Conservatives push mandatory prison sentences for drug crimes — even for growing as little as one marijuana plant. Canada’s justice minister says people who sell or grow marijuana belong in jail because pot is used as a “currency” to bring harder drugs into the country.

It may not have been a large crowd but the New Democratic Party revitalization conference held at the Elks Lodge in Grande Prairie Saturday was more about the quality of discussion, said Vancouver MP and keynote speaker Libby Davies. She called it building a base to work from. “The process that we are involved in today comes out of the results of the last election,” said Brian Mason, Alberta NDP leader and also a guest at the conference.

So much has been written about the Downtown Eastside by the media, academics, as well as enumerable studies and even internationally. Yet it remains an enigma to those on the outside looking in, often reduced to harsh one-liners and stereotypes that fail to portray the complexity, rich history and deep sense of community that exists in what is often described as Canada’s poorest urban postal code. Reading the current series in the Globe and Mail, “The Nation’s Slum: Fix It,” I have been both infuriated and provoked by the articles. Like many, I balk at headlines and descriptions that portray a helpless throng in deep despair waiting to be pulled out of poverty by healthy doses of middle classness and development.