Pubdate: Tue, 10 Nov 2015
Source: St. Thomas Times-Journal (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Sun Media
Contact: http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/letters
Website: http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/953
Author: David Akin
Page: 7

NO QUICK ROUTE TO LEGALIZING POT IN CANADA

On Parliament Hill, the real work gets done by committees of MPs. But
which committee gets to figure out how to legalize pot, as per Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau's most famous campaign promise?

The Justice Committee? The Health Committee? Or perhaps - wait for it
- - a Joint Committee?

Bad puns aside, making pot legal is not going to happen quickly or
without some controversy, partly because government works through
these issues by committees.

And while it's early days yet for the Trudeau administration, there
are some hints about next steps.

"Our commitments in the election campaign were clear," Dominic Leblanc
said on Thursday. Leblanc is the government house leader, a
cabinet-level position that makes him Trudeau's right-hand man when it
comes to slotting different priorities for the House of Commons to
deal with. You'll be seeing a lot of Leblanc over the next four years.

He said his top priority right now is pushing through Trudeau's
promised income tax cut.

That'll happen when the House of Commons is summoned for a week-long
run in early December. The highlight that week will be the speech from
the throne, which should have more details about Trudeau's pot plans.

In the meantime, Leblanc, a lawyer, had this warning.

"The Criminal Code, in spite of the swearing in of a new government,
was not changed. My colleague, the minister of justice, obviously with
her provincial counterparts, will want to discuss this.

"So I would urge you to wait and be patient. The commitments we made
in the election campaign, including changes like that to the Criminal
Code, will be coming, but be coming in a responsible way in
co-operation with provinces and other interested stakeholders."

That's Parliament-speak for: This is going to take a little while.

As Leblanc said, the new federal justice minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, 
has to talk to all of her provincial counterparts. That'll take time.

And while that's happening, federal health minister Jane Philpott said 
she wants to talk to her provincial counterparts.

"Marijuana is very much a health issue," Philpott said. And yes, there 
have already been giggles over the ending of the health minister's last 
name in this regard.

And at the end of all that, we do indeed come back to committees of MPs. 
Even a joint committee of MPs would not start work at the earliest until 
February.

Legalizing pot by next summer would be nearly impossibly fast work. The 
more likely bet is to see movement on this file in at least a year's time.
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MAP posted-by: Matt