Justice committee  I agree with Mr. Tousaw that marijuana is a good starting point.

Justice committee  Yes, we shouldn't stop at marijuana, but marijuana should be the starting point as the major incentive.

Justice committee  That definitely was the logic up until probably the 1980s. We don't have racial oppression of many of these minorities, such as the Asian and South Asian minorities, but they still went through it. This is no longer a minority issue; the cycle has stopped going from one minority

Justice committee  Gangs and criminal activity have always been--

Justice committee  I understand. You're saying something new will take marijuana's place. But marijuana is not a gateway drug for the criminal underworld and the people using it. Marijuana is the standard for why gangs exist in B.C. If we legalize it and regulate it, fewer gangs will exist, but I'm

Justice committee  I just wanted to make a quick point. I want to stress that I've never done marijuana and have no reason to, but at the same time, I haven't drunk a sip of alcohol my whole life, yet it's readily available. Just because something becomes legalized, it doesn't mean that everybody

Justice committee  I spent three years trying to discover the answer to that exact question: why were so many South Asian males over the last 19 years getting involved? And before that, why were so many Asian males getting involved in the 1980s in the drug trade? It seems that for the last 100 yea

Justice committee  I believe the legalization of marijuana in Canada will be more or less an incentive for gangs to deal with a product going south. It would cause more U.S. gangs to create their own back ends, their own alleyways, into Canada to hold up the criminal underworld. I can't stress th

Justice committee  I have to say that the number one priority I would pen is the legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana. It is by far the number one incentive for gangs to get involved in the criminal underworld right now.

Justice committee  Committee and guests, my name is Mani Amar. I'm an independent filmmaker, writer, and activist based out of Vancouver, B.C. I've been invited here today to share my views on the state of organized crime and to offer suggestions in order that--

Justice committee  I only have five minutes.

Justice committee  I've been invited here today to share my views on the state of organized crime and to offer suggestions in order for the committee to make recommendations in a report to the House of Commons. I believe my invitation was based on the film I have recently released, A Warrior's Re