Recent Government of Canada Publications from the Weekly Acquisitions List

The Government of Canada's Weekly Acquisitions List can be a great way to discover new research reports published by various public bodies and agencies of the federal government. 

It is a record of all publications catalogued in the previous week.

The most recent list had a few documents that attracted my attention:

• Organized crime involvement in vehicle theft in Canada (Criminal Intelligence Service Canada)
• Every voice counts: Anti-racist transformation from the inside out (Canadian Human Rights Commission)
• Evaluation of the British Columbia Exemption to Allow for Personal Possession of Small Amounts of Illegal Drugