Public Safety committee  It has been a while since I've juxtaposed schedule II and the schedule of the Cannabis Act, but I do believe it's almost identical. I know for sure that schedule II of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act is only cannabis and cannabis-derived substances.

Public Safety committee  Yes, exactly. One of the things we proposed in one of the documents we sent to the government was a multi-tiered system that responded to different kinds of offences. For example, it makes sense if you have only one conviction for simple cannabis possession that's over 40 years old and you've never done anything since then.

Public Safety committee  I think there's definitely room to develop a program like that. I think an even more complex algorithm could be developed to determine whether there are aspects of a person's record in its entirety that warrant further inspection to respond to some of the concerns of the Police Association, which may be valid with respect to....

Public Safety committee  What are you suggesting?

Public Safety committee  It's for the same reason that we have Bill C-93 proposed, as opposed to just the Criminal Records Act. There's a specific mischief that the government is responding to, which is a historical injustice, in my submission. The government has recognized that there's a history of disproportionate impact of cannabis convictions, of cannabis prohibition and enforcement of this law, on specific people in Canada.

Public Safety committee  I think in my description of what was important, I didn't mean important in the sense of a qualitative assessment of the content of the file or the record. What I meant by important is the location of the document that has the most impact on the person's life. Let's say that there's an individual who had a conviction in 1983 of simple cannabis possession.

Public Safety committee  No.

Public Safety committee  So it's a false distinction if your objective is to try to define things that would violate section 15 of the charter.

Public Safety committee  In my experience, and I believe in the experience of many of my colleagues who defend these people on a daily basis, there's not necessarily any correlation between the number of offences on a person's rap sheet, a person's record, and the extent to which the person poses a real and true danger to society.

Public Safety committee  Exactly. It's not necessarily the existence of another offence on their record that speaks to the danger they pose to society, but really the nature of the offence.

Public Safety committee  Yes, absolutely. One of my primary concerns is that this legislation, while well-meaning and much better than the status quo.... I'm not here to completely dismantle it. I think it's fantastic that the government has taken this initiative. My concern is that people will not take it up.

Public Safety committee  I think if there are other offences, you wouldn't qualify for this.

Public Safety committee  I do not. I make reference to that in my written submission, but I can respond right now. Essentially, what Minister Goodale was trying to say was that pardons are more beneficial for government crossings to the United States, because a successful applicant will have documented proof of a pardon while an expungement does not.

Public Safety committee  No.

Public Safety committee  I agree it's very challenging, but that challenge can be turned on its head, I think, and that's what I was suggesting in my earlier remarks. We don't have to focus on all the records. Why don't we focus on the ones that matter, the ones that impede people from getting jobs, volunteering or crossing the border?