Amnesty is the right move

The Trudeau government’s decision to legalize marijuana was a welcome and overdue acknowledgement of what has in recent decades become a truism of both the health and justice fields: Treating potsmokers as criminals is a costly, dangerous mistake.

The government is right that the prohibition on pot has driven up the cost of policing, contributed to a national crisis of court delays, compounded racial and class inequities and unnecessarily criminalized people for doing something that by and large poses little threat to them or others — all without delivering the promised benefits for public health or public safety.

Yet, on the question of what to do about the victims of this unjust and outgoing law, the government has failed to apply the same sound logic that informed its decision to pursue legalization. If drug users should not be treated as criminals, then the tens of thousands of Canadians who have criminal records due to convictions for pot possession, and whose prospects have been thus constrained, should receive amnesty and a second chance.

Until last week, the government seemed to disagree, suggesting that Canada’s slow and costly pardon system was a sufficient mechanism for redress. But in a welcome shift, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Friday during a Liberal cabinet retreat that the government is now considering the possibility of amnesty for those convicted of simple possession. That’s the right move.

In 2016 alone, 17,733 people were charged with possession of pot. Those convicted received criminal records that can affect job opportunities, foreign travel, even citizenship — punishments that far outweigh the transgression and which increase the likelihood of future, more serious criminality.

Moreover, those subject to such disproportionate punishments are disproportionately people of colour, Indigenous people and people living in poverty.

Black people in particular have been victimized by the misguided war on pot. While they comprised 8.4 per cent of Toronto’s population in the 2006 census, they accounted for 25.2 per cent of arrests for possession. White people were arrested almost exactly in proportion to their share of the population. There’s no evidence that Black people use more pot than anyone else, yet they have been much more likely to be arrested, charged and subjected to the serious penalties that come with a permanent criminal conviction.

This is why Bill Blair, the government’s point person on pot, has called the impact of the prohibition on minority communities “one of the greatest injustices in this country.” It’s why Justin Trudeau decried the “fundamental unfairness” of the current system.

Yet those caught up in this unfair system have little recourse. At the moment, a person convicted of simple possession can apply for a pardon (officially called a “record suspension”) after five years. But the pardon system is in dire need of an overhaul. It can be costly and cumbersome, requiring legal help and hundreds of dollars just for processing fees. In any case, those who continue to suffer because they were convicted under a law the federal government now says is an ass should not have to seek a pardon at all.

The government is right to put a blanket amnesty back on the table. However, in doing so, it has also underscored how silly is its opposition to another policy: the immediate decriminalization of possession.

In the months until the pot legislation is passed, the government will spend an enormous amount of money, require considerable police resources and continue to clog up an overburdened court system pursuing thousands of prosecutions for pot possession, even though it plans eventually to grant amnesty to all those convicted. That makes no sense.

The government should be commended for recognizing the sound logic of legalization, but it has so far failed to broadly apply that logic. Ottawa should decriminalize pot now and offer amnesty to those convicted of simple pot possession. Governments were wrong to treat pot smokers like criminals; they ought to start making amends.

If drug users shouldn’t be treated as criminals, then Canadians who have criminal records for pot possession convictions should receive amnesty