On the morning of May 15th, British Columbians will wake up to the prospect of four years of either an NDP or a Liberal government in our province.

What will this government have to say about cannabis and its control? If we can judge from the commentary to date from...

"I don't believe in much," my friend Bob said not long ago, "but I do believe in the rule of law." And so it is with me as well. Forget the remote possibility of various rulers in the sky and elsewhere. I'm more interested in working out the fairness and...

Cannabis has been taking centre stage in recent weeks. Former attorneys-general and Vancouver mayors in British Columbia have called for regulation and taxation of the industry, in an attempt to stop the violence of the illegal trade. At the same time the Harper government continues to move to passage of...

The response to Steven Pinker's new book, The Better Angels of our Nature has been remarkable. While there are a few mixed reviews (James Q. Wilson in the Wall Street Journal comes to mind), virtually everyone else either raves about the book or expresses something close to ad...

It's a common occurrence for staff to receive threats from inmates. This year I've received seven threats, all documented appropriately... My facility is like 10 pounds of potatoes in a five-pound bag. Inmates are sleeping on filthy mattresses on filthy floors because of the lack of space, and the health...

"I support keeping our streets safe", Premier Christy Clark told the legislature last week, in support of the Harper Conservatives' crime bill. "Where do they stand on a bill that intends to make Canadian streets safer?" she asked of the NDP opposition. Her comments, as one

With a majority government, the Harper Conservatives have indicated that they now have electoral support for their agenda of dramatically increasing Canada's prison population. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson recently told the media that his government has " a strong mandate to move forward."

Close attention to relevant data...

Some years ago one of our local police officers made the telling observation that if it wasn't for alcohol, he'd probably only have a part-time job. One could add to his insight the observation that if it wasn't for young men between the ages of 15 and 25, we would...

One of the most foolish and costly planks of the Conservatives' so-called 'get tough on crime' agenda is their plan to impose mandatory minimum terms of six months imprisonment on those who grow at least six marijuana plants.

It is instructive to consider the likely impacts of such...