Justice committee  Merci beaucoup. If I could add to that, substance use is really a symptom of the problems we're trying to tackle here. The evidence is very clear that if you want to end half the substance use in Canada, we need to house the people who are currently homeless in Canada. That wou

Justice committee  It's just a brief anecdote. Our previous Prime minister, Paul Martin, used to tell how his wife had baked marijuana brownies for a party. Sadly, according to Bill C-15, this would have been considered a form of distribution. If she had been arrested and tried, she would have bee

Justice committee  He claims that was his only drug experience. His wife had made brownies and passed them around at a party. Under the Canadian definition, that is trafficking of marijuana. And that would have kicked in Bill C-15 and a mandatory two-year minimum imprisonment.

Justice committee  Without going back to court. Or you may go back to court, but the full term of the sentence is imposed at that point, through the failure, which triggers the full term of the sentence. And having lost the right to appeal, you will serve the full term. Only 14% of people who go t

Justice committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and to the honourable member. Addiction has been found by our courts and certainly by our medical system to be primarily a disability. In fact, in Ontario, there was a decision last week that found it could be a cause of one's primary disability

Justice committee  Honourable Chair and committee members, my name is Philippe Lucas, the founder of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society, a graduate research fellow with the Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia, and a Victoria city councillor. l'm also one of about 3,000 Canadians