Christian Conservative Christian "Independent"

I'm an evangelical Christian, member of the CPC, but presently & unjustly exiled to wander the political wilderness.
All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Liberal Senators AGAIN protect drug producers

What is with these guys? Every time we manage to get tougher punishments for criminals through the House of Commons, the Liberals in the Senate defy the will of the people an water them down.

This time, Liberal Senators have watered down the provisions of Bill C-15 which would introduce mandatory minimum sentences for criminals growing fewer than 200 marijuana plants.

H-E-L-L-O?!?! Okay, I could see them wanting reduced sentences for MAYBE up to five or ten plants... that could be argued as being for "personal use". BUT 199?!?!? Pardon the expression, but just what are these guys smoking?

Canadians have been saying loud and clear for some time now that they want action taken on crime. Drugs in our neighbourhoods, in schools, enough it enough! When will the Liberal Senators get the message and stop softening the landing for criminals convicted of these crimes?

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posted by Christian Conservative @ 9:54 a.m.  

16 Comments:

  • At Sat Dec 05, 11:50:00 a.m. EST, Blogger Drew Costen said…

    The real crime is that drugs are illegal in the first place. That the government thinks it should be able to tell people what they can and can't do with their own bodies. That they have made a plant illegal, a plant that I assume you believe God created. This is why I could never be conservative again, I believe in freedom far too much.

     

  • At Sat Dec 05, 12:21:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Jeremy Andrews said…

    How on earth did "crime" and "marijuana growing" get conflated in your opinion?

    The United States has waged a multibillion dollar war against drugs for 40 years and there isn't a single high school student who wanted pot that couldn't get it in under 30 minutes. And you want "tougher" penalties in Canada? Even though study after study has recommended the decriminalization of soft drugs like marijuana?

    The only thing achieved by tougher "laws" and "sentencing" is removing the dumb criminals so the smart ones can make a fortune. Prohibition is not the answer. It didn't work for alcohol in the 1920s, and it hasn't worked for pot for the last 40 years.

     

  • At Sat Dec 05, 12:44:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Bruce said…

    The Conservatives should have a majority in the Senate hopefully before too long and put an end to this kind of nonsense

     

  • At Sat Dec 05, 03:00:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    Check your Facebook Jer. ;-)

     

  • At Sat Dec 05, 06:06:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Your title could also be: "Liberal senators continue to support the discretion of judges, leaving courts the ability to decide things on a case by case basis."

    Or: "Liberal senators once again prevent tories from removing judicial discretion... and filling needlessly causing the prison population to balloon".

    The Senate did (or appointed people to do) studies on Marijuana years ago. They found what many governments have found when they look into the matter: it's not that bad.

    What sort of evidence (if any) could convince you that Alcohol is, objectively, worse than Cannabis (in terms of health/social effects)?

    If you became convinced of this... would you be for legalizing Cannabis or criminalizing alcohol?

    -Anon1152

     

  • At Sat Dec 05, 10:00:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Top Can said…

    Two things. Why do you keep asking a question you already know the answer to. Second, is it really correct to blame Michael Ignatieff for not reining in the Liberal Senators, not HIS Liberal Senators, notice I said THE Liberal Senators.

    These guys have lifelong careers. Some probably haven't even left Ottawa in years. As such, they have little contact with the outside world and real people, the only people they meet are experts who come in to Ottawa to testify in from of Committee. If the experts tell them something, the majority of them will believe it. That's why they think the way they do.

    Second, Michael Ignatieff is powerless to stop them not because he's a bad leader (although that point may also be correct). He's powerless because the senators owe him NOTHING. Most of them were probably there before Iggy's eyebrows grew to its current prominence. They were there because of Trudeau and Chretien. Let's not forget that Iggy has not appointed one single senator, but Harper has appointed more in one year than any of his predecessors. So I know that you're not saying Iggy's Liberal senators are not listening, but that's the argument I'm hearing from Conservatives: that Iggy can't rein in senators.

    I honestly think nobody can tell these guys what to do, and that's just sad.

     

  • At Sun Dec 06, 09:17:00 a.m. EST, Blogger Jerry Prager said…

    While the cons embrace the biggest beneficiary of the heroin trade in Afghanistan, while propping up a corrupt government. O yes, let's attack pot heads, and leave the war criminal dealers alone

     

  • At Mon Dec 07, 02:33:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    Jeremy Andrews said:

    "Hey CC, I just wanted to point out, that in addition to my previous comments, mandatory minimums have never worked and drug legislation advocating mandatory minimums are being repealed across the US. In particular the notorious Rockefeller Laws of New York State, which were repealed in 2009 after 35 years of contributing to the locking up of lower class black and Latino non-violent offenders."

    Heh, forgot to send you the last "rule" for posting here Jer... check your Facebook. ;-)

     

  • At Mon Dec 07, 03:37:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous FrankD said…

    Get the facts...

    http://www.cannabisfacts.ca/SenateCtteeMtgs_BillC-15.html

    The Senate Committee removed mandatory penalties associated with producing under 200 marijuana plants, only in certain circumstances.

