MPS CALL FOR TOUGH LINE ON GROW-OP SENTENCES

Lawyers' Doubts

OTTAWA - Growing support among MPs of different political stripes for tough
mandatory minimum sentences to deter marijuana grow operations, usually run
by organized gangs, could lead to amendments to the Liberals' marijuana
bill, predicts Conservative justice critic Vic Toews.

The cannabis bill before the Commons justice committee for study would
double the maximum punishment for grow ops with more than 50 plants to 14
years from seven years.

But Mr. Toews said the Conservatives will likely table amendments in the
committee in the coming weeks that would require judges to impose a penalty
of at least two years in prison. He said he believes stiffening the
penalties could garner support from Bloc Quebecois MPs because of the
proven link between organized crime and marijuana grow ops.

The political rumblings in Ottawa came despite protests from criminal
defence attorneys in Toronto who rejected the claims that grow ops were
synonymous with organized crime and violence.

Mr. Toews noted the deaths of four RCMP officers last week has prompted
many MPs to rethink whether mandatory penalties could deter drug-related
crimes.

Mandatory minimum penalties must be created infrequently because they take
away judges' discretion to tailor individual sentences appropriately to fit
the crime, said Bloc Quebecois justice critic Richard Marceau. But both he
and NDP House leader Libby Davies, her party's spokesperson on marijuana,
said they are open to hearing arguments in favour of mandatory minimums,
although Davies said she is skeptical that they work.

Outside the Commons, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said he is open to
persuasion but for now he is sticking to his position that such sentences
are counterproductive because they lead to more plea bargaining and are
often treated as ceilings, rather than as floors, by trial judges.

"I have looked at all the evidence and all the studies, and they have not
persuaded me that mandatory minimums are either effective or necessary ...
however well-intentioned the people who recommend them may be, that they
may achieve the very opposite of what they wish."

Liberal MP Dan McTeague, his party's strongest proponent of mandatory
minimum sentences for marijuana grow operations, said he believes other
Liberal MPs would vote in favour of amendments to hike the bill's sentences.

"I think the public expects us to be able to nip this in the bud, and
remove judicial discretion which currently ignores the seven-year maximum
(sentence) in favour of trivial, and frankly dangerously light, sentences,"
he argued.

In Toronto however, many in the legal community say the claim by
politicians and police that grow-ops are vehicles for violent and
sophisticated organized crime groups is a "cheap shot" that does not stand
up to "10 minutes of fact checking."

Numerous lawyers who defend these cases in court suggested Public Security
Minister Anne McLellan is misleading the public about the dangers of
grow-ops with her recent comments in the wake of the Alberta RCMP murders.

"Anne McLellan does not live in the real world. She just does not know what
is going on," said Toronto defence lawyer Peter Zaduk. "The judges who hear
these cases routinely have a much better handle on the reality of the
situation than the minister does."

"For a former justice minister, who should know better, to criticize the
judiciary on this issue, is both a cheap shot and it is dead wrong," said
Vancouver defence lawyer Neil Cobb.

The two experienced lawyers have defended hundreds of grow-op cases in
British Columbia and Ontario, and they say the evidence in court never
matches up to the "myths" spread by politicians and the police.

It is inaccurate to suggest that raiding grow-ops is a high risk procedure
for police, said Mr. Cobb. "I have had hundreds of cases. I can't recall
one with a violent struggle," said Cobb.

"I have never seen violence in my grow-op cases, except for the violence
meted out by police," said Kelowna, B.C., lawyer Stanley Tessmer, adding
that he hasn't seen any real evidence that organized crime groups are the
real force behind grow-ops in Canada.

"There is no Mr. Big. You can call it organized crime when there are two
people, but the bulk of these things involve independent operators," said
Mr. Tessmer. While he conceded there are "loose networks" involved in
marijuana production, he stressed "they are not the Mafia or the Hells Angels."