{"id":485104,"date":"2022-08-16T15:55:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-16T12:55:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/its-time-to-erase-cannabis-convictions\/"},"modified":"2022-08-16T15:55:50","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T12:55:50","slug":"its-time-to-erase-cannabis-convictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/its-time-to-erase-cannabis-convictions\/","title":{"rendered":"#It&#8217;s time to erase cannabis convictions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2bf0697c46d\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2bf0697c46d\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/its-time-to-erase-cannabis-convictions\/#%E2%80%9CIts_time_to_erase_cannabis_convictions%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;It&#8217;s time to erase cannabis convictions&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CIts_time_to_erase_cannabis_convictions%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;It&#8217;s time to erase cannabis convictions&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                            Cannabis was legalized nearly four years ago. Why are past convictions for simple possession only being pardoned?\n                        <\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Annamaria Enenajor <i>is a litigator at Toronto\u2019s Ruby Shiller Enenajor DiGiuseppe, Barristers, where she practices criminal defence, regulatory, constitutional and civil law. She is the founder and executive director of the non-profit Cannabis Amnesty.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In late may,<\/span> Health Canada<span class=\"s2\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>roved a three-year pilot project in British Columbia that will effectively decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs, like opioids, MDMA, methamphetamines and cocaine, in the hopes of curbing overdose-related deaths. The program takes a more compassionate approach to addiction than the punitive one favoured by governments in the past. This decision makes me feel hopeful much in the same way as I did four years ago, just before cannabis was legalized. Back then, the Trudeau government said it intended to adopt a similar public-health approach to the drug. I thought, <i>This is a wonderful opportunity to undo all the harms that have been caused by criminalization.<\/i> But when I got around to reading through the Cannabis Act, I was disappointed to see that it made no effort to address the unequal enforcement of cannabis law among racial groups. It also left past possession convictions intact\u2014for everyone\u2014when those convictions should have been eliminated altogether.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> was all about stocks, speculation and how much money would be made in the forthcoming green gold rush. I wanted to say, \u201cWell, this is actually a piece of criminal legislation.\u201d In advance of legalization, I worked with friends and activists on an awareness campaign designed to take focus away from profit and return it to the lives that had been destroyed or put on hold because of cannabis-related criminal convictions. In April of 2018, we founded Cannabis Amnesty, which began as a petition project to push the government to expunge the records of all individuals with cannabis possession convictions. We\u2019re still working on it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">A charge of simple possession means that a person had drugs on them, but no intent to traffic. Even after legalization, the consequences of having this conviction on one\u2019s record are huge: people can\u2019t get jobs, can\u2019t take out loans, can\u2019t volunteer for their kids\u2019 soccer teams and can\u2019t cross the border. In cities like Ottawa, where police services offer \u201ccrime-free multi-housing\u201d programs, a prior cannabis conviction can prevent someone from qualifying to live in certain public-housing properties. The Prime Minister himself admitted to using cannabis while he was a sitting member of Parliament and faced no punishment. Meanwhile, my clients\u2019 lives\u2014and the lives of thousands of Canadians\u2014continue to be disrupted by crimes of the past.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">Canada has taken some positive steps toward righting this wrong: in 2019, thanks to Bill C-93, the federal government began allowing those with a criminal record for simple possession of cannabis to apply for expedited record suspensions, or pardons. (As of March, 852 applications had been submitted to the Parole Board, and only 536 suspensions were issued. An estimated 250,000 Canadians have convictions for cannabis possession.)<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">Bill C-5, which cleared the House of Commons in June and will be studied in the Senate this fall, is a step in the right direction. It would remove mandatory minimum sentences for a number of drug offences, and would automatically sequester records related to all simple possession convictions two years after the passage of <\/span>the bill. This could be good news for hun<span class=\"s2\">dreds of thousands of Canadians, and is in the same <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a> vein as what I\u2019m proposing\u2014but it doesn\u2019t go far enough.