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Liberals blast prison spending on cells

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 09/02/2010 - 6:59pm
By ROB TRIPP, THE WHIG-STANDARD
 
The federal Tories have politicized a prison space crisis in a bid to make emergency spending look like economic development, charges a Liberal MP.
 
Conservative MPs and ministers have begun criss-crossing the country, making campaign-style announcements at each one of 35 federal penitentiaries where new cells will be built to accommodate an exploding inmate population.
 
"The Conservatives don't miss an opportunity to try to turn anything into pork barrelling, and so what they're doing of course is to masquerade this outrageous and outlandish prison spending as somehow being a stimulus to the economy," Ajax-Pickering MP Mark Holland told the Whig-Standard Wednesday.

Federal Conservative government's new brothel penalty riles sex-trade worker Susan Davis

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 09/02/2010 - 6:37pm
By Carlito Pablo, Georgia Straight
 
Sex-trade worker Susan Davis has a case of the creeps, and it’s not because of a bad date or a stalker.
 
The veteran sex professional says that what’s making her “just really terrified” are the regulatory changes to the Criminal Code announced by the federal Conservative government on August 4 of this year.
 
Maintaining a brothel wasn’t legal before: it previously carried a prison term of not more than two years. But under the new regulations, the minimum penalty is five years of jail time. That’s because keeping a bawdy house is now classified as a “serious offence”, along with 10 gambling and drug crimes.

Get smart, not tough, on crime

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 09/02/2010 - 6:29pm
LTE The Star: Alex Long
 
The Harper Conservatives are at it again with their costly conduct-no-research policy making. Rob Nicholson and Stephen Harper are spearheading a campaign to introduce mandatory minimum sentences for a litany of drug crimes.
 
After their first two attempts failed (Bill C-26 and Bill C-15), the Conservatives are hoping the newly stacked Senate will pass this bill unamended. The bill introduces mandatory minimum drug penalties for offenses like growing six marijuana plants or making a pot brownie and sharing it with friends. This comes at a time when recent polls suggest more than half of Canadians want marijuana legalized.

Our drug priorities need to change

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 9:45pm
By MINDELLE JACOBS, Toronto Sun
 
The federal government has it half right. We have a drug problem. But it’s not marijuana, which has never killed anyone. It’s the abuse of prescription drugs which kills hundreds of Canadians annually.
 
Whether it’s because of ongoing pain, depression or the urge to get high, more and more people are heading to their doctors — not the neighbourhood pusher — for a fix.
 
As the International Narcotics Control Board noted in its 2009 annual report, the abuse of prescription drugs in North America is second only to the abuse of cannabis.

Free message ignored plan for jails, sentences

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 9:32pm
By: Alan Coxwell Stirling, The Intelligencer
 
What an extreme pleasure it was to receive yet another postage-free, feel-good message from our Hastings & Prince Edward Member of Parliament in my rural mailbox last week.
 
In his two-page note Daryl Kramp told me "Conservatives Standing Up for Canadian Consumers" is what his government has been doing up on Parliament Hill during these dog days of the summer of 2010.
 
Featured prominently was a smiling, 30- something couple heading back to their car in a mall parking lot with a couple of kids in an otherwise empty shopping cart.

Review says safe injection site works and government should drop legal action

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 9:10pm
By: The Canadian Press
 
The authors of an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reviewing the history and effectiveness of Vancouver's safe-injection site are urging the federal government to give up its Supreme Court of Canada challenge aimed at shutting the facility down.
 
The analysis, published Monday, concludes the facility reduces needle sharing, cuts overdose deaths and allows for addiction treatment.
 
The article's authors, the Peel Region's associate medical officer Dr. Kathleen Dooling and University of Toronto professor Dr. Michael Rachlis, are urging Ottawa to abandon its "last-ditch" appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Canadian Medical Association supports Insite; Harper government still looking to shut it down

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 9:07pm
By: John Streit, News 1130
 
A new report in the Canadian Medical Association Journal supports Insite and urges the Harper government to abandon its Supreme Court of Canada Challenge to shut the Vancouver facility down.
 
The report, like many before it, finds the medically-supervised drug injection site reduces needle sharing, cuts overdose deaths and allows for addiction treatment. The federal government has been wanting to shut down Insite, claiming it diverts money away from health care when studies have showed it does the opposite.

Lang: The audacity of fear

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 9:03pm
By: Eugene Lang, The Star
 
Progressive-minded Canadians are bewildered.
 
As the fall sitting of Parliament approaches, opinion surveys show the Harper Conservatives retain a comfortable lead over all parties and in most regions of the country, save Quebec. A Leger poll released last weekend gives the Conservative’s 37 per cent support, suggesting they are again edging close to majority government numbers.

Harper's government ignores the looming health care crisis

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 08/31/2010 - 8:58pm
By Barbara Yaffe, Vancouver Sun
 
Federal politicians have spent the summer fussing about the firearms registry, the firing of government watchdogs and the census, ignoring an infinitely more pressing issue: health care.
 
It's a widely accepted fact that Canada's medicare system is unsustainable.
 
It cannot keep up with demands being imposed by aging baby boomers, escalating pharmaceutical costs and new medical technology.
 
The provinces were spending nearly 35 per cent of their budgets on health care a decade ago, but today they're devoting, on average, 46 per cent, resulting in dwindling resources for other sectors, including education.

Federal Government should follow the evidence and stop trying to close Insite, Co-authors of new CMAJ Article Say

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Mon, 08/30/2010 - 9:46pm
NewsWire.ca
 
TORONTO, Aug. 30 /CNW Telbec/ - Drs. Kathleen Dooling and Michael Rachlis, the two co-authors of a new review of the evidence and events surrounding Insite - Vancouver's supervised drug consumption public health facility - say the federal government "should drop its last-ditch Supreme Court appeal that would allow the government to permanently close this public health facility. They should stand back so public health and law enforcement professionals can do the work that their local community wants them to do."
 
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