CITY COUNCIL CALLS FOR TOUGHER SENTENCES

City councillors will demand harsher sentences for drug crimes. In a
roundabout way Monday, council decided to write B.C. Solicitor General Rich
Coleman seeking his support and his recommendations as the first step in
lobbying federal Attorney General Irwin Cotler

Coleman has said he would exert pressure on Cotler to explore ways to
encourage the judiciary to impose stiffer sentences

Council's actions Monday reflect one of the 11 recommendations in an
interim report by the Central Okanagan Four Pillars Coalition released one
week ago. Coun. Ron Cannan, who suggested the resolution, wants the Union
of B.C. Municipalities and Federation of Canadian Municipalities to debate
the issue at their conventions in 2005

Cannan and acting city clerk Stephen Fleming told council in a report that
lower courts in B.C. have been handing out light sentences based on higher
courts overturning their more reasonable sentences. "Increasing the risk
for persons who contemplate criminal behaviour combined with tougher
sentences would send a message to those engaging in drug-related activity
that this type of criminal behaviour has serious consequences and is not
tolerated by the community at large," said Cannan. If the average penalty
for cultivating a halfmillion-dollar marijuana crop is 90 days in jail,
those convicted could be out in 30 days and start another crop, he said.
Coun. Robert Hobson suggested the resolution to Coleman should say this
increased enforcement is only one part of this city's Four Pillars program
and the province will be approached for action on the other three

"Otherwise, it looks like a stool with only one leg. It doesn't give the
complete picture," Hobson said

Coleman has asked B.C. municipalities for their input before approaching
the federal government, added Mayor Walter Gray, commenting it could happen
"pretty quickly." The FCM has a Jan. 31 deadline for resolutions, noted Cannan

During the UBCM convention in Kelowna last September, RCMP Assistant
Commissioner Gary Bass quoted from the 2001 Criminal Court Survey which
showed 39 per cent of adults convicted of drug trafficking received no
prison term at all

Of those sent to jail, 56 per cent received less than three months and half
of those received less than a month. Between 1998 and 2003, the median
sentence for drug trafficking in Canada declined from 120 days to 90 days.