    The mandatory minimum sentences will still apply (even for growing a single plant) if "Health and Safety Factors" are determined to be present...


    Health and Safety Factors:

    1. the accused used real property that belongs to a third party to commit the offence

    2. the production constituted a potential security, health or safety hazard to children who were in the location where the offence was committed or in the immediate area

    3. the production constituted a potential public safety hazard in a residential area

    4. the accused placed or set a trap


    If there ARE "Health and Safety Factors" involved (e.g. growing in a rental property?!) then growing even one cannabis plant, for the purposes of trafficking, would trigger a mandatory prison sentence of 9 months.


    Videos of the Bill C-15 Senate Hearings:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/CannabisFactsForCdns


    More info:
    http://www.cannabisfacts.ca/mandatoryminimums.html

    http://www.cannabisfacts.ca/SenateCtteeMtgs_BillC-15.html

     

  • At Fri Jan 22, 02:50:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It boggles my mind that the conservitives would try to push through such legislation - especially under current state of the world. With the economy going through a rough time, international pressure to reduce emissions and the threat of terrorist attacks, the conservatives want to go and spend what will likely be billions in limited resources to lock up minor drug offenders.
    Do you really want the police to be too busy to investigate possible threats to our national security because they're too busy arresting a kid for selling a couple grams of pot at college? - and then put him through an expensive court proceeding to lock him up for 9 months to a year(on our dollars)? This type of legislation has been proven to be ineffective at getting to higher level producers, and wil simply target small time offenders. In addition a large percentage of gang members are recruited in prison, they join for protection or maybe just because they are young and naive ther will be many small timers who go in to prison a small time dealer who otherwise abides the law and come out a gang member.

    13 out of 16 witnesses at the committee meetings said this was a bad idea - many of them former police officers, judges, conservatives, prosecutors, Christians and republicans. What happened? The witnesses were ignored - as if these committees are just for show.

    The conservatives need to get their priorities straight - money and resources are limited and there are far bigger problems than locking up small time dealers. Get out of the 1980's and wake up.

     

  • At Fri Jan 22, 03:09:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    [YAWN] Seriously, you woke me up for that?

    So, after you read through this most recent poll on crime, I have to ask the question... which one of us is really out of touch with Canadian's views on this one?

    Back to my nap.

     

  • At Mon Jan 25, 06:21:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous FrankD said…

    Are you going to post my comments from a couple days ago?

    Thanks,
    FrankD

     

  • At Mon Jan 25, 09:36:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    Hey Frank,

    When folks post loads of info and links like you did, I prefer to review them first before posting them. I've been busy, and will be for the next day or so, but will see if I have enough time to go through them. I still have your comment in the "To be approved" bin, it's not been rejected.

     

  • At Mon Feb 08, 02:16:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous FrankD said…

    CC, should I just stop checking back for your response at this point?

    -FrankD

     

  • At Mon Feb 08, 03:39:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    Yea... I just don't have time to go through the VOLUME of material you sent me... or when I do have time, I forget about it.

    If you have one or two video links, go ahead and repost, and I'll post those... was kinda information overload before, and it wasn't a big enough deal for me to bother with... sorry.

     

  • At Mon Feb 08, 07:08:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous FrankD said…

    The Conservatives made Bill C-15 part of the rationale for proroguing… which allows them to reconstitute Senate Committees with Conservative rubber stampers to pass Bill C-15.

    Claims of the bill being “gutted” by Liberal Senators have been repeated ad nauseum in a blatant attempt to reinforce the need for senate reform and to justify Harper appointing so many Senators to prop up his agenda.

    It’s all a big chess game to Harper and the tactics he's employed in his lust for a majority don’t speak well about his character.

    If passed, Bill C-15 will be an expensive, destructive failure for Canadians, and the Harper government knows it. Harper want’s to wring all he can out of his fear-mongering and tough-on-crime rhetoric but lately it seems more Canadians are waking up to his tactics.

    It’s all about politics with Harper, and the Canadian people (whose best interests the government is supposed to be looking out for) end up paying for the consequences in many ways.



    Don't believe me. Here is 8 minutes of video that exposes the baselessness of Conservative claims about Liberal Senators "gutting" Bill C-15...

    http://www.youtube.com/user/CannabisFactsForCdns



    Recommended witness testimony from the Bill C-15 Senate Cttee:

    1) David Bratzer – an active duty police officer in Victoria, BC, and a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. http://LEAP.cc
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=173LZbyWCOU
    —

    2) Eugene Oscapella – Ottawa lawyer and founder of Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, http://CFDP.ca
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnKccUTyE_M
    —

    4) Craig Jones – Exec Dir., John Howard Society
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0mQ8m-0Xqg
    —

    3) Kirk Tousaw – Lawyer and Executive Director of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1269_doTXQk
    —


    -FrankD

     

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