In Canada the possession and trafficking of substances like drugs and other controlled substances is a subject of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. It was passed in 1996 and repeals the Narcotic Control Act and Parts III and IV of the Food and Drug Act. This Act provides that “The Governor in Council may, by order, amend any of Schedules I to VIII by adding to them or deleting from them any item or portion of an item, where the Governor in Council deems the amendment to be necessary in the public interest.” The complete list of drugs scheduled in Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act is divided into eight schedules depending on the type of the drug and two Classes of precursors. Each schedule has a different penalty for possession.

Schedule I contains the heaviest drugs: opium poppy derivatives like Opium, Heroin, Codeine, Morphine, etc.; Coca and derivatives the most popular is Cocaine; Amidones (Methadone and similar compounds); Methamphetamine and Ketamine. Schedule II is for Cannabis and derivatives. Schedule III is for mostly chemically obtained drugs like Amphetamines (excluding Methamphetamine), Ritalin, Some Barbiturates, LSD and Mescaline. Schedule IV is for anabolic steroids and most of the barbiturates. Schedule V holds Propylhexedrine. Schedule VI is for precursors, which are used for producing drugs. This Schedule is divided into two classes Class A is for Ephedrine Lysergic Acid, Class B holds substances like Sulfuric Acid, Acetone and Ethyl Ether. Schedules VII and specify the amounts of Hashish and Cannabis. For Schedules VII it is 3kg Hashish or 3kg Cannabis, for Schedule VIII - 1g Hashish or 30g Cannabis.

The penalty for possession of controlled substance is treated different depending on the type of offence. If the possession is treated as an indictable offence, the penalties will be following.  We highly recommend finding a lawyer shall you find your self in such situation.  Canadian Lawyers have represented many clients facing criminal charges.  A Canadian Lawyer therefore has the expertise and most importantly has the experience to help you.  Lawyerahead.ca has the most comprehensive information on a lawyer.  Call few lawyers, talk to them, and ask how best they can help. 

Schedule I: Maximum 7 years imprisonment

Schedule II : Maximum 5 years imprisonment (if the amounts are exceeding amounts set in Schedule VIII)

Schedule III: Maximum 3 years imprisonment

In case of Schedule IV, it is not an offence to possess a Schedule IV substance for personal use, but Subsection (2) of Section (4) of the CDSA states that “no person shall seek or obtain a substance or authorization from a practitioner to obtain a substance in schedules I through IV.” Subsection (7) then states that it is an indictable offence to contravene subsection (2). Therefore, it is an indictable offence to attempt to acquire a Schedule IV substance but not an offence for possession. Section 5 provides that possession for the purpose of trafficking of a Schedule IV substance is an offence.

If the possession is treated as a summary conviction offence, the penalties will be: maximum $1000 fine for first offence and/or maximum 6 months imprisonment and maximum $2000 fine for subsequent offence and/or maximum 1 year imprisonment. In case the amounts of Hashish or Cannabis do not exceed the amounts set in Schedule VIII, a maximum fine of $1000 and/or maximum 6 months imprisonment is the only punishment for the arrested person.

As with any criminal case, we highly recommend consulting a lawyer.  People even dip into their savings to get the best represenation they can because it does affect your future and puts you at a disadvantage..

Counterfeit product can be defined as imitation of a real product that violates the production monopoly held by either a state or corporation. Counterfeit also describes the forgeries of currency and documents, and imitations of things like clothing, software, pharmaceuticals, watches, electronics, and even company logos and brands. Counterfeit can be divided into three types: counterfeiting of money, counterfeiting of documents and counterfeiting of consumer goods.

Counterfeiting of money

The counterfeiting of money is when a person or a company is producing currency without a legal sanction of the state or government. It is the most serious violation of all the three types. While this type of fraud is often used in popular culture, it actually has the worst effect on real life. Counterfeit money usually leads to more global problems like reduction of the value of real money, increase of prices due to increase of the money supply, decreasing of acceptability of the money and also forces companies to increase prices, because they are usually not reimbursed for receiving fake money . That’s why governments view this violation as a very serious threat for the economic stability of the country and for a long time the counterfeiters were punished by death.  If you are facing a similar situation consult a lawyer and see if they can help you. Lawyerahead.ca has the most comprehensive information on a lawyer, visit the site and call few lawyers and talk to them about your problem, see how best they can help you with their experience. 

conterfeit

Counterfeiting of documents

The counterfeiting of documents is often called forgery. It is a process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents, with the intent to deceive a company or a person. It is related to fraud, the crime of deceiving other using objects obtained through forgery. The documents obtained in the result of forgery are called false documents. The forgery of false documents can have various goals from faking the taxes to spreading false information about someone. The punishment also varies depending on the type of case.  Take action on this too if you are in a similar situation.  Having a criminal background can be devestating for your future and best to talk to lawyer and see if he or she has the experience to help you.

