Mr. Speaker, people charged with serious drug crimes, with trafficking and importing, will always face serious consequences in our criminal justice system. That is simply the case. All the mandatory minimum penalties do is clog up the system, and increase systemic racism and the impact of systemic racism within the system. The statistics show the opposition's policy of “tough on crime” is an abject failure and we are going to move beyond it and treat health problems as health problems and criminal justice problems as criminal justice problems.
In the House of Commons on December 16th, 2021. See this statement in context.