Liberals introduce bill to relax drug possession penalties

OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) — The Trudeau government has introduced a large justice reform package to reduce penalties for drug offences.

The feds have long promised action to tackle systemic racism and say this new bill will be a big step in that direction.

The legislation aims to avoid prosecutions for simple drug possession cases by requiring police and prosecutors to first consider alternative ways to deal with them, such as drug treatment centres. Justice Minister David Lametti says many of these people should not be going to our prisons.

“Low-risk, first-time, non-violent offenders. I’m talking about single moms. I’m talking about people with problematic addiction,” he said.

Justice Minister @DavidLametti says these laws incarcerated too many black and indigenous peoples. #cdnpoli

— Cormac Mac Sweeney (@cmaconthehill) February 18, 2021

The bill also repeals more than a dozen mandatory minimum sentences for drug, firearm, and tobacco-related offenses and will allow judges to consider house arrest, counseling and treatment rather than prison.

“We will restore a judge’s ability to impose an appropriate sentence that responds to the facts of the case before them,” he said, saying mandatory minimums have not made our community safer.

“Its singular accomplishment has been to incarcerate too many Indigenous people, too many Black people, and too many marginalized Canadians,” Lametti said.

Mandatory minimums will stay in place for serious crimes like murder and child sexual offenses.

When asked why not just repeal drug possession offenses, Lametti did not rule it out.

Change overdue, underwhelming

A Vancouver-based harm reduction advocate says these reforms are long overdue, but Guy Felicella is also worried proposed legislation won’t be approved fast enough.

“We have a minority government. Then it has to go through the senate. I mean it’s got a long process to happen and then, even if it did go through and it was decriminalization, is it actually more drug courts or is it actually forcing people into treatment?”

The Richmond, B.C. native is now the peer clinical advisor for the B.C. Centre on Substance Use.

He says many users relapse if they are not offered harm reduction measures including a safe supply of drugs, so forcing them into treatment will not work.

That’s why he adds Thursday’s announcement from Ottawa was not what he was expecting.

“Unfortunately, I was hoping that it would be a response to the illicit drug supply, maybe a regulated supply? But, it was the decrim part which is a long process. We’ve been calling on this for decades. You’ve really got health and the justice colliding on a collision course.”

Felicella also tells NEWS 1130 he’s skeptical of police in B.C. who claim they’re no longer arresting people found to be carrying small amounts of street drugs.

“They’re still confiscating people’s substances, so that’s not crime prevention, that’s crime creation. That just makes people have to go out and do crime to get more money to purchase more substances.”