Waiting to inhale: pot bill gets nod
Conservative senators hoping to deliver a double-barrelled embarrassment to one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s signature election promises while demonstrating the folly of his efforts to reform the upper chamber backed down and passed Bill C-45 at second reading Thursday.
The approval — which sends the bill to legalize recreational cannabis to committee for closer scrutiny — came after Trudeau reminded them that his government was elected on a promise to legalize recreational marijuana and that the Senate should not thwart the will of the electorate.
Thirty-three Tory senators had vowed to vote against the bill on second reading.
Conservatives no longer dominate the 105-seat Senate. Since Trudeau took office, Liberal senators now sit as independents and Senate appointments are no longer made on party lines.
The Conservative senators were said to be hoping to take advantage of a large number of absent independents, combined with a handful of independents who may oppose the bill, to defeat it.
On Wednesday, the leadership of the independent senators group scrambled to avoid that outcome, sending a memo urging all of its absent members to return to Ottawa in time for the vote.
Sen. Peter Harder, the government’s representative in the Senate, said it would be inappropriate for senators to defeat a bill before studying it or proposing amendments.
Harder said the upper house has never before defeated a government bill at second reading.
The bill will return to the senate after committee hearings for a final debate and vote.
The Senate has given approval in principle to the Trudeau government’s bill to legalize recreational marijuana.
Bill C-45 passed at second reading Thursday evening by a vote of 44-29.
The approval came after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reminded the senators that his government was elected on a promise to legalize recreational marijuana.
That was seen as a subtle warning they should not attempt to thwart the will of Canadians or the government they elected.
The uncertainty was triggered by Conservative senators, who were hoping to deliver a double-barrelled embarrassment to Trudeau: upending one of his signature election promises, while demonstrating the folly of his efforts to reform the Senate into a less partisan, more independent chamber.
Earlier, Trudeau said the criminal cannabis regime has not protected Canadian children, who are among the highest under-age users of marijuana in developed countries, and has put up to $7 billion every year in the pockets of organized crime.
“The current system does not work … This is not something that Canadians want to see continued.”
Trudeau had said he expected the unelected Senate to scrutinize and suggest improvements to bills passed by the House of Commons.
“It is very clear that this bill responds first to an electoral promise that we made very clearly during the election campaign and for which Canadians voted,” he said following an event in New Brunswick.
Ordinarily, a second reading vote is not a big hurdle and is dispensed with on the basis of a quick voice vote — after which the bill is sent to committee for closer scrutiny, witness testimony and any proposed amendments before returning to the Senate for a final debate and vote.
But in the case of Bill C-45, the 33 Conservative senators had vowed to vote en masse against it at second reading.
The Conservatives no longer dominate the 105-seat upper house but they were said to be hoping to take advantage of a large number of absent independent senators, who were travelling on Senate committee business, combined with a handful of independents who may oppose the bill, to defeat it.
On Wednesday, the leadership of the independent senators group scrambled to avoid that outcome, sending a memo urging all of its absent members to return to Ottawa in time for the vote.
“Our sense is that (Conservatives) are willing to take the risk of having the bill defeated at second reading, and — in that event — to blame independent senators for failing to ensure its passage,” senators Yuen Pau Woo and Raymonde Saint-Germain said in the memo.
Woo said independent senators understand their job is “not willy nilly to defeat government legislation but to provide careful scrutiny, including from time to time, amending bills, maybe defeating on the rare occasion. But we don’t do this as a matter of course, certainly not on second reading.”
The prospect of the bill being defeated before it’s scrutinized or amendments can be proposed “strikes me as somewhat horrific,” he said.
Sen. Peter Harder, the government’s representative in the Senate, said it would be entirely inappropriate for senators to defeat a bill before studying it or proposing amendments. Indeed, he said the upper house has never before defeated a government bill at second reading.