Senate seeks limit on pot growing

Would allow ban on homegrown marijuana

OT TAWA • A Senate committee has passed more than two dozen amendments to the federal government’s cannabis legalization bill, including one that would allow provinces and territories to ban homegrown marijuana.

But the social affairs committee has refused to accept an amendment that would have prohibited home cultivation outright.

Bill C-45 would allow individuals to grow up to five plants in a single dwelling.

But Quebec and Manitoba have decided to prohibit home cultivation, setting up future legal challenges in which Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould has said the federal legislation would prevail.

The Senate committee, which was conducting a clause-by-clause examination of the bill Monday, unanimously supported an amendment specifying that provincial and territorial governments have the authority to prohibit homegrown pot if they so choose.

Among committee members supporting the amendment was Independent Sen. Tony Dean, the sponsor of C-45 in the Senate. That suggests the amendment has the government’s blessing.

However, the committee rejected, by a vote of 7-5, another amendment proposed by Conservative Sen. Judith Seidman that would have imposed a blanket prohibition on home growing across the country.

Among the other amendments passed, the committee agreed that regulations flowing from the legislation must impose a maximum potency limit on cannabis products.

It also agreed that the House of Commons and Senate should be given 30 days to review regulations before they’re implemented and that anyone fined for violating the law should have up to 60 days to pay, rather than the original bill’s stipulation of 30 days.

As well, the committee passed an amendment specifying that a permanent resident who is sentenced to six months or less for breaking the law would not face an additional penalty of being found inadmissible to Canada and deported.

Most of the other amendments were technical in nature. Dean, the bill’s sponsor, proposed 29 amendments.

Just prior to the committee beginning its clause-byclause examination, Toronto Liberal MP Bill Blair, the government’s point man on cannabis legalization, told senators that Bill C-45 is comprehensive, “thoughtfully designed” legislation that strikes a careful balance among diverse perspectives.

But Conservative Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen questioned that assertion, given the number of amendments proposed by Dean to correct “flaws” in the drafting of the bill.

“I don’t see that that is thoughtful or well designed,” she said.