Senate backs bill to legalize marijuana

Bill C-45 passed at second reading Thursday evening by a vote of 44-29

OTTAWA — 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 comes 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 that 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 doublebarrelled 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 in the day, Trudeau said the criminal cannabis regime has not protected Canadian children, who are among the highest underage users of marijuana in developed countries, and has put up to $7 billion every year in the pockets of organized crime.

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 apparently hoped they could take advantage of a large number of absent independent senators, who are travelling on Senate committee business, combined with a handful of independents who may have opposed 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 Thursday that the “vast majority” of the independents were back in time.