Counterfeiting of consumer goods

Today globalization has a big influence on the counterfeit manufacturing. The exact numbers of counterfeiting consumer goods can’t even be calculated. Very often the fake products are produced on the same factory with the original ones, without informing the patent holder. The counterfeiting of consumer goods is in some cases is a very dangerous type of producing fake goods. The most dangerous in this case are food and medical products. If these products are manufactured without license and any production standards can lead to health problems and even deaths. In some cases food products even contain a mix of cheaper ingredients instead of the proper ingredients. Also if electronics or machinery is produced by not corresponding to the production and safety norms, it can lead to accidents.

Apart from the legal means of punishing the manufacturers who produce the counterfeit goods, the manufacturers of the original products also change the production schemes for distributing parts of the product to various factories. It makes cloning of the products that much more harder, but it is also more risky because if one of the factories fails to deliver the ordered parts, the whole batch will be incomplete and the production process will be stopped. Also lots of manufacturers of expensive goods protect their good with additional serial numbers or holograms.  It is always safe to find a lawyer and to consult them if you are ever in a situation as such.

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania may overturn hundreds of sentences doled out by Judge Mark Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan, who both plead guilty to fraud charges earlier this month. The judges were charged with receiving kickbacks from private detention centers to, in essence, fill the bunks. The saddest part is it was kids filling those bunks.

The bizarre story begins back in 2002 with Ciavarella overseeing juvenile courts and Conahan in charge of the Luzerne County budget. They argued to privatize juvenile detention centers, stating the county-run centers were in poor condition. Conahan used part of the county’s budget to fund the leasing of the private facilities, PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care. Then they started sentencing.

Some 1200 cases are expected to be overturned. The state’s high court intends to expunge the records of first-time offenders convicted by the judges, many of whom were not allowed a lawyer nor legal representation. Such convictions include Hillary Transue’s who was sentenced to three months for making fun of an assistant principal on MySpace and Kurt Kruger’s five months for shoplifting.

For their efforts, Ciavarella and Conahan received $2.6 million in kickbacks. To date, the two detention centers doing the kicking have not been charged with anything, which proves the old adage, “It’s better to give than to receive.”

Toronto Lawyers and Vancouver Lawyers who specialize in criminal law and represent clients related to criminal charges can be found at www.lawyerahead.ca

Most Viewed Lawyers for the week ending March 13, 2009

1. Christoper Hicks, Toronto Criminal Lawyer
2. David J. Rotfleisch, Toronto Business Lawyer & Toronto Tax Lawyer
3. Victor Giorgas, Toronto Criminal Lawyer
4. Graydon Sheppard, Hamilton Personal Injury Lawyer
5. Rene Larson, Thunder Bay Lawyer

We will update our “Most Viewed Lawyers in Canada” edition next Monday.

The idea of child prostitution draws a lot of emotion and is one of the greatest concerns human rights organizations address. Each year, numerous middle and upper class citizens travel thousands of miles for child-sex “tours” in which hired guides locate prostitution hot spots within impoverished countries, like Cambodia, so the client can fulfill their perverse desires. To address this issue, countries have stepped forward to pass extraterritorial legislation that allows them to bring charges against these “tourists” in their home countries. Recently, the Supreme Court of British Columbia has ruled that Canadian extraterritorial child-sex tourism laws are constitutional.

The law states that it is illegal to engage in crimes related to child prostitution or other forms of child exploitation while abroad. Revised in 1999, prosecuting offenders no longer requires a consular officer from the country in which the act occurred to initiate the proceedings. This is important because many foreign nations state a citizen reaches maturity at the age of sixteen as opposed to eighteen. Before its revision, a lawyer helped Canadian teacher escaped prosecution for a sexual assault against a 17-year-old student in Costa Rica. This is because the Costa Rican government did not initiate proceedings since the student was of legal age under their laws.

