Marijuana  Mr. Speaker, as we have stated many times, our government is committed to legalizing, strictly regulating, and restricting access to cannabis. The process in place right now simply is not working. That is why we engaged a task force that provided substantive recommendations: he

Marijuana  Mr. Speaker, again, we are committed to legalizing, strictly regulating, and restricting access to cannabis in order to keep it out of the hands of children and the profits out of the hands of criminals. Simply decriminalizing at this time will not achieve those objectives. Tha

Justice  Mr. Speaker, I am certainly very proud of the 67 substantive judicial appointments that I have made to the superior courts across the country. We are going to continue to work within our open and transparent process. I look forward to introducing more judges in the very near futu

Justice  Mr. Speaker, I am not making any excuses. I take very seriously my responsibility to appoint superior court justices across the country. I am extremely proud of the very meritorious candidates, 67 in total, that I have appointed thus far. We are going to be moving forward with

Judicial Appointments  Mr. Speaker, I am fine to stand up to talk about the open and transparent appointments process that we have instituted for judges in the superior courts across the country. I am going to continue to add to the 67 appointments—

Judicial Appointments  Mr. Speaker, I am going to continue to add to the 67 appointments that I have made to superior courts across the country. In the province of Quebec, which the member opposite references, there is less than a 1% vacancy in the superior courts. There are many reasons for delays.

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate the question from my hon. colleague across the way in terms of prevention. I could not agree more that our government needs to continue the work we are doing, building on the work of the task force that raised awareness around the legalization and

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for reiterating why we are introducing this legislation. We are committed to legalizing, strictly regulating, and restricting access to cannabis. The reason, as the member clearly articulated, is to keep it out of the hands of children and t

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, I want to be clear. There is nothing in Bill C-45 that would provide the legal ability for young people under the age of 18 to access cannabis. In terms of the four plants that the member referenced, as I noted in the previous question, it is certainly necessary and

Cannabis Act  Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have introduced Bill C-45. It is an evidence-based piece of legislation that seeks to put in a complex regime to legalize and strictly regulate cannabis in this country. It is based on a substantive task force report. The task force travelled acr

Cannabis Act  moved that Bill C-45, An Act respecting cannabis and to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Criminal Code and other Acts, be read the second time and referred to a committee. Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to speak today to Bill C-45. The bill proposes a framewo

Questions on the Order Paper  Mr. Speaker, with regard to discussions between the Government of Canada and the Government of China, please read the following joint communiqué found online at: http://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2016/09/13/1st-canada-china-high-level-national-security-and-rule-law-dialogue

Controlled Drugs and Substances Act  Mr. Speaker, I have the honour to table, in both official languages, a legislative backgrounder, including a charter statement, for Bill C-45, an act respecting cannabis and to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Criminal Code and other acts.

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, in terms of our intentions around moving forward with the legalization of cannabis and the strict regulations, there has to necessarily be, and we are committed to continuing to have, an extremely engaged, robust educational rollout to ensure that we assist in info

Criminal Code  Madam Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague for the statement in terms of constitutionality. The purpose of this legislation is to ensure that people are deterred from thinking they can consume any level of drug or alcohol and think it is reasonable to get behind the wheel of a car.