Section 7 of the charter requires Canadians not to be deprived of their liberty in particular by laws that are arbitrary, overbroad, or produce grossly disproportionate consequences. If you have a person in a household, say of one and they are able to grow four plants legally, and then you have a person in a household with two adults they can still only grow four plants legally but let's say they grow six, their liberty could be infringed because of that four plant per household restriction. That seems to me to be utterly arbitrary, and it certainly captures conduct that is overbroad. In other words, it does nothing to further the goals of the legislation, the purposes of the legislation. It unjustly and unnecessarily criminalizes Canadians who engage in that conduct.
If we have these arbitrary limits in place, the first person stopped with 31 grams instead of 30 grams in their pocket, the first person who grew five plants instead of four, I'm happy to take those cases and I expect to win those cases. I don't want to continue to fight these battles in court. I thought that by legalizing cannabis I'd be out of a job as a criminal defence lawyer, but they are subject to challenge. I think the challenges are easy to make out. What's the point? You can brew as much beer in your basement as you want and give it away to your friends. Why should cannabis be any different? It's safer and, frankly, it's easier to make.