Kenneth Klassen is not as lucky. His lawyers fought the constitutionality of the current extraterritorial law to no avail. During his decision last week, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen stated, “A nation has a sovereign interest in preventing the sexual exploitation of children, regardless of where it occurs.” Klassen, a father of three, is charged with 35 sex crimes involving children as young as nine. As it stands now, he may be the first Canadian to go on trial for child-sex tourism.

In 2004, Donald Bakker was the first charged under Canada’s tourism laws. He pled guilty in 2005 to avoid a trial and sentenced to seven years in prison. Notably, NBC Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator” program assisted in his arrest, mounting incriminating video evidence of some of Bakker’s exploits.

The United States and Australia are a couple other countries with such laws on their books. Both the U.S. court of appeals and the Australian High Court found their extraterritorial laws constitutional in 2006. Roughly a hundred people from these countries have been arrested in connection to child prostitution abroad.

Debate rages over the validity and necessity of many laws, but when it comes to sex with children, there is little debate. As intimidating as it may seem that a country can charge you with crimes committed outside its domain, it is somewhat refreshing to know that one will be held accountable in these circumstances. Many of the children are forced into prostitution or sold by their parents under false pretenses of legitimate jobs. Of course, the supply is less of an issue than the demand. With continued attention to resolving this problem through extraterritorial laws and successful prosecutions, governments can chip away at child prostitution rings and the sex trade in general.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69 was introduced as Bill C-150 by then Minister of Justice Pierre Trudeau in the second session of the 27th Canadian Parliament on December 21, 1967. It passed third reading in the House of Commons after heated debates by a vote of 149 (119 Liberals, 18 New Democrats, 12 Progressive Conservatives) to 55 (43 Progressive Conservatives, 11 Créditistes, 1 Liberal) on May 14, 1969. It introduced major changes to the Criminal Code of Canada and it was literally a cornerstone of modern Canadian law. The bill decriminalized homosexuality, allowed abortion and contraception, and regulated lotteries, gun possession, drinking and driving offenses, harassing phone calls, misleading advertising and cruelty to animals. This year it will be the 40^th anniversary of the bill’s passage.

Homosexuality was one of the biggest problems of the Bill-150. This change was influenced in the late 1960s by the British Parliament’s adoption of the Sexual Offenses Act 1967, which decriminalized homosexual acts in England and Wales. Naturally Canada wanted to follow this democratic decision. The biggest opposition was from the religious people, the Catholic Créditistes of Quebec held up debate for three weeks supported by the far-right Edmund Burke Society and the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada. Still at the end homosexuality was legalized with age of consent at 21; although it was later lowered to 18.

Contraception and therapeutic abortion under certain conditions were legalized by the bill. This was a step away form the influence of the Catholic Church’s moral positions on these issues, basically one more separation of the Church and State. Bill C-150 made it legal for women to get an abortion if a committee of three doctors felt the pregnancy endangered the mental, emotional or physical well-being of the mother. These changes were very important and became a stepping stone for many other freedoms and options that have altered women’s place in Canadian society. In 1988 the R. v. Morgentaler ruling, left Canada without any laws regulating abortion.

A number of minor but important changes were made to gambling, gun control and driving under the influence. Before the bill small scale gambling on behalf of charities was permitted, but only Bill C-150 gave the provincial and federal governments the opportunity to use lotteries to fund worthwhile activities, the best example were the 1976 Montreal Olympics. For the first time the bill made it illegal to provide firearms to persons of “unsound mind” or criminals under prohibition orders. The term “firearm” was also expanded; non-restricted, restricted, and prohibited firearm categories were also introduced. Bill C-150 made it a “per se” offence to drive with a blood alcohol content (BAC) in excess of 80 mg/100 ml of blood. The refusal of a police officer’s demand to provide a breath sample was made an offense too. These are the basic rules against drunk driving now.

The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69 basically changed almost all the complicated and important spheres (except for maybe immigration) and solved many ethical problems, creating laws suitable for modern society.

For your criminal law legal issues, post your case at lawyerahead.ca and have a lawyer, specifically a criminal lawyer, contact you with their take on the situation.

Stepping away from controversial and complicated cases, here is a recent case that is based on tragic experience, but actually the charges were made a little too late. The case is about sexual abuse in childhood, unfortunately there are hundreds of such cases every year, but this one is a bit different. In this case the charges are made by two women in their 60s, they charge their father who is very sick and 93 years old.

