Mr. Speaker, an estimated 500,000 Canadians have a criminal record for simple possession of cannabis, which is now a perfectly legal substance. The Prime Minister acknowledged yesterday that a disproportionate number of marginalized people lived with the stigma of a criminal record, and pledged that those records would “not follow them for the rest of their lives”. However, they will. A pardon is like a band-aid covering a wound; it does not make it disappear.
When will the government finally understand that the best solution, the only solution, is expungement?