B.C. CIVIL LIBERTIES ASSOCIATION RELEASES 2003 LIST OF PEOPLE WHO MADE A
DIFFERENCE

It was a year of the good, the bad and the ugly. The BC Civil
Liberties Association has put together their picks for the people who
made a difference to freedom in 2003.

Beginning with the bad, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz
abandoned his libertarian roots and suggested Canadians should adopt
national identity cards and remarked torture of Canadians is a
legitimate investigative tool, says the association.

Also on the national identification card bandwagon was former
Immigration Minister Denis Coderre. The federal government is also on
the association's list for the worst of 2003. The feds failed to
prevent Maher Arar's deportation to Syria where he was tortured.

Others assaulting freedom are Larry Spencer and David Kilgour for
disparaging comments against same-sex marriage and gays and lesbians,
says the BCCLA.

Principal John Moffat of the Windsor House School and North Vancouver
School district made the list because Moffat banned teaching about the
Middle East after receiving a complaint from a parent and the district
failed to ensure adequate protection for the freedom to teach, says
the BCCLA.

For they poor handling of medicinal marijuana issue, Anne McLellan,
Health Canada and the Government of Canada have been recognized for
their assault of freedom. Courts have told Health Canada that its
regulations are unconstitutional because they force people to go
without medications or they have to buy them on the black market, said
BCCLA. Health Canada continues to fight against access, delays reform
until the last moment and then does less the courts require wasting
tax dollars, says the BCCLA.

Further on the worst list comes former Justice Minister Martin
Cauchon. He introduced two poorly thought-out pieces of legislation
that sought to remove the defense of artistic merit from laws banning
child pornography and adding the poorly defined crime of sexual
exploitation of young persons, says the BCCLA. The other bad bill was
the marijuana "decriminalization" bill, which increased penalties for
cultivation and would have fined more people than are currently
prosecuted for possession.

While talking about marijuana, the association draws issue with the
majority of the Supreme Court of Canada, which refused to strike down
the prohibition of the drug. The group remained silent and deferred
the issue to Parliament.

It was not all bad news for freedom. The association recognizes a
number of individuals and organizations for their efforts.

The BCCLA recognizes Troy Peters, the rookie Vancouver Police
Department officer that blew the whistle on the Stanley Park Six - the
officers that drove citizens to Stanley Park and assaulted them.

Also recognized are Maher Arar and wife Monia Mazigh for their courage
to speak out and hold the government accountable.

Another best from the BCCLA goes to Judy Kornfeld, a library at
Langara College in Vancouver. When the Langara Student Government
refused to permit an Israeli Arab to speak on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict in its building, Kornfeld made a room available in the
library for the talk - which went on without incident.

A group best goes to Insp. Ken Frall and Chief Jamie Graham of the
Vancouver Police Department and Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell for
respectively, proposing, endorsing and approving the VPD's new "do not
respond" policy for routine drug overdoses, says the BCCLA. The policy
encourages the timely reporting of overdoses by assuring drug users
medical personnel, not police, respond to their calls. Drug users
present at overdoses were fearful of calling for assistance because
the police might respond and lay criminal charges against them, says
the BCCLA.

Plenty of recognition should go to all involved in the Vancouver safe
injection site for their hard work and persistence, says the
association.

The Richmond School Board gets recognition for being bad and good.
While it crafted a privacy sensitive video surveillance policy, it
refused to place an absolute restriction on the use of cameras in washrooms.

And lastly, the Government of Canada did do some things right, says
the BCCLA. It introduce private sector privacy legislation, which will
help protect personal information held in databanks of private
corporations and created the Citizens Assembly to explore changes to
our electoral system.