Justice Committee on April 20th, 2010

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

I think that may be the best criticism that can be made of this bill. This isn't the perfect response to the threats that methamphetamine and ecstasy represent.

However, I must say that it is a major step. If police officers have the opportunity to

make an arrest and investigate,

that's something more because we currently don't have that tool in our toolbox. Even if everyone knows that a man or a woman who wants to make drugs can do it, we currently can do nothing against them.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

That's what I don't understand, Mr. Weston.

I have a lot of respect for your position. There is a problem especially in the west, in Vancouver, and near schools. I am entirely aware of that and I agree with you.

I claim they have it already. You claim this will give them another tool. So much the better. It is prohibited to produce, sell and have the drug in your possession. That's what's provided in the Code and what appears in Schedule 1, but they don't use it. They discover crystal meth labs every day.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

I understand that it's now illegal to manufacture these drugs, but it isn't illegal to look for the ingredients with the intention of making them. So this can lead us to prohibit production.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

All right, there you have the argument.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

Mr. Lemay.

[Marc Lemay, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Wait, I just want to finish.

You have a very good argument.

He told me I was using his time.

Now I understand. It's the example of a young person or an adult who goes to a counter to look for certain ingredients and police officers who would be capable of proving they are used to make drugs. There I agree with you.

All right, that's fine. Thank you.

Have a nice weekend.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

Mr. Comartin.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I assume I still have left a little bit of my three minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

Yes, you have a little bit of time.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

I don't want to ask a question.

I spoke to Mr. Weston about this before we started today. I think he shares this concern.

We've just mentioned these two drugs, but there certainly could be, in the future, derivatives—there may already be derivatives—along the same lines. I think it behooves the government to be looking now to add in the future, and maybe the near future, additional ones using this section as the base, or, as Mr. Lemay has raised, to use the regulations to bring additional drugs of this nature under the purview of this legislation.

That's all I have, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

All right.

Is there anybody on the government side...?

Mr. Woodworth.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

I have only one small point of clarification that I want to double-check.

In proposed section 7.1 of your bill, there's a reference to item 18 in schedule I. I'm assuming that's either methamphetamine or ecstasy.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

One or the other.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

One or the other. There is also a reference to subitem 1(9) of schedule III, which would be the other.

I notice, however, that in the coordinating amendment, the number is a bit changed. There is a reference to item 18 of schedule I, but then, instead of subitem 1(9) of schedule III, it's subitem 19(8) of schedule I.

I'm wondering if you know whether Bill C-15 moves one of those substances from schedule III to schedule I, which is sort of the way the draft appears here. Or is that in some way a misdescription?

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

It's great that we have 308 members of Parliament to represent us, because there's probably only one out of the 308 who would know...and be observant enough to ask that question.

I'll have to check and reply to you afterwards.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

On a point of information, that's exactly right: Bill C-15 changes this. It moves some drugs to different schedules.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Well, if we could make sure that this was...that meth or ecstasy were moved, that would satisfy my concern.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

I am relying to some extent on the legislative branch of the House of Commons, which assisted and looked very closely at that, but I'll make sure it's done correctly.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

Thank you, Mr. Weston. You did very well. Your French is remarkable for a west coaster.

Before we adjourn, I want to raise with committee members what we will be doing at the next meeting.

By the way, Mr. Weston, you can leave.

[John Weston, Conservative, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

We've had those two referrals, orders in council, so we can probably deal with at least one of them at our next meeting. I'm hoping to move to clause-by-clause as well on Mr. Weston's bill.

Mr. Murphy has asked the Department of Justice officials to appear, so we'll have them here for the clause-by-clause.

If you have any other witnesses, please let us know who they are by the end of today so the clerk can schedule their appearance as well.

Other than that, if I don't see any demurral on those proposals, we will move forward on that basis.

Mr. Ménard.

[Serge Ménard, Bloc, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

I would have like to talk to you about it, but I think it may be better to do it in front of everyone.

For the moment, we're going to have statistics on drug crime. What you're saying is very true, that drug trafficking represents more than half of organized crime. That's the only area where we apparently don't have statistics. That makes no sense. They're able to prepare them for us. We're asking Statistics Canada to provide us with a statement of statistics on drugs in Canada and offences in that field.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Fast]

Mr. Ménard, I believe I specifically requested that they provide this committee with that information.

I'll make sure the clerk reminds them of that so that by the next meeting we've got that information, I hope.