Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm here to speak about the parts of Bill C-10 introducing mandatory minimum penalties for many drug offences, and generally ramping up the so-called war on drugs. I have worked in the criminal justice and drug policy fields for more than three decades. I didn't think it possible that Canada could enact drug laws that were worse than those in place over that period, but the current government has proved me wrong. Bill C-10 is worse, much worse.
Let's not forget what we're talking about here. It's about locking our fellow human beings, many of them non-violent, in cages. This is the 21st century. Surely there are better ways to resolve many societal problems than by locking our fellow citizens in cages.
If Conrad Black and I were to meet, probably we'd not agree on many things, but he spent some time in Florida prisons and he learned something. He said he saw at close range the failure of the U.S. war on drugs: absurd sentences; a trillion dollars has been spent; a million easily replaceable small fry are in prison; and the targeted substances are more available and of better quality than ever, while producing countries such as Colombia and Mexico are in a state of civil war.
Beyond our current drug laws, Bill C-10 is sure to be ineffectual. Not only are the provisions sure to be ineffectual, they are certain to be counterproductive. The Harper government says these laws will help solve the problem of drugs in our society. In fact, they will do the opposite: they will make the drug problem far worse than it would be if alternative regulatory and health-based measures were applied to the drug problem. The amendments brought by Bill C-10 will foster more crime, more violence, and more dysfunction, rather than less.
This government has ample evidence of the futility of its intended approach from experiences in Canada, the United States, and around the world. If you don't want to believe me, let's listen to the late Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-winning and conservative economist. In 1989 he addressed a letter pleading for the end of the U.S. war on drugs to William Bennett, who was then the head of the U.S. drug policy in the U.S. White House. He said:
In Oliver Cromwell's eloquent words, "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken" about the course you and President Bush urge us to adopt to fight drugs. The path you propose of more police, more jails, use of the military in foreign countries, harsh penalties for drug users, and a whole panoply of repressive measures can only make a bad situation worse.... Drugs are a tragedy for addicts. But criminalizing their use converts that tragedy into a disaster for society....
If you don't want to listen to Milton Friedman, perhaps you might want to pay attention to the 2002 report of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, chaired by Conservative Senator Pierre Claude Nolin. The report was unanimously adopted by the members of the committee. What did it say? It said:
...the main social costs of cannabis are a result of public policy choices, primarily its continued criminalization. [...] It is time to recognize what is patently obvious: our policies have been ineffective, because they are poor policies. [...] The prohibition of cannabis does not bring about the desired reduction in cannabis consumption or problematic use.
If the government doesn't want to listen to its own Conservative senator and his committee, perhaps you might want to pay attention to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which said the following in 2009:
Global drug control efforts have had a dramatic unintended consequence: a criminal black market of staggering proportions. Organized crime is a threat to security. Criminal organizations have the power to destabilize society and governments. The illicit drug business is worth billions of dollars a year, part of which is used to corrupt government officials and to poison economies.
By the way, the reason this is happening, Mr. Chairman, is because of drug prohibition. The use of the criminal law to prohibit drugs is creating a fantastically lucrative black market.
If you don't want to pay attention to the 2009 statement of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, you might look at the 2011 report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. Its honorary chair was George Shultz, the former U.S. Secretary of State. Its members included Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General; Louise Arbour, former Supreme Court of Canada Justice and the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Paul Volcker, the former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve; Sir Richard Branson; and four former presidents of Switzerland, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has endorsed the report.
What did the report say? It said:
The global war on drugs has failed with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world. End the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others. Challenge rather than reinforce common misconceptions about drug markets.