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Canada: The Fight To Decriminalize Marijuana Begins RIght Here In Abbotsford Christina Toth Abbotsford Times (CN BC) Friday 30 Jan 2004 John Conroy sits at his sprawling desk, its surface weighed down by heaping stacks of files. A row of pink telephone messages is laid out neatly in front of him. On the walls, a little irreverence - a watercolour of chimpanzee wearing a judge's wig, wielding a bright yellow banana. "I have all the respect in the world for the judges and I support the judiciary, but sometimes Supreme Court judges do make wrong decisions," Conroy said in his office Saturday. The Abbotsford lawyer was just cooling down from an impassioned dissection of the Dec. 23 ruling by the nine-member Supreme Court of Canada. Six of the three ruled prohibition against marijuana was not unreasonable enough to be thrown out. Conroy spent 10 years coaxing the constitutional challenge through provincial and Supreme Court system and he is not happy the judges changed the point of the arguments on him. His client, Victor Caine, was charged with possession after police found him with a butt of a marijuana cigarette in White Rock a decade ago. Conroy argued that laying criminal charges against someone for smoking pot, which he says harms no one except perhaps the person smoking it, contravenes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the ideas of fundamental justice. He argued the punishment is more harmful than the act and so is disproportionate to the "crime." Conroy hoped to get pot possession pulled from the Narcotic Control Act and Controlled Drugs and Substances Act . While the Supreme Court judges implied the law was disproportionate to the act, it was not grossly disproportionate, and the majority upheld the law, Conroy explained. "The bar has been raised much higher. Now, in order to knock out a law, an appellant has to prove it's grossly disproportionate. We effectively had to prove cruel and unusual punishment," he said. But that's not what anyone was prepared for, he said. Conroy argued his case primarily according to standards laid out in Section 7 of the Charter, which sets limits on how laws can infringe on the life, liberty and security of a person. However the majority of the judges looked to Sect. 12, which sets limits on cruel and unusual treatment, he said. "No one argued, no lawyers, not even the Crown prosecutors, argued on gross disproportionality. The case was decided on a point that was never argued. They imposed Sect. 12 standards to Sect. 7., which I say is amending the Constitution, not interpreting it," he said. The decision should be unsettling for all Canadians. Parliament could pretty well make anything a criminal offence without having to prove it causes harm, he said. "This has serious implications for citizens who want to spend time and money to take the issue to the Supreme Court - the judges could change the goalposts on you," he said. Conroy didn't plan to go into criminal law. Born in Montreal, Conroy grew up in Africa until his family moved to Abbotsford. His first interest was civil litigation but he soon picked up criminal cases, many of which were pot cases in the 1970s. "I became politicized watching judges lecture young people for smoking pot and the judges popped Valium and martinis at lunch. People would have their houses ripped apart for a bag of pot." Conroy founded the Canadian arm of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and lobbied for change. "We had rallies and we knew what every MP's position was. It was the '60s and '70s after all." As the director of Abbotsford's Community Law office, he met former inmates from the local prisons. In 1980 Conroy began his push for prisoners' rights when he went to Matsqui to defend an inmate in a disciplinary but was told "we don't allow lawyers in here." His work helped establish the principle of the duty to act fairly. That principle moved beyond the prison walls when the duty was imposed on a school closing case in Mission. Another case triggered the development of women's federal prisons across Canada, including the one about to open at the Matsqui prison complex. Conroy continues to take pot cases and believes strongly its prohibition is bad for the country. "People don't take it seriously. It leads to a disrespect for the law. A lot of people in my generation, lost respect for the law and for the police" because of that, he said. With all that behind him, it's hard to imagine Conroy will leave the latest Supreme Court ruling alone.
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