IDEAS WON'T FLY: LAWYER

Recommendations Run Counter To Charter Rights

An anti-meth task force should have known better than to make
recommendations that violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, says
one of Edmonton's top defence lawyers.

For all the work the Premier's Task Force on Crystal Meth did over
the last year, it never approached the Criminal Trial Lawyers
Association, said president Laura Stevens.

"There's no way some of the provisions they've put forth could ever
be in place. They have been declared unconstitutional by the Supreme
Court and would be struck down."

She scoffed at the task force's call for the federal government to
shift the burden of proof to the accused in meth manufacturing cases,
and shot down another that would let police seize suspected proceeds of crime.

"I understand their goals, but there is precedent declaring such
motions unconstitutional and a violation of rights.

"Coming up with simple-sounding solutions like this will not help
curb meth use. It hinders the debate."

Stevens also said measures like forcing teens into locked-up
treatment facilities won't work.

"That's incarceration, and there's overwhelming evidence that locking
up drug users doesn't help them rehabilitate."

Stevens dismissed a half-dozen other recommendations in the anti-meth
report, listed under the "Getting Tough" header, among them an
attempt to have drug criminals labelled violent offenders, denied
bail rights and conditional sentences.