Liberals to roll out faster, ‘no-cost’ pot pardons

Legislation to extend freedom from old cannabis possession convictions to hundreds of thousands of Canadians is imminent, the Trudeau government signalled Wednesday.

But the long-awaited plan to provide pardons for criminal possession of a drug now deemed legal in Canada is unlikely to satisfy critics, who argue that anything short of full expungement is an uneven, unfair remedy for those burdened by prohibition’s legal hangover.

News of Ottawa’s move came Wednesday afternoon in a tweet from Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, who wrote, “Later today, I will give notice to introduce a bill to provide no-cost, expedited pardons for simple possession of cannabis.”

With the announcement arriving just moments before former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould reignited the SNC-Lavalin scandal with explosive new details, cynics quickly accused the government of indulging in the politics of distraction.

In serving notice, Ottawa now is expected to table a bill as early as Friday that will finally reveal the pathway to pardon Ottawa has hinted at for months.

Goodale told a news conference last fall that the government was working on such a plan, saying “individuals who previously acquired criminal records for simple possession of cannabis should be allowed to shed the burden and the stigma of that record.

“This will eliminate what are disproportionate consequences and break down barriers, which could mean greater access to job opportunities and education and housing and even the ability to simply volunteer for a charity,” he said.

Advocates of outright amnesty caution that any such plan could end up being a logistical nightmare, given the nature of police record-keeping in Canada.

Estimates vary, but there’s a widespread belief that between 250,000 and half a million Canadians carry the weight of a cannabis conviction.

That burden has long been the central plank of the campaign for legalization.

Police forces across the country enter drug possession charges into a database maintained by the RCMP — but often without naming the drug in question. The challenge then becomes how to mine the RCMP data in a way that effectively isolates and expunges charges relating strictly to cannabis possession.

Meanwhile, there is a $631 alternative: that’s the fee for applicants in Canada who want to apply to have crimes expunged from their records. But applicants often complain the process is glacial and, even after the long wait, success is not assured.

Moreover, it’s a terribly expensive way of addressing a crime that numerous studies say has weighed disproportionately on racialized and economically marginalized Canadians.

Reading between the lines of Goodale’s tweet, NDP MP Murray Rankin called on the government to go beyond pardons and delete criminal possession records outright, writing: “Now is the time to let Minister Goodale know that pardons are NOT enough! Expungement is the only way to undo past wrongs. Canadians deserve freedom, not forgiveness.”