Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, I certainly thank my hon. colleague across the way for the support for this important piece of legislation. I recognize that there have been advocates for this legislation for a great deal of time. As with all bills that I have and that our government has, we will work very diligently to ensure we speak to as many if not all people in the other place to ensure that we can dispel myths and explain the various provisions of this very long bill to provide technical updates and background to them to ensure that the bill can proceed through the other place as quickly as possible and that we have a legalized regime and move forward with strict regulation.

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to answer this question with respect to our objectives around the legalization of cannabis, its strict regulation, and restricting its access to achieve the objectives of keeping it out of the hands of children and the proceeds out of the hands of criminals.

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my hon. colleague across the way talking about how transformative this is. This is necessary to ensure we move beyond the status quo, which simply is not working. It is easier for a young person to get a joint than it is to get a bottle of beer or access to cigarettes.

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, to answer the question around why we do not simply decriminalize, to simply decriminalize right now, absent a comprehensive regulatory framework, will not achieve the objectives we are seeking to achieve with the legalization of cannabis. We need to have a regulatory framework in place.

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, I completely reject that accusation. Of course we care about the health and safety of Canadians. That is the whole premise and the basis upon which we are putting forward this legislation to legalize cannabis, to strictly regulate it, and to restrict access it to ensure we keep it out of the hands of children and the proceeds out of the hands of criminals.

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to be working with my colleagues the Minister of Public Safety and the Minister of Health to address the exact issues that are being raised in creating a public awareness campaign about the impacts of cannabis smoking on the developing brain. We are not hiding this.

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, we have done substantive consultation in this regard. Substantial consultation was conducted through a task force that received over 30,000 responses. This task force of very learned members in the area of public safety, health, and justice submitted a report with 80 recommendations.

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, we have taken on the task of legalizing, strictly regulating, and restricting access to cannabis in order to achieve our public policy objectives of keeping it out of the hands of children and the proceeds out of the hands of criminals. We have engaged in a substantive way on this, putting together a high-level task force that provided us with substantive recommendations.

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, as I stated before, but will say it again, there is nothing in the legislation that provides a legal means for young people to obtain cannabis. With respect to the realities and taking a public health approach, we have to draw the distinction to ensure we have information, education, and public awareness around the health impacts on young people, while also balancing the reality that young people more than any other people are smoking cannabis right now.

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased the hon. member across the way agrees with the bill. It is a monumental shift and a monumental change. That is why we have taken a substantive amount of time engaging with the task force, engaging with experts in the areas of public health, safety, and justice to ensure we get substantive feedback.

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, we have great respect for this place and we appreciate the two and a half days of debate and discussions we have had on Bill C-45. I very much look forward to the next number of hours of debate in this place. I look forward to the bill passing through the parliamentary process and having substantive and vigorous discussion at committee.

Marijuana  Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to legalizing cannabis, strictly regulating, and restricting access to it in order to keep it out of the hands of children and the proceeds out of the hands of criminals. We have undertaken substantive consultation, put together a substantive task force that provided a myriad of recommendations, which informed our bill, Bill C-45, the cannabis act.

Government Appointments  Mr. Speaker, I am very confident in the process that we put in place for judicial appointments and for constituting the judicial advisory committees. I have appointed 67 substantive, meritorious, judicial appointments across the country. I look forward to continuing to make more appointments to fill the outstanding vacancies.

Government Appointments  Mr. Speaker, I am committed to ensuring that Canadians maintain their confidence in the criminal justice system. We are taking many measures to ensure this confidence is upheld, including putting in place an open and transparent judicial appointment process and reconstituting the judicial advisory committees.

Criminal Code  moved for leave to introduce Bill C-51, An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Department of Justice Act and to make consequential amendments to another Act. Mr. Speaker, I would like to table at this time, in both official languages, a charter statement related to the bill just tabled, an act to amend the Criminal Code and the Department of Justice Act and to make consequential amendments to another act.