Bill Blair, Canada's pot czar, doesn't sound impressed with the leak of the news that marijuana use will be legal by Canada Day 2018. "That isn't my date," he harrumphed in an interview Wednesday. "I haven't said anything about a timeline and the speculation is highly aspirational. There's tons of work to do." But the former Toronto police chief turned MP said progress has been made since the task force charged with drawing up a framework for cannabis legalization reported in December. [continues 675 words]
The task force charged with drawing up a framework for cannabis legalization in Canada has struck a fine balance between providing access to a regulated supply that should undermine the black market and introducing restrictions that minimize the harm associated with pot. The nine-member panel, chaired by former Liberal minister Anne McLellan, was asked to make recommendations that will have implications for all Canadians for years to come. There can be no doubts that we are about to witness widespread changes to the laws and culture of our country. [continues 751 words]
Urges Liberals to target marijuana black market The key recommendation of the panel charged with outlining the framework for Canada's legal marijuana regime is that the system should be geared toward getting rid of the $7-billion-a year black market. Sources familiar with the report, which is expected to be made public Dec. 21, say all the other recommendations flow from that guiding principle. Provinces will set the legal age for marijuana consumption, but the report is likely to recommend the limit be the age of majority - 18 in six provinces; 19 in B.C., Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the three territories - which would keep many young people from turning to criminal sources. (The Canadian Medical Association has recommended an age limit of 21, with limits on the quantity and potency.) [continues 629 words]
Some may be reselling it, source suggests Veterans Affairs Canada is set to "reduce substantially" the amount of medical marijuana for which retired soldiers can seek reimbursement, after new projections revealed the cost is set to rise to $90 million - - 18 times more than the amount paid out two years ago. The program under which veterans could access marijuana for medical purposes was introduced in 2008-09 and by the end of the year there were just five recipients being reimbursed $19,000. [continues 331 words]
Could Canada Post become Canada Pot? The Crown corporation is desperately seeking new revenue sources, as mail volumes drop five per cent a year. At the same time, the federal government is equally frantic in its hunt for income, as the economy slows. The suggestion from producers of medicinal marijuana is that Canada Post be the initial distribution network for recreational cannabis, after pot is legalized by the new government. The new market could be worth as much as $7 billion according to some estimates. If the federal and provincial governments impose a 20-per-cent excise tax, it will amount to considerably more than the "bit of revenue" anticipated by the prime minister in a press conference before Christmas, when he said any money raised would be diverted towards addiction treatment and education. [continues 434 words]
Calculating Rae Doesn't Match New Energy The endorsement of Liberal members on the floor of the party's convention to legalize marijuana put a temporary crimp in Bob Rae's plans to become permanent leader. He has publicly opposed the resolution to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana production, distribution and use as flawed. But after 77% of the delegates in Ottawa voted to pass the motion, he picked himself up, dusted himself down, and tweaked his position to fit the new reality. In a post-convention press conference, he said he supports the spirit of the resolution but has to look at the practical implications. [continues 558 words]
Liberals In Favour Of Law And Order, But Hardly Dogmatic About It When the Conservatives are announcing taxpayer funded environmental projects and the Liberals are talking tough on crime, you know there's an election in the air. In a curious role reversal, Stephen Harper was in the Toronto area yesterday, wearing an open-necked shirt and possibly Birkenstocks, as he announced that the government is going to purchase ecologically sensitive land. Meanwhile, mild-mannered Stephane Dion was just down the road, trying to look fierce as he explained his new-found enthusiasm for law and order. [continues 746 words]
Policy Workshops Get Lost In Frantic Jockeying Of Leadership Contest MONTREAL - The perils of holding a leadership contest and a policy convention at the same time were quickly apparent yesterday as Liberals gathered to name a successor to Paul Martin. Leadership candidates and their throngs of flag-waving supporters marched up and down the Palais des congres like so many banana republics at the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Meanwhile, the workshops where Liberals were meant to hammer out 135 or so policy resolutions were all but deserted. The 18 resolutions before the international affairs workshop were summarily dealt with in 30 minutes, with minimal debate. Along the corridor in the social justice workshop, delegates voted to lower the age of consent for anal sex and legalize marijuana. The support of 10 delegates is needed before a resolution is even debated. [continues 334 words]
Liberals will take time-out from going through the motions at their convention today to debate a genuinely contentious issue - the legalization of marijuana. Coming two days after the tragedy in Mayerthorpe, Alberta, it would be a major embarrassment if a majority of delegates voted in favour of the resolution. This is unlikely - more than 50% of the delegates in the room at a morning policy session workshop would have to back the proposal before it is even eligible to make its way on to the main floor of the convention. But the timing of the resolution is inauspicious and it became the main focus of interest during yesterday's meander through issues like the Lake Winnipeg watershed and port infrastructure. [continues 603 words]
There could be lessons to be learned from Canada's experience of combating the cigarette smugglers, reports John Ivison in North America A NUMBER of years ago, I interviewed for a job at a newspaper in Cornwall, Ontario, a sleepy town mid-way between Montreal and Toronto. Nothing much ever happens there, but the town was woken from its somnolence just before I arrived. Someone had taken a pot-shot at the mayor after - in an unguarded moment - he made public his opposition to the local cigarette smuggling trade. [continues 678 words]
