Blog Posts by Steve Mertl

There's good news and bad news for a Glace Bay, N.S., woman who says her neighbour's medical-marijuana home grow-op is making her life miserable.

The bad news is that authorities say they can't do anything about the stench of weed she says pervades the house she shares with her pot-growing neighbour.

The good news is she won't have to put up with it forever.

CBC News reports the woman, who wasn't identified, said the pervasive pot smell makes her nauseous and gives her headaches.

“Everyone believes that we are a problem, or druggies, or dopeheads because it’s all over our clothes,” the woman said.

[ Related: Cities rushing to restrict where marijuana grow-ops can be]

“It’s like a wall when you open our front door, so any child or parent that sells us a dollar ticket believes there’s something going on in here inside the home.”

The neighbour has a Health Canada licence to grow the drug and told CBC News he's following the rules. Bylaw inspector Richard Wadden said the grow-op is in just one

Anyone who drives in a big city knows there's an unending cold war between motorists and the guardians street parking, the bylaw enforcement officer.

When I worked in downtown Vancouver, I could often glance out my window at just after 3 p.m., when the rush-hour parking ban took effect, to see a well co-ordinated assault on drivers who hadn't moved their cars in time. First a parking bylaw officer would slap a ticket on the windshield and within minutes one of the fleet of waiting tow trucks had snatched up the offending vehicle for a trip to the impound lot.

Sometimes you'd get a little street drama as a driver returned just as his car was put on the hook. The only reprieve came by paying the tow-truck driver a hefty "drop" fee, though you'd still be on the hook for the ticket.

Bylaw officers write tens of thousands of tickets a year, so I was surprised when the Vancouver Province turned up only a relative handful of complaints about alleged parking-enforcement abuse.

According to data

The village of Gabarus, on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton coast, is racing against time to rebuild a deteriorating seawall that protects the tiny 300-year-old community.

The only problem is, no one seems to want to help. Not the federal government. Not the Nova Scotia government.

If you live along one of Canada's three coasts, you might want to consider what happens to tiny Gabarus as the country comes to grips with the expected effects of climate change on rising ocean levels and storm patterns that could threaten small seaside communities.

The Globe and Mail reports the village's 70-year-old wood and rock seawall is breaking down. A storm breached it in 1983 and again in 2010 and once more last March.

But pleas by the village's 78 residents for government help in rebuilding it at an estimated cost of $5.3 million have gone unanswered.

[ Related: Polar ice melting, sea levels rising point to major risk for Canada's coasts ]

Neither the provincial nor the federal government is prepared to take

There's another bridge dispute developing between Canada and the United States just as a planned new Detroit-Windsor span finally clears its last political and regulatory hurdles.

Lawmakers in New York want to scrap the bi-national body that operates the Peace Bridge over the Niagara River that links Buffalo with Fort Erie, Ont.

More than six million vehicles a year cross the 86-year-old span, named to commemorate more than a century of peace between Canada and the United States after the War of 1812. It's one of the busiest crossing points along the Canada-U.S. border and is considered a key economic link.

But some Americans say the Peace Bridge Authority has spent money on upgrading facilities on the Canadian side of the bridge to the detriment of the U.S. side.

According to the National Post, the last straw appears to have been plans for a $25-million truck pre-inspection facility on the Fort Erie, Ont. side, approved by the Canadian and U.S. governments as a way speeding security and

Commissioner Bob Paulson, who took over as the top Mountie in 2011, promised publicly to root out the bad apples and reform the internal disciplinary process that often ended in a wrist slap for offenders.We haven't heard much about the RCMP's sexual-harassment problems lately but that doesn't mean the issue has gone away.

More of the Mounties' dirty laundry is being aired this week thanks to an Ottawa Citizen report about a senior officer fighting the penalty imposed on him in a code of conduct investigation over an affair with a civilian co-worker five years ago.

Superintendent Paul Young, who's listed as a police adviser in Canada's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, is taking his bosses to court over their decision to recall him from the New York post.

Young contends the penalty — loss of his prestigious posting in the Big Apple — is disproportionate to the infraction, especially compared with lighter sanctions imposed on other Mounties in what appear to be more egregious cases.

His argument, in essence, seems to be, why are you picking on me?

[ Related: Canada's Mounties say they will root out sexual harassment ]

“I could easily name quite a few serving senior officers of the RCMP

Hugues Latour (CBC photo)Hugues Latour has Canada's official bilingualism policy to thank for being free, at least for the time being.

The 40-year-old former francaphone teacher from Quebec who was working in Inuvik, N.W.T., has seen his conviction last year for assaulting his 17-year-old girlfriend tossed out after successfully appealing he wasn't properly informed of his right under the Charter to have his trial held in French, according to CBC News.

The ruling came despite the fact he was given a choice at the beginning of his trial and opted to proceed in English. He then changed his mind partway through the proceedings and the remainder of the case was heard in French, the National Post reported.

The territories' Court of Appeal ordered a new trial on the assault conviction and a related count that Latour had breached bail conditions on other charges involving the same woman. Justice Louise Charbonneau ruled Latour didn't get the right kind of information at the very beginning of his trial that he was

Earl Silverman (C) was found hanging Friday in the garage of his recently-sold Calgary home, which he'd turned into Canada's first refuge for men fleeing abusive relationships (Facebook/Earl Silverman)The apparent suicide of Earl Silverman, a longtime advocate for male victims of spousal abuse, is rippling through the men's rights movement.

Silverman was found hanging Friday in the garage of his recently-sold Calgary home, which he'd turned into Canada's first refuge for men fleeing abusive relationships.

The National Post reports Silverman closed the shelter last month because he could no longer afford to run it. He'd been turned down for federal and provincial assistance because, he believed, it catered to male victims and their children, the Post said.

The house's new owner, Steven Howitt, told the Post he helped Silverman move his belongings on Thursday. He returned Friday and found the body.

“I couldn’t have predicted this," said Howitt. "I got the sense that he was pretty frustrated that the shelter didn’t work out. He was frustrated with the government that he didn’t get any help."

The Calgary Herald described Silverman as a "gruff, bearded and often controversial figure," and a

The strike that started as a protest against the suspension of two jail guards is now threatening to paralyze much of Alberta's justice system.

Sheriffs who keep order in the province's courtrooms and deliver prisoners to court, along with court reporters, clerks and social workers have joined more than 500 corrections officers in the work stoppage, CBC News reports.

"We're hoping this is very short-lived," said union spokesman Derrick Karbashewski. "We're looking for a voice, we want a voice at the table."

The fresh walkout could force postponement of scheduled court proceedings, CBC News said.

"We believe that we will be able to ensure that the right prisoners, the right individuals, get delivered to the right courts across the province so that the justice system will continue to operate,"deputy solicitor general Tim Grant told CBC News.

[ Related: Some Alberta prison guards scorn back-to-work order ]

Social workers have joined in because they said they share similar issues with prison