SASKATCHEWAN POLITICIANS TRADE ACCUSATIONS OVER POT AND
TOBACCO

REGINA -- Political consistency appeared to go up in smoke at the
Saskatchewan Legislature yesterday as politicians on both sides of
the house argued over tobacco and marijuana.

The New Democrats were accused of double standards for accepting
advertising money from a pro-marijuana group, while the government
goes after big tobacco.

"On one hand, the government is trying to say that they're very much
against smoking," said Opposition Saskatchewan Party member June Draude.

"And on the other hand they accepted money from a company that's
supporting a substance that's actually illegal.

"To me that's just hypocritical -- you can't have it both ways."

The issue surrounds a brochure distributed last weekend at the
provincial NDP convention in Saskatoon. On the back of the document
was a full-page colour ad sponsored by End Prohibition, which calls
for the legalizing of marijuana.

Convention delegates also passed a resolution to support the federal
NDP's call for a non-punitive approach to cannabis law.

Saskatchewan Party Leader Brad Wall noted the government has tabled
legislation that would allow it to sue tobacco companies for health-care costs.

Mr. Wall acknowledged that the Saskatchewan Party supported that
legislation, but still argued the NDP was being hypocritical.

"The double standard here is that somehow smoking marijuana, we
should be moving to normalize it, to decriminalize it, when they're
going completely the opposite direction with respect to tobacco," Mr.
Wall said.

However, the NDP government argued there was no contradiction because
the provincial wing of the party and the government are not the same body.

"A lot of issues are debated and discussed at NDP conventions,"
Justice Minister Frank Quennell said. "The government of Saskatchewan
doesn't adopt the policies of the convention necessarily -- we
certainly don't in this case."

First of all, it's not within provincial jurisdiction, he said.

Another twist was added to the debate when the NDP revealed that the
Saskatchewan Party received a $10,000 contribution from Imperial
Tobacco Canada in the 2003 provincial election.

The donation appeared to catch some party members by surprise and Mr.
Wall was quick to add that the party's policy had changed.

"I'm saying today that we're not going to be accepting any money from
tobacco companies," Mr. Wall said.

He said the decision was made when he became aware of the donation.

But when pressed by reporters, Mr. Wall admitted that he learned of
the donation only yesterday.