BILL UNDERMINES JUDGES' DISCRETION

Tapping public outrage over gang-related gun crime to go on a George
Bush-style anti-drug rampage is entirely predictable and well within
character for Stephen Harper.

What is perplexing about the Tories' proposed new drug laws, which
includes mandatory sentences for growing pot, is the lack of reaction
from the Liberals and NDP.

They are acting very much like the Democrats in the U.S. the way they
cower before the alpha-male Conservatives. Don't get us wrong -- we
wholeheartedly support getting tough on gun crime.

We're not convinced a U.S.-style mandatory minimum sentence provision
is the way to go, but we understand the intent and the sentiment behind it.

If judges in Canada were not so hasty to remove the handcuffs that
police slap on gun-toting criminals, they wouldn't be facing the
prospect of being handcuffed themselves.

And that is precisely what minimum sentencing does: It takes away a
judge's discretion.

It is hard to argue that anyone caught with a restricted weapon
deserves anything less than jail time. Get caught with a handgun in
the commission of a crime -- go to jail. We have no problem with that,
although it means that, now and then, some misguided kid who has
watched too many gangsta videos and really doesn't belong in jail may
end up there because he thought it was cool to have a gun.

Where the Tory's package of crime bills gets absurd is the mandatory
minimum sentences for growing pot.

This means a judge can make no distinction between the dreadlocked
Lasqueti Islander who grows and sells a little weed to his friends and
the gangster who grows B.C. Bud on an industrial scale, when
considering a sentence.

If these laws pass without serious revision, we probably will have
more crowded courtrooms (who would plead guilty to growing pot if he
knew it means an automatic jail term of at least six months?) And we
most certainly will have to build more jails, because they are already
stuffed to capacity.

And at the end of the day, we will probably not see a dramatic
decrease in marijuana grow operations because, for career criminals,
going to jail is an occupational hazard.