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">There is a difference between these proposed pardons and full expungements. A pardoned offence\u2014while not visible on, say, a background check done by an employer\u2014can still be reinstated by the Parole Board of Canada in certain cases. Bill C-5 offers free and automatic pardons, but it is not a permanent wipe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">What I\u2019m proposing is<i> true<\/i> amnesty, which means the deletion of all criminal records relating to simple cannabis possession offences, at no cost and with no application. Even with recent fee reductions, down from $631 to $50, pardon applicants are also still required to pay for the ancillary costs associated with their applications. This includes paying to get their fingerprints taken, ordering certified copies of court documents and undergoing local police checks, all of which can cost up to $250, depending on the jurisdiction.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">To make these expungements happen, <\/span><span class=\"s3\">our system for storing and retaining criminal<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> records requires a major overhaul. <\/span>These records are not contained in a sin<span class=\"s2\">gle database, which is a major problem. Some are kept locally and some are kept provincially. Some are stored electronically and some are scattered among boxes in warehouses. Others are available to the American government via the Canadian Police Information Centre, which is our national repository of all criminal information. In fact, for most Canadians, the worst consequences of lingering simple possession charges relate to <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">travel<\/a>. A Canadian pardon means nothing to the American government; you\u2019re still a criminal in its eyes. Expungements would, of course, eliminate the need for this consolidation\u2014but you can\u2019t delete something if you don\u2019t first know where it exists.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">Cannabis amnesty is also a gateway to broader reforms in the criminal justice system. In 2015, when I started working in criminal defence, I noticed that law enforcement treated a lot of my Black clients\u2014particularly Black men\u2014much more harshly for possession and consumption of cannabis than clients who were white. Police officers have a lot of discretion in how they handle drug cases, particularly for \u201cvictimless crimes,\u201d like people enjoy<\/span><span class=\"s3\">ing cannabis on a medicinal or recreational <\/span><span class=\"s2\">basis. Cannabis use is relatively equal across racial groups. Yet in Halifax, for example, <\/span><span class=\"s3\">Black people were four times more likely<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> to be charged, pre-legalization, than white people for cannabis possession; in Vancouver, Indigenous people were nearly seven times more likely. Outcomes within the criminal justice system are not just about individual actors and their individual responsibilities for individual acts. They are also the result of historical, political and socioeconomic realities\u2014especially in the case of drug crimes.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">The existence of new legislation like Bill C-5 shows that people are starting to question the way we think about drugs. We used to see addiction as a failure of character. Reality is much more complicated than that. Many substance users are dealing with mental illnesses that are genetic in nature. Some are reckoning with childhood abuse or sexual and gender identity issues that they are unable to process in hostile environments. In the past couple of years, we\u2019ve been forced to look at the legacy of colonialism and how it\u2019s created trauma that is too difficult for communities of colour to bear. I think we\u2019re heading toward a point where, when we see someone dealing with an addiction to drugs or alcohol, our first question isn\u2019t \u201cWhy the addiction?\u201d but rather, \u201cWhy the pain?\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">Judges and lawyers see the same people\u2014 and the same addictions\u2014in and out of the same courtrooms day after day. It\u2019s clear that we can\u2019t fix everything with criminal law, and we need to stop trying to, with cannabis or any other drug or socio-economic issue. People don\u2019t deserve to be punished in perpetuity for something they\u2019ve already served time for, and in the case of cannabis, something that is now legal. We should clear these records. And now is the moment.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><em>This article appears in print in the September 2022 issue of<\/em> Maclean\u2019s <em>magazine. 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Why are past convictions for simple possession only being pardoned? Annamaria Enenajor is a litigator at Toronto\u2019s Ruby Shiller Enenajor DiGiuseppe, Barristers, where she practices criminal defence, regulatory, constitutional and civil law. She is the founder and executive director of the non-profit&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":485105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Mac_Scale_Final-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[72385,132400,132401,132402,132403],"class_list":["post-485104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-cannabis","tag-cannabis-act","tag-cannabis-laws","tag-cannabis-legalization","tag-cannabis-legislation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}