new brunswick

National crime bill adds $2M to N.B. budget

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 01/31/2012 - 9:07pm

CBC News

The Harper government’s omnibus crime legislation will cost the New Brunswick government an additional $2 million a year, according to the provincial Department of Public Safety.

The federal government’s so-called "tough on crime legislation," which would keep more criminals in jail longer, is expected to add new policing and court costs to provincial governments.

That has led many provinces to oppose the Prime Minister Stephen Harper government’s plans unless the federal government antes up more funding to pay for the extra costs.

The Ontario government estimates that the federal crime law will cost it more than $1 billion and Quebec argues the changes could cost it as much as $600 million. Read more »

Facts on crime are not in evidence

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 08/16/2011 - 5:30pm

By: Alec Bruce, Times and Transcript

One of the branded characteristics of the Harper government is its steely determination to do what it thinks is right - for the country or merely itself, as the case may be - despite broad, sometimes reasonable, objection. And the stiffer the opposition, it often seems, the more dug in its position becomes.

This is true of environmental stewardship (climate change begs for serious cabinet attention), arts and culture (export programs for 'creative types' merit only official scorn) and municipal infrastructure (roads and brides can't compete for bucks with ball fields and wading pools). Read more »

Anniversary no cause for celebration, says AIDS NB

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 08/11/2011 - 1:34pm

Molly Cormier, Here New Brunswick

FREDERICTON - A member of AIDS New Brunswick says "celebration" isn't the proper word to describe the group's 25th anniversary. Instead, Ted Gaudet is lamenting that AIDS NB still needs to exist.

"We shouldn't be celebrating, really. When we started out as AIDS NB, it was with the notion that we wouldn't need AIDS NB today."

Gaudet learned he was HIV-positive in 1988. Back then, he says, people were dying of HIV and the focus of AIDS NB was on delivering support programs. When new treatments were introduced in 1996, the organization's focus shifted.

"Today, most of the work of AIDS NB is harm reduction." Read more »

Lots to do until the next Federal Election in Canada

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 07/26/2011 - 3:26pm

Nicole Seguin, End Prohibition Blog

With the next federal election scheduled for October 19, 2015, you may think that you won't have an opportunity to be involved in politics until that time – but don't despair! With 5 provincial and territorial elections happening this fall, and several potential  elections yet to be confirmed, there is still lots you can do to learn political skills, help the NDP, and end the drug war in Canada! Read more »

Pharmacists fear cuts to methadone dispensing fees

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 02/10/2011 - 9:30am
CBC News
 
New Brunswick pharmacists who dispense methadone say provincial funding cuts could mean fewer addicts get the help they need.
 
Sean Luck, who is one of only two dozen pharmacists who dispense methadone in the province, said he's worried by talk of deep cuts coming to dispensing fees for the drug.
 
"The impact could be huge, because I think it could prohibit pharmacists from getting involved in dispensing methadone, and that's the last thing that we want to do," Luck said.
 
Pharmacists are not required to dispense methadone, which helps addicts overcome dependency on drugs like heroin and oxycontin.

Client was growing pot for medication: lawyer

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Fri, 12/03/2010 - 12:23pm
By: Derwin Gowan, Telegraph-Journal
 
ST. STEPHEN - A 21-year-old St. George man waited until the RCMP charged him with producing marijuana before seeking a licence to use it legally.
 
Isaac Rubin must now serve six months of house arrest while he applies to Health Canada for a medical permit to use marijuana to control pain.
 
Judge David Walker imposed the sentence in St. Stephen provincial court Tuesday after Rubin pleaded guilty to producing cannabis marijuana July 30 at Mascarene, contrary to section 7(1) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

New Brunswick prisons to be expanded at cost of $42.5M

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Sat, 11/20/2010 - 1:20pm
By: JENNIFER PRITCHETT, TELEGRAPH-JOURNAL
 
RENOUS - Two New Brunswick prisons will be expanded at a total cost of $42.5 million to make room for an increase in the number of inmates that is expected to result from Ottawa's new get-tough-on-crime laws.
 
Fredericton MP Keith Ashfield, on behalf of Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews, made the long-anticipated announcement at the Atlantic Institution maximum security prison in Renous on Friday afternoon.
 
"We understand there is a cost to keeping dangerous criminals behind bars and we're willing to pay it," Ashfield told a gathering of prison staff and federal and provincial politicians, including Premier David Alward, in the prison gymnasium.

Study cites problems with defendants who lack lawyers

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Wed, 10/13/2010 - 1:34pm
By Dean Beeby, The Canadian Press
 
OTTAWA - An internal Justice Department study says too many people are showing up in Canadian courts without a lawyer, damaging their chances of acquittal.
 
The analysis, which examined the records of almost 130,000 accused persons, is among the few in Canada that has tried to quantify how the absence of legal representation affects case outcomes.
 
The data was drawn from criminal courts in four provinces - Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and British Columbia - as well as Nunavut, for cases heard in 2006-2007.
 
Those jurisdictions were chosen because the records offered the most complete information about whether lawyers had appeared alongside clients.

Beware of the dangers of discarded needles

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Fri, 10/08/2010 - 10:16am
By: Alan Cochrane, Times & Transcript
 
Over the last three years, SIDA/AIDS Moncton has distributed more than 197,000 needles and syringes to local drug users - most of them are returned but some are thrown away - and the organization is now preparing to launch an education campaign to help people deal with discarded needles if they find them.

Spending urged for addiction beds, not studies

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 09/28/2010 - 9:48am
CBC News
 
There is too much studying problems and not enough fixing them in Health PEI's three-year plan for addictions treatment, says a counsellor with the Native Council of P.E.I.
 
Tim Sock, a drug and alcohol co-ordinator with the council, told CBC News Monday addicts can't wait.
 
"If you don't get an addict help today, you don't get them," said Sock.
 
"They'll walk away from you and you'll lose them back into the addictions."
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