MARIJUANA REMARKS PUT WHITE ON HOT SEAT

Chairman of Police Services Board Chides Chief for Comments

The chairman of the city's police services board does not want public
debate on the decriminalization of marijuana to be led by his chief of police.

Eli El-Chantiry made the point publicly while chairing a meeting of
the board Monday, the same day that Chief Vern White was quoted in
the Citizen in an article on the subject.

El-Chantiry asked White at the meeting if he would like to clarify
remarks the chief made in the paper and on radio Monday.

The chief took that opportunity, explaining that the point he was
trying to make in media interviews was not to call for
decriminalization of marijuana, but to call for a broader discussion
of the effects of the drug in communities, particularly on young people.

That discussion, he said, should include finding ways to spare young
people from criminal records for simple possession -- but the
discussion, he said, must also include the potentially serious
ill-effects of the drug.

White told the board that was the "short version" of the interview
that led to the newspaper story.

"My short version," El-Chantiry replied, "was police in this country
don't make law, police enforce law.

"And the discussion has to take place with the people we elect in our
government to make those decisions."

Although no voice was raised and the chair's criticism was brief,
that exchange between the city's top police officer and his civilian
boss is far from typical at a police board meeting.

"I wanted to clarify it, so I did clarify it," El-Chantiry told the
Citizen later.

"Maybe I was a little bit strong in my position, but that's my job.
I'm the chair of the police board. I want to make sure we stay on track."

El-Chantiry said his point was not to take issue with the substance
of the chief's opinions.

"He knows about it more than I do," El-Chantiry said.

"He's entitled to his opinion. My issue is the chief of police or
chair of police board do not change laws in the country. There's
people we elect, they call them lawmakers. Let them make the law, that's all."

For his part, White said that legislative change isn't actually
needed to keep young people from having the black mark of a criminal
conviction for simple possession.

He said that alternative justice systems like restorative justice are
already provided for by the law; the problem, he said, is that there
is not yet funding to create the capacity for such alternatives.

He said he would still like to see a "fulsome discussion" in Canada
surrounding the dangers -- like the increasing potency of marijuana
and research studies linking the drug to psychoses -- and the
benefits of alternatives to criminal prosecution.

Too often, he said, the word "decriminalization" hijacks what should
be a much broader discussion.

In the meantime, he had no hard feelings about the point that
El-Chantiry made at the meeting.

It's his point to make," White said.

"I've censured my staff many times and I'm sure that the chair might
at some point feel it's appropriate. That's why he's my boss and the
board I report to."