THE FIGHT TO DECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA BEGINS RIGHT HERE IN ABBOTSFORD

John Conroy sits at his sprawling desk, its surface weighed down by heaping
stacks of files. A row of pink telephone messages is laid out neatly in
front of him. On the walls, a little irreverence - a watercolour of
chimpanzee wearing a judge's wig, wielding a bright yellow banana.

"I have all the respect in the world for the judges and I support the
judiciary, but sometimes Supreme Court judges do make wrong decisions,"
Conroy said in his office Saturday.

The Abbotsford lawyer was just cooling down from an impassioned dissection
of the Dec. 23 ruling by the nine-member Supreme Court of Canada. Six of the
three ruled prohibition against marijuana was not unreasonable enough to be
thrown out.

Conroy spent 10 years coaxing the constitutional challenge through
provincial and Supreme Court system and he is not happy the judges changed
the point of the arguments on him.

His client, Victor Caine, was charged with possession after police found him
with a butt of a marijuana cigarette in White Rock a decade ago. Conroy
argued that laying criminal charges against someone for smoking pot, which
he says harms no one except perhaps the person smoking it, contravenes the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the ideas of fundamental
justice. He argued the punishment is more harmful than the act and so is
disproportionate to the "crime." Conroy hoped to get pot possession pulled
from the Narcotic Control Act and Controlled Drugs and Substances Act .

While the Supreme Court judges implied the law was disproportionate to the
act, it was not grossly disproportionate, and the majority upheld the law,
Conroy explained.

"The bar has been raised much higher. Now, in order to knock out a law, an
appellant has to prove it's grossly disproportionate. We effectively had to
prove cruel and unusual punishment," he said.

But that's not what anyone was prepared for, he said.

Conroy argued his case primarily according to standards laid out in Section
7 of the Charter, which sets limits on how laws can infringe on the life,
liberty and security of a person. However the majority of the judges looked
to Sect. 12, which sets limits on cruel and unusual treatment, he said.

"No one argued, no lawyers, not even the Crown prosecutors, argued on gross
disproportionality. The case was decided on a point that was never argued.
They imposed Sect. 12 standards to Sect. 7., which I say is amending the
Constitution, not interpreting it," he said.

The decision should be unsettling for all Canadians. Parliament could pretty
well make anything a criminal offence without having to prove it causes
harm, he said. "This has serious implications for citizens who want to spend
time and money to take the issue to the Supreme Court - the judges could
change the goalposts on you," he said.

Conroy didn't plan to go into criminal law. Born in Montreal, Conroy grew up
in Africa until his family moved to Abbotsford. His first interest was civil
litigation but he soon picked up criminal cases, many of which were pot
cases in the 1970s.

"I became politicized watching judges lecture young people for smoking pot
and the judges popped Valium and martinis at lunch. People would have their
houses ripped apart for a bag of pot."

Conroy founded the Canadian arm of NORML, the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws and lobbied for change. "We had rallies and we knew
what every MP's position was. It was the '60s and '70s after all."

As the director of Abbotsford's Community Law office, he met former inmates
from the local prisons. In 1980 Conroy began his push for prisoners' rights
when he went to Matsqui to defend an inmate in a disciplinary but was told
"we don't allow lawyers in here." His work helped establish the principle of
the duty to act fairly. That principle moved beyond the prison walls when
the duty was imposed on a school closing case in Mission.

Another case triggered the development of women's federal prisons across
Canada, including the one about to open at the Matsqui prison complex.

Conroy continues to take pot cases and believes strongly its prohibition is
bad for the country.

"People don't take it seriously. It leads to a disrespect for the law. A lot
of people in my generation, lost respect for the law and for the police"
because of that, he said.

With all that behind him, it's hard to imagine Conroy will leave the latest
Supreme Court ruling alone.