Justice committee  Mr. Chairman, the purpose of this clause is to impose minimum sentences for the trafficking of substances listed in Schedules 1 and 2, and when there are aggravating factors such as those listed in the bill.

Justice committee  As well, yes.

Justice committee  Thank you for the compliments, Mr. Ménard. The concept found in this provision is already in the legislation at the present time. Subparagraph 10.2(iii) already talks about places usually frequented by young people. As for potential legal considerations in that regard, in my op

Justice committee  Because there are places more usually frequented by young people—for example, shopping centres and parks. In some regions of the country, we know there is drug trafficking occurring. The idea was to target those activities in such places. In terms of the imprecision of the wordi

Justice committee  Mr. Chairman, I believe Mr. Ménard's reading of this is absolutely correct. I have only just seen these amendments. As I understand them, they would eliminate all the current provisions relating to production in the bill. That would basically mean that the current provisions of t

Justice committee  Certainly. The concern about medical marijuana, I believe, is covered by Health Canada's medical marijuana access regulations, where individuals are given a permit to grow it either for themselves or for another individual. So it would appear to me that this particular issue is

Justice committee  The Department of Justice has undertaken some studies on minimum penalties, in 2002 perhaps, and one in 2006. That's the extent of the work I believe the department has undertaken in this area. There may be others, but I'm not aware of them.

Justice committee  I have brought no studies concerning the effects or impact of minimum penalties as a deterrent, or any other type of impact. So I have nothing here on that. But I believe Monsieur Ménard's question was whether or not I was aware of such studies. I am aware of a number of studies

Justice committee  Mr. Lemay, my colleague, Greg Yost, made me aware of your question. As I recall, you had asked whether an individual found trafficking one or two plants of marijuana would receive a minimum sentence. The answer is no, because he would be trafficking a quantity of marijuana that

Justice committee  Could I interject?

Justice committee  The problem is that giving a plant to someone is considered to be trafficking, under the definition of “trafficking”. And, if we are talking about trafficking, we are talking about quantities, volume and weight. Whether there is one plant or five plants, the important thing is th

Justice committee  Yes, I do. We were talking about trafficking. We were talking about giving a plant to someone. When you give someone a plant, that is trafficking. However, if you are talking about an individual charged with producing or growing only one plant, there is no minimum sentence, beca

Justice committee  In the example I have here, and having read the transcript, it seems that the offence we are talking about concerns a young person engaged in trafficking.

Justice committee  Yes, I follow you.

Justice committee  That's correct. If they're transporting cannabis, the transportation itself is part of the definition of trafficking, so they would be charged with trafficking.