I just have a couple of thoughts on it. In my personal practice, a lot of the people I represented were homeless, mentally ill or on the verge of being homeless. They also had very low levels of education. By not making it automatic, it won't help a lot of people who actually have been convicted on possession of marijuana charges. Rather, this bill will help those who are able to read and know what's happening in the legal system.
Very quickly, to go off that a bit, in Ontario, because legal aid is funded at so low a level and you have to be going to jail before you get legal aid, many people who started off in the criminal justice system on possession of marijuana charges did not have lawyers. They did the easiest thing that was possible for them and took the first deal they could get from the Crown. They did not challenge the search that led to the possession of marijuana and did not try to get anything like a conditional discharge because on that day that wasn't being offered. I ask that the committee look at this whole situation in light of that.