Lider Liberalow Paul Martin jest za dekryminalizacja. Takze liderzy NDP (Jack Layton) i PQ (Gilles Duceppe) sa za dekryminalizacja.
Konserwatysta Stephen Harper jest przeciwko dekryminalizacji marihuany.
Ciekawe, Jack Layton zmienil ostatnio ton. Wczesniej byl za legalizacja.
W tej kwestii to jestem z Harperem. Dekryminalizacja jest bardzo niebezpieczna, poniewaz daje mozliwosc korupcji, przemocy i potezna wladze dla Policji.
Jak mozna pozwalac obywatelowi miec mala ilosc trawki do wlasnej konsumpcji, przy tym nie pozwalajac mu hodwac jej w domu, czy kupowac w legalnych sklepach? To jest bez sensu!
Albo calkowita legalizacja ziolka, albo dotychczasowe statu quo w tej kwestii. Dekryminalizacja nie ma co sobie za przeproszeniem dupy zawracac.
Obojetnie kto bedzie zwyciestwa wsrod tych czterech Muszkieterow wolnosci i praw czlowieka i tak nic sie nie zmieni w sprawie marihuany. Nie ma lidera z jajami, ktory otwarcie powiedzialby Kanadyjczykom -- KONIEC Z PROHIBICJA!
'Occasional social use of marijuana in college and some law school'
In California, at least, it seems admitting to having smoked pot in the past just doesn't cause much of an outcry anymore. It seems, if Internet blogs are to be believed, Peter Siggins, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's former legal affairs secretary, was confirmed to San Francisco's First District Court of Appeal last week with no a peep of outrage over his admitted marijuana usage. Asked on his application form whether he'd ever illegally used drugs, Mr. Siggins wrote: "Yes. Occasional social use of marijuana in college and some law school. Last time probably in 1978 or 1979. I do not currently use any illegal drugs." Former U.S. President Bill Clinton was pilloried for just that. There is no record of whether Mr. Siggins actually inhaled.
Financial Post (NATIONAL POST, Wednesday, January 11, 2006).
Pass the policy, man
HAMILTON -- Inside this temple, church and state have always mixed. In fact, they've long relaxed - sometimes even nude - and passed around a joint. I am beyond the purple door of the Church of the Universe. Call in advance, because the bell doesn't work, and church officials have to take down the many barriers that have thwarted recent breakins. It's the price of religious freedom when your particular sacrament is cannabis.
We are inside the temple - what was once the waiting area of a tattoo parlour on a tough stretch of Steel Town's Barton St. - and church elders are preaching the wisdom of voting the Liberals back into office. A cultural curiosity or not, these men spend more time considering politics and the laws we all live under more than do many voters
Son of former MP
Mirrors are stacked against one wall, reflecting their views on everything from national unity to global nudity. The large display windows onto the street have been blocked by white Styrofoam insulation. From the knob of a nearby door, motion detectors dangle like leftover holiday decorations. A small upright organ is the only real hint of a traditional place of worship.
Rev. Brother Michael Baldasaro is passing a shared smoke to the church's founder, 73-year-old Walter Tucker, the son of a - 50 years ago - Saskatchewan Liberal MP and appeals court justice. The two friends are breathing back in the glory days of the Church of the Universe.
Tucker is a slight, quick man with an elfish, bearded face torn from the pages of Tolkien's Middle-Earth. His smiling eyes, tucked under a hemp-woven hat, could carry the front of a birthday card. Tired of a seasonal life as an electrician, he started this church in 1969. It was born at a water-filled quarry in Wellington County, which he named Clearwater Abbey.
His religion draws on everything from a variation of the Golden Rule - do not hurt yourself or anyone else - to a grab-bag of inspirations, including pagan holidays, the Knights Templar, Desiderata and even Canada Day. But most of all, it deeply and constantly draws on their sacrament - pot. "I remember 1,000 naked bodies - it was beautiful," recalls Baldasaro of the start of the church. Not everyone looks back so fondly. The days of Clearwater Abbey - the Woodstock of Canada, these men will tell you - were sometimes a controversial affair, with biker parties, disputes with police and reportedly the discovery of a corpse on the vast property in the mid-'70s.
The church later moved to an abandoned foundry in Guelph but, like Clearwater Abbey, members were given a push out by local officials who could not see beyond the smoke. Now the aging church hippies bide their time here - when they're not on the campaign trail or in court. Tucker and Baldasaro have spent more years challenging laws or fighting busts than most lawyers have spent wearing socks. Their names are associated with some interesting, even obscure, case law, including what's legally needed to kick someone out of a shopping mall.
They will again go to court in November over a pot bust here more than a year ago. Police came with a battering ram. Tucker said he'd open any door, if the men asked politely. Baldasaro, who at 56 years old looks like a larger and younger version of his mentor, ran in the last federal election. He can't remember just how many votes he ended up with, but it was enough to have him now running, again, for the mayor's chair in Hamilton.
Federally, the two men will vote Liberal come the 23rd. The NDP is ineffective and the Conservatives can't be trusted, the brothers reason. They point to everything from Conservative prime minister John Diefenbaker's dismantling of the Avro Arrow to the conception of the GST under the Tory government of Brian Mulroney in 1991. "(The Conservatives) would just put more police on the streets... that wouldn't solve out gun problem," Tucker says.
'A lack of opportunity'
"I only know that the laws on marijuana will not be changed in the next five years if we vote Conservative," says Tucker. "They're draconian," he addes as clips his roach clip back on to his leather vest. Baldasaro had hoped the years since 1969 would have seen their particular sacrament available to everyone who wanted it. That their stoned temple would have moved out beyond the many locks and onto the streets by now.
Which is why, the cheerful elders of the Church of the Universe are somewhat pessimistic about the future, beyond the coming election. They believe we are on a slow slide into becoming Americans. That we're losing ourselves in habits far more threatening than pot. That we were once individuals and romantic free thinkers, but are now becoming sheep.
He once met with a police chief who proudly displayed a small copy of Rodin's The Thinker in his office yet apparently had no clue who the artist was who created it. "If we want to remain Canadian, we'll vote Liberal." Baldasaro tells me as we walk through the many rooms and levels of this unusual sanctuary. "Otherwise, they'll soon have to stuff a Canadian to remember what we looked like" (Thane Burnett, "Pulse of the nation", SUNDAY SUN, January 8, 2006).
MORE TROUBLE FOR B.C.'S PRINCE OF POT
Marc Emery is being investigated for violating finance laws in the 2004 federal election. Emery said he was visited by an Elections Canada special investigator about $6,500 he spent supporting the NDP. "I clearly - though unwittingly - broke the law by not registering as a 'third party participant' in the 2004 election campaign," Emery said in a post on his website. Under the law, a person who is not affiliated with a political party cannot spend more than $500 on a campaign unless registered with Elections Canada (DOSE 196, Wednesday 11 January 2006).
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