ILLICIT DRUG LEGALIZATION LASHED BY POLICE GROUP

Municipal Boards Call For National Strategy

OTTAWA — A group representing Canadian municipal police authorities
yesterday urged the federal government to implement a national drug
strategy as it denounced the legalization of illicit drugs, including
marijuana.

"This resolution, which has been endorsed by all three of the country's
national policing advocates — the boards, the officers and the chiefs — we
believe will send a clear message to our nation's leaders," Herb Kreling,
president of the Canadian Association of Police Boards, told a news conference.

The association, which represents more than 50 municipal police boards and
commissions across Canada, passed the resolution during its annual general
meeting.

The resolution also has the support of the Canadian Association of Chiefs
of Police and the Canadian Police Association, Kreling said, adding that
previous proposals on child pornography and organized crime have ended up
enshrined in federal legislation.

Both Justice Minister Martin Cauchon and Solicitor-General Lawrence
MacAulay have been told of the decisions reached during the two-day
conference, Kreling said.

MacAulay attended the conference on Friday and will meet again with the
association to discuss national policing issues.

"We gave the minister the opportunity (Friday) to bring his comments to
us," Kreling said. "We did not push him for an immediate response.

"We will be meeting with the minister more formally in about six months'
time and, at that time, we'll be looking for a more formal response."

Kreling also said he is expecting to meet informally with Cauchon sometime
in the fall.

The association is also asking MacAulay for an external review of a
Correctional Services of Canada policy, which allows maximum-security
prisoners to serve time in lower-security facilities.

The "JoeMac" resolution was named after Sudbury police Constable Joe
MacDonald, who was shot to death in 1993.

Two men, Clinton Suzack and Peter Pennett, were convicted in the shooting
and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

But Suzack was later transferred to a medium-security prison in British
Columbia, a facility where inmates can play golf and watch whales off the
coast of Vancouver Island.

Among its other resolutions, the association also wants:

*Clear rules setting out how police are financed while hosting
international meetings, such as the June G-8 summit held in Kananaskis, Alta.

*A national task force to explore the regulation or legal status of the
use, possession and distribution of cannabis.

*Tougher prison terms and financial penalties for the illegal cultivation
and distribution of marijuana.

*An international study on the effect of full public disclosure and
recidivism rates of high-risk offenders, particularly sex offenders.

*National rules governing the use of strip-searches