Two sisters Marcelle and Michèle Hamelin, who are now in their 60s, were very young, basically entering their teenage years when their father Phillipe Hamelin sexually abused them. It began in 1956, but the sisters had the courage to speak out only 50 years after the assaults occurred. As the sisters stated in 2004 after their father told one of the sisters that he felt no remorse for his actions, they decided to charge him.

On their father’s trial, both of the sisters testified that for seven years, their father would come to their beds at night and sexually assault them. They were warned that they would be sent to an orphanage if they told anyone what he had done. Marcelle and Michèle also stated that that their mother knew what was going on but did nothing to stop the horrible abuse.

The court convicted Hamelin of five charges, including incest, sexual molestation and assault causing bodily harm against Marcelle Hamelin and Michèle Hamelin when they were young girls.When her father was charged guilty, one of the daughters - Marcelle Hamelin, told reporters that she didn’t expect that her father will have to serve any jail time. She asked only that the court forbid him to be close to children.

The prosecutors argued for a jail sentence between seven and nine years, but Hélène Poussard, the lawyer of Phillipe Hamelin told the Montreal judge that sending a 93-year-old man to jail for sexually assaulting his daughters amounts to a death sentence. Her client attended the hearings in a wheelchair; he also is nearly deaf and blind and has Alzheimer’s disease. Due to all the diseases caused by age, the lawyers recommended the court to sentence him to two years less a day to be served in the community.

After he was convicted in September 2008, Philippe Hamelin claimed that he is innocent, saying he never did any harm to his daughters. However, he made a strange statement that he was guilty of the crime of bringing the girls into the world.

Of course sexual assault in childhood is a huge psychological trauma and some people need years to overcome the childish fears. Such cruel crime should not be left without punishment. Btu in this case big question is the age of the charged men, or better to say old man. He is very old and sick and a jail sentence is not an option for him. The court still has to make a decision in this simple situation complicated with age.

Well, first things first. There’s a Canadian man, Mohamed Kohail, who’s facing beheading in Saudi Arabia, for the alleged murder of another young man in a schoolyard fight, where dozens of people were involved in the beating of the 19-year-old Munzer Al-Haraki. Mohamed Kohail is 23, and his younger brother, Sultan, 17, was also found guilty. Sultan was sentenced to 200 lashes, though he’s about to be retried- this time as an adult (and so possibly facing the death penalty as well).

Mohamed Kohail’s family is asking for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to intervene, to prevent the execution. The government’s already been working to try and stay the execution, with high-level meetings between Canadian and Saudi foreign officials. Apparently Mohamed Kohail and a Jordanian youth who was also accused of the murder, Mehanna Sa’d, were held without communication to the outside world for six weeks after being arrested, and were possibly beaten. According to Amnesty International, “Their criminal lawyer was only allowed to attend two of the nine sessions of their trial, and was not allowed to challenge the evidence that was brought against them.”

Well. Having a good lawyer isn’t really going to help when he’s not allowed in the courtroom. Hopefully, the government can intervene effectively enough, and Messrs. Kohail will be able to return to Canada, to face a proper criminal trial and, possibly, serve any jail sentences they may deserve, heads firmly attached to their bodies.

The Arar family, the youngest brother of whom was subjected to an “extraordinary rendition” to Syria, where he was jailed for a year and tortured, is also complaining that the Canadian government is not doing enough to help them. Hanssan Arar, the eldest brother in the family, says he is still banned from entering the US.

Five years ago, after his brother was arrested, Hanssan was stopped at the US-Canadian border, surrounded by police with guns op and out, before being taken for hours of questioning. Then he was banned from ever re-entering the US. He’s had to sell his truck, and end his business, because of the ban.

While all brothers have been cleared of any wrongdoing, they are all still facing trouble, as one brother’s Montreal restaurant suffers because of the bad publicity surrounding the family name, and Hanssan is still unable to enter the US and do business. While the family settled a lawsuit against the government, after the inquiry into Maher Arar’s arrest was completed and the commission indicated that the family’s complaints against the government were likely justified.

Well, best of luck to the Arar brothers, in dealing with both their family situation, and in trying to find some justice in this entire situation. Hopefully, our government can stop the execution of Mohamed Kohail, and help at least one Canadian avoid an unfortunate foreign jail experience- and, obviously, in Mr. Kohail’s case, avoid a gruesome death.

