Posted on
May 14th, 2015
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Comments Off on “If you do something against the law in the RCMP … they change the law”
“I find this provision almost Orwellian,” said Fred Vallance-Jones, an associate professor at the University of King’s College in Halifax and an expert in access to information law.
“It seeks to rewrite history, to say that lawful access to records that existed before didn’t actually exist after all, and that if you exercised your quasi-constitutional right of access to those records, well too bad, you’re out of luck.”
The government is setting a precedent to move retroactively on any record it doesn’t want exposed, Vallance-Jones said.
“That to me is the deeper concern.”
Michel Drapeau, a lawyer, former military colonel and access-to-information author, noted there has never been a charge laid under the Access to Information Act, let alone a conviction.
He said the rationale of moving retroactively to prevent a possible prosecution is “a dangerous and unwelcome precedent” that should be as unwelcome to the RCMP and the administration of justice as to freedom-of-information wonks.
“The optics of it are not good: ‘Oh, so that’s the way it works now?’ If you do something against the law in the RCMP, you’ve got your friends in high places, they change the law,” said Drapeau.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/budget-bill-c-59-rewrites-access-law-to-protect-rcmp-on-gun-registry-cp-1.3072548
Filed under: Dispatches, Patrick Bay, Pictures
Posted on
April 21st, 2010
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3 Comments
“Where to buy weed in Toronto”.
That was the reigning search on TCL for quite a while. Search number two was “city sweats”, followed closely by “Perspirex in Toronto”.
Strange how these things come about.
Sweats and Perspirex, especially as relate to Toronto, are apparently a niche that only this blog can fill. Both searches lead to a post about a trio of miniature commercials I saw one night that seemed to target women with simultaneous dermatological problems, odour issues, and bikini zone chafing. Perspirex, an industrial-strength antiperspirant, was one of the products in the commercials; mentioned in the post more-or-less in passing. TCL subsequently became one of Toronto’s best web resources for sweaty crotches and a panoply of related variants.
The weed search usually returns a link to a post I’d written last May about the topic. Not exactly the Yellow Pages for Toronto’s ganja dealers, but better than a guidebook. My point wasn’t to discuss marijuana anyway, more the attitude towards it in this city. As I’d mentioned, I thought that cops were generally cool with pot smokers. It’s the people dealing the stuff that tend to cause the problems, and I think this is broadly recognized. Most of the people I spoke to at the 420 rally yesterday agreed with me. Then again, they probably would, wouldn’t they? :)
I just discovered this myself, but apparently April 20th is traditionally the day to drag your ass to some hastily-arranged public location (I got the tweet that morning), and at the stroke of 4:20, toke like you’ve never toked before. All in the hope that marijuana will be fully decriminalized.
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Filed under: B Sides, Pictures
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