COURT OF APPEAL SAYS NO TO CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

Civil disobedience took it on the chin in a B.C. Court of Appeal
judgment Wednesday that said such behaviour undermines the rule of
law.

In a unanimous ruling that took aim at those advocating an end to the
current criminal prohibition on marijuana, the court said disagreeing
with the law does not permit you to break it.

Nevertheless, the three-justice panel gave a break to the owners and
an employee of the now-defunct-but-once-renowned Holy Smoke Culture
Shop in Nelson, reducing the length of their sentences for trafficking
pot and sparing them jail time.

At sentencing hearings in October 2008 and January 2009, owners Paul
Stephen De Felice and Alan Stewart Middlemiss were given one year in
jail while employee Kelsey Windrawn Stratas received eight months. The
men, advocates of marijuana use and the repeal of Canada's drug laws,
appealed and said they should not be incarcerated given the political
nature of their "crime."

The head shop for years was a celebrated southeastern B.C. outlet for
pot, hash, psilocybin mushrooms and paraphernalia although it also
sold coffee and other retail items. During the trial, the courtroom
was full of marijuana-law opponents. A petition filed on the men's
behalf contained nearly 400 signatures and the trial judge received
numerous letters of support for the accused.

While many contained polemics extolling the virtues of marijuana or
decrying the draconian justice of pot sentences, the letters described
the men as kind, considerate and compassionate individuals, and the
judge accepted that as fact. Still, the appeal panel wasn't impressed
with the civil-disobedience argument or the claim that this was "a
test case."

"Expressing disagreement with existing law and advocating change is
lawful," Justice Ed Chiasson wrote with the support of Chief Justice
Lance Finch and colleague Ian Donald. "Indeed, it is a fundamental
right in a free and democratic society. Undertaking illegal activity
as part of expressing disagreement and advocating is not lawful. On
the contrary, it strikes at the core of a free and democratic society:
the rule of law."

The justice went on to say that the appeal panel felt more and more of
these kind of cases were coming before the bench and judges needed to
be consistent in meting out punishment. "Sentencing offenders who have
used unlawful means to express disagreement and advocate change is a
complex task," Justice Chiasson said. "The unlawful conduct must be
condemned and others dissuaded from repeating it. ... These
trafficking offences had a public dimension that must be recognized
and condemned. Public, open violation of the law must be met with
measured, recognizable condemnation." Still, he did not believe
incarceration was warranted under these circumstances -- the shop has
closed and the men say they will not reoffend while continuing to work
for cannabis law reform -- and that conditional sentences would
suffice. He ordered Felice and Middlemiss to serve nine months under
house arrest and Stratas six months under the same conditions.