Pot pardon legislation coming soon: Goodale

Pot pardon legislation coming soon: Goodale


Canadians will soon have a better sense of how the Liberals' plan to speed up and lower the cost of certain marijuana-related pardons will work. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale tweeted Wednesday that he intends to give notice to introduce "a bill to provide no-cost, expedited pardons for simple possession of cannabis," following up on promise made in October.

parliamentary procedure, a member must give 48 hours written notice before introducing legislation in the House of Commons." style="margin-bottom: 1em;">According to parliamentary procedure, a member must give 48 hours written notice before introducing legislation in the House of Commons.

A spokesperson for the minister said that means that bill could be tabled as early as Friday.

The Liberal government first signalled its plans to waive the fee and waiting period for Canadians seeking a pardon for a past conviction for simple pot possession the day recreational marijuana was legalized last year.

As it stands, the fee for normal record suspensions is $631. The waiting period to apply is usually five years for a summary offence and 10 years for an indictable offence.

According to a 2014 study, more than 500,000 Canadians have a criminal record for having pot on their person." style="margin-bottom: 1em;">According to a 2014 study, more than 500,000 Canadians have a criminal record for having pot on their person.

Goodale has previously said the bill would "shed the burden and stigma" and break down barriers to jobs, education, housing or volunteer work.

However, the bill has already received criticism from the NDP.

A record suspension does not erase the fact that a person was convicted of a crime, but keeps the record separate from other criminal records.

The NDP has been calling for the expungement of criminal records, which would erase the criminal conviction entirely.

The NDP has the expungement of criminal records right

Oh, but there's money in criminalization.

Hahahahahaha. Nice try Libs. Fool me once as the saying goes. No amount of cannabis anything is going to help after the shit storm they call legalization. "Let us fix this by fucking it up more with our ineptitude."

They should be expunged enmass. Anything less is a fail from Mr Trudeau and his sinking party.....

Damage already done.

Federal legislation for cannabis-possession pardon not enough, critics say

OTTAWA — Long-awaited legislation that makes getting a pardon for simple possession of cannabis cheaper and quicker made it to the House of Commons Friday, but critics say it won't be enough to right decades of problems caused by cannabis criminalization.Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said his new bill would waive the $631 application fee and remove the usual five-year waiting period after a conviction before an application will be accepted.A successful application seals a criminal record away, as long as the person convicted isn't charged with any other criminal offences.Goodale said that this new bill is "undertaking a fundamental transformation from a prohibition system that has had consequences in Canada for more than a century," and will allow people who've been convicted of simple possession to "participate in a wholesome way in their communities.""That's nice and generous but it doesn't go far enough, as far as I'm concerned," said Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, a University of Toronto sociologist who specializes in crime, policing and race. "Pardons are not enough to try to repair the harms."Statistics linking criminal charges and race aren't routinely gathered in Canada, but separate reports by the Toronto Star in 2017 and Vice News in 2018 found that in several cities where figures were available, black Canadians and Indigenous people were much more likely than white people to be charged with cannabis possession before it was legalized last year. Separate data on drug use indicates that rates of cannabis use differ little among those groups.Owusu-Bempah said completely expunging cannabis-possession records, which means destroying them entirely, is the only way for the government to recognize the "profound historical injustices that have stemmed from the war on drugs and cannabis prohibition in particular, especially how those have affected both marginalized and racialized populations."Owusu-Bempah said that struggles with finding housing and employment are among the problems those who have been convicted of drug possession grapple with.It's a view shared by Toronto lawyer Annamaria Enenajor, who has made expunging cannabis-possession records a cause."I think this government has an obligation to write the historical wrongs of decades of cannabis prohibition, particularly because the laws were unequally enforced and were primarily against vulnerable and marginalized communities including Indigenous communities and communities of colour," said Enenajor.Enenajor said that while a pardon, or record suspension, does remove the charge from the National Repository of Criminal Records, a pardoned offence can still be reinstated by the national parole board if the board deems an individual is "no longer of good conduct."She said a pardon regime doesn't consider the "sheer amount of people that have been impacted by these offences" or the resources that have been used in prosecuting them over the years. She said the proposed system will continue to take up money and time as applications are processed one by one, something that could be avoided with an automatic mass expungement.Goodale said expunging criminal records is only an option when a law “violates human rights and should never had existed in the first place." He offered the criminalization of homosexuality as an example."With respect to cannabis, the law itself was completely valid and constitutional but some people, especially vulnerable and marginalized communities, were impacted disproportionately and unfairly," said Goodale.Another reason the government offered for using pardons instead of mass expungements is that records of previous convictions will sometimes have been shared outside Canada, such as with U.S. border guards. A pardon can likewise be shared and will work to the former offender's benefit; if a record is expunged in Canada, the other jurisdiction's files won't necessarily reflect that.Officials said in a background briefing that they don't know exactly how many people have been convicted of cannabis possession in Canada, but they expect the number of people who will benefit from the streamlined process could be "in the thousands."Until the Cannabis Act came into effect last October, simple possession of the drug was punishable by a fine up to $1,000 and six months in jail.—Follow @Dani_Edwards1 on TwitterDanielle Edwards, The Canadian Press


OTTAWA — Long-awaited legislation that makes getting a pardon for simple possession of cannabis cheaper and quicker made it to the House of Commons Friday, but critics say it won't be enough to right decades of problems caused by cannabis criminalization.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said his new bill would waive the $631 application fee and remove the usual five-year waiting period after a conviction before an application will be accepted.