Cocaine, always the hobgoblin of those with way too much money and not enough sense, is in the news this week, as Mackenzie Phillips pleads guilty to drug charges, Mindy McCready is released from jail for violating a probation she’s on for illegal prescription painkillers, and the couple who filmed Amy Winehouse doing crack cocaine (okay, so, maybe this star doesn’t have so much money) pled guilty on their own drug charges.

Mackenzie Phillips is up first, the infamous actress who, back in 1984, was forced to leave the soap opera, “One Day at a Time,” over her drug problems. Well, she was arrested in August after flying into LA International Airport, and apparently carrying a very large quantity of drugs with her. Phillips pled guilty to the ensuing charges, and she’s now about to enter yet another drug rehabilitation program, as a part of her sentencing. Phillips, of course, is the daughter of Mamas & Papas lead John Phillips, and was recently acting in the Disney Channel’s series “So Weird,” as a rock star mom. Well, how appropriate.

Mindy McCready, of course, was just let out of jail, where she was for 30 days for violating probation. She’s on probation from a 2004 drug charge. Apparently the singer’s been serving a suspended 3-year sentence since 2004, for getting prescription painkillers illegally. She was apparently falsifying her community service records, which was the probation violation that got her into jail. She was released early from her 60-day sentence because of good behavior, and having done janitorial work in jail. Well, Mindy… I guess that’s a step up. Lay off the vicodin, please.

Finally, the couple that filmed Amy Winehouse apparently smoking crack cocaine and sold their video to The Sun, a British tabloid, Johnny Blagrove and Cara Burton, plead guilty this week, and they’ll be sentenced later this month. There wasn’t enough evidence for police to pursue a case against Winehouse, but the couple who supplied her with the drugs were, obviously, fair game. Apparently they’ve been supplying lots of celebrities with drugs, including cocaine and X (more usual celebrity fare, no?), not just Winehouse. Then again, considering that Winehouse’s most popular song is called “Rehab,” it seems like this couple really didn’t have to try so hard to show her as a bit of a druggie.

“They tried to make me go to rehab but I said ‘No, no, no…’”

Find Toronto Lawyers at lawyerahead.ca for your legal needs. When lawyers compete you win.

Almost everyone at some point in our lives would require the services of a lawyer. For some, the requirement might be as basic as having someone to give legal advice before transferring or buying a property, creating a will or getting a legal opinion before commencing with a business deal. For some unfortunate ones, the requirements are more complex like getting a divorce lawyer, a criminal lawyer or getting the best possible lawyer before proceeding to take legal action against a company or an individual.

Whatever may be the requirement, one thing that almost all of us would unanimously agree is that searching for the right lawyer can be a real pain. In fact for most people just the thought of soliciting the services of a lawyer is enough to give them sleepless nights and most just dont know where to begin or how to go about contacting various lawyers and choosing the best one for their requirements or unique situation.

If you are one of those individuals as well who just dont know what to do in order to search for the best lawyers, then welcome to the world of web 2.0. The internet has already changed a lot of things in our lives like the way we communicate, the way we shop, the way we research about a particular subject etc. But now the next wave of internet websites, popularly known as web 2.0, are changing things even further and one of those is how we look at law, understand legal situations and best of all, how we solicit the services of a lawyer.

Lawyerahead Inc. have made the general public much more comfortable with all aspect of the law and made them realize the law is there to help them and is nothing to be scared of. One of the great features of Lawyerahead.ca and Lawyerahead.com sites is normal users can register for free and post their problems or grievances and not only can they get advice from fellow users, they can get accurate legal advice from real lawyers who are registered users of the website. You can even have lawyers who specialize in the field in which you have a problem contacting you and offering their services.

You can find lawyers of absolutely any specialization in these sites from personal injury lawyers to divorce lawyers, criminal lawyers, business lawyers, lawyers specializing in real estate, insurance, immigration, employment etc. The list is absolutely endless and you can not only have lawyers contact you, but the websites actually list the lawyers entire details like their specialization, distance from your postal code to their office and their exact location. Apart from this, any user can access the lawyers entire profile which has detailed information on their practice, experience and traditional resume.

Never before has interacting with a lawyer of your choice been so easy. Even those who have never interacted with a lawyer before are finding it really simple to now get expert legal advice and judging by the growth of these legal networking sites, it can be clearly seen how comfortable everyone has become with legal issues using web 2.0.