.

However, the new bill proposes measures including a one-year
mandatory jail term for dealing drugs while using a weapon, or for
dealing drugs in support of organized crime; a two-year mandatory
term for dealing cocaine, heroin or methamphetamines to young people,
or for dealing them near a school or any place young people are known
to frequent; and a mandatory six-month sentence for growing as little
as one marijuana plant for the purposes of trafficking.

When the government announced plans for the antidrug bill last month,
Liberal and New Democratic Party critics said the Conservatives were
embracing a U.S.-style "war on drugs" that treats drug abuse as more
of a criminal matter than a health issue. Opposition MPs said the
government should focus more on harm-reduction programs, such as
safe-injection sites and needle exchanges.

The Conservatives are also proposing to allow judges to exempt
certain offenders from mandatory prison terms, on condition that they
complete drug treatment court programs.

Drug treatment courts are designed to help non-violent offenders
overcome their drug habits if they have trafficked in small amounts
of drugs to support their addictions.

Rob Nicholson, the Minister of Justice, said yesterday the changes in
the sentencing provisions are designed to target the people the
government considers at the root of the drug supply problem:
large-scale growers and traffickers, organized crime groups that
finance their operations through drugs, and people who push drugs on
children and teenagers.

"We've made it very clear that those individuals who are in the
business of exploiting other people through organized crime and other
aggravating factors -- through this bill, we want to get serious with
those individuals and send the right message to them ... you will be
doing jail time," he said. "We want to put organized crime out of
business in this country."

But one expert says the changes will only help organized crime groups
do more business in Canada.

"Tougher penalties for people who produce and traffic drugs will only
scare the ma-and-pa producers, and organized crime will fill the
gap," says Eugene Oscapella, a criminal lawyer who teaches drug
policy at the University of Ottawa and once advised the Law Reform
Commission of Canada on the issue.

"Organized crime doesn't care about the law. With these changes, this
government is doing a service for organized crime."

Mr. Oscapella says decades of experience with tough, mandatory
penalties in the United States have proven that the threat of prison
terms doesn't deter drug traffickers or growers, just as similar
policies never deterred organized criminals and illegal bootleggers
during the U.S. prohibition on alcohol.

He says a better way to tackle the drug problem is to treat it as a
health issue, and deal with the social factors behind people's addictions.

Mr. Nicholson says the government is doing exactly that, alongside
its law-and-order changes.

He says the new sentencing legislation is part of the government's
national antidrug strategy, announced last month, which includes
programs run by Health Canada to prevent and treat drug addictions.

While the government was revealing its drug plans, a Commons
committee passed its signature crime bill without amendment.

The committee finished a clause-by-clause study of Bill C-2, known as
the Tackling Violent Crime Act, an omnibus of five crime bills that
died when the last session of the current Parliament ended on Sept.
14. The bill was reintroduced when the House reconvened a month ago.

The bill increases mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes and
impaired driving, and creates two new indictable offences -- robbery
to steal a firearm and breaking and entering to steal a firearm.

As well, it requires those convicted of three or more serious sexual
or violent offences to prove why they should not be jailed
indefinitely, and institutes a similar reverse onus for bail for
those accused of firearm offences.

It also raises the age at which youths may engage in non-exploitive
sexual activity to 16 from 14.

In an extraordinary move, all four parties agreed last month to give
the committee until midnight Thursday to finish its deliberations.
Though the three opposition parties proposed amendments, most were
ruled out of order and none were approved. Third reading is expected
before the House rises on Dec. 14.

PROPOSED DRUG LAWS

Legislation proposed yesterday by the Conservative party includes the
following new measures:

- -Mandatory one-year jail term for dealing drugs while using a weapon,
or for dealing drugs in support of organized crime;

- -Two-year mandatory term for dealing cocaine, heroin or
methamphetamines to young people, or dealing near a school or any
place young people are known to frequent;

- -Mandatory six-month sentence for growing marijuana for trafficking;

- -Two-year mandatory term for a marijuana grow-operation of at least 500 plants;

- -A doubling of the maximum prison term for cannabis production from
seven to 14 years.

- -Tougher penalties for trafficking date-rape drugs.