A successful application seals a criminal record away, as long as the person convicted isn't charged with any other criminal offences.

Goodale said that this new bill is "undertaking a fundamental transformation from a prohibition system that has had consequences in Canada for more than a century," and will allow people who've been convicted of simple possession to "participate in a wholesome way in their communities."

"That's nice and generous but it doesn't go far enough, as far as I'm concerned," said Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, a University of Toronto sociologist who specializes in crime, policing and race. "Pardons are not enough to try to repair the harms."

Statistics linking criminal charges and race aren't routinely gathered in Canada, but separate reports by the Toronto Star in 2017 and Vice News in 2018 found that in several cities where figures were available, black Canadians and Indigenous people were much more likely than white people to be charged with cannabis possession before it was legalized last year. Separate data on drug use indicates that rates of cannabis use differ little among those groups.

Owusu-Bempah said completely expunging cannabis-possession records, which means destroying them entirely, is the only way for the government to recognize the "profound historical injustices that have stemmed from the war on drugs and cannabis prohibition in particular, especially how those have affected both marginalized and racialized populations."

Owusu-Bempah said that struggles with finding housing and employment are among the problems those who have been convicted of drug possession grapple with.

It's a view shared by Toronto lawyer Annamaria Enenajor, who has made expunging cannabis-possession records a cause.

"I think this government has an obligation to write the historical wrongs of decades of cannabis prohibition, particularly because the laws were unequally enforced and were primarily against vulnerable and marginalized communities including Indigenous communities and communities of colour," said Enenajor.

Enenajor said that while a pardon, or record suspension, does remove the charge from the National Repository of Criminal Records, a pardoned offence can still be reinstated by the national parole board if the board deems an individual is "no longer of good conduct."

She said a pardon regime doesn't consider the "sheer amount of people that have been impacted by these offences" or the resources that have been used in prosecuting them over the years. She said the proposed system will continue to take up money and time as applications are processed one by one, something that could be avoided with an automatic mass expungement.

Goodale said expunging criminal records is only an option when a law “violates human rights and should never had existed in the first place." He offered the criminalization of homosexuality as an example.

"With respect to cannabis, the law itself was completely valid and constitutional but some people, especially vulnerable and marginalized communities, were impacted disproportionately and unfairly," said Goodale.

Another reason the government offered for using pardons instead of mass expungements is that records of previous convictions will sometimes have been shared outside Canada, such as with U.S. border guards. A pardon can likewise be shared and will work to the former offender's benefit; if a record is expunged in Canada, the other jurisdiction's files won't necessarily reflect that.

Officials said in a background briefing that they don't know exactly how many people have been convicted of cannabis possession in Canada, but they expect the number of people who will benefit from the streamlined process could be "in the thousands."

Until the Cannabis Act came into effect last October, simple possession of the drug was punishable by a fine up to $1,000 and six months in jail.

Pardons for cannabis crimes better than expunging records: feds
Posted By: The Canadian Presson: March 01, 2019In: News, Top Stories

File photo CBC.
The federal government has introduced legislation to provide pardons to people convicted of simple cannabis possession with no application fee and no wait time.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says the legislation will allow people to shed the stigma of a record, eliminating barriers to job opportunities, education, housing, and even the ability to volunteer for a charity in their community.

The government says fees and the wait period are being waived for those seeking pardons for the first time in history.

It says the legislation will help make things fairer for those impacted by what Goodale says were disproportionate consequences for simple cannabis possession.

The government also notes the enforcement of cannabis laws before recreational use was legalized last October disproportionately affected certain Canadians, particularly members of Black and Indigenous communities.

Critics say the legislation doesn’t go far enough and people convicted of small-time cannabis possession should have their records expunged.

Among those is NDP MP for Victoria Murray Rankin, who tabled a private members bill in October to establish a procedure to expunge certain cannabis-related convictions.

On Twitter, Rankin said, “record suspensions don’t give Canadians the protections and freedom they deserve.”

View image on Twitter


Murray Rankin MP

✔@MurrayRankin
https://twitter.com/MurrayRankin/status/1101572259913752581

#CannabisAmnesty created this really great graphic that explains why record suspensions don't give Canadians the protection and freedom they deserve. Record suspensions do not go far enough! Please share and spread the word!


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11:57 AM - Mar 1, 2019

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But the government says a pardon is actually more useful for Canadians seeking to cross international borders.

Yawn, another carrot dangled by the Libs. No turning your current trainwreck around. Made your corrupt bed, sleep in it.

Where's the" we were wrong " I'm waiting people (groper boy)

I smell an election in the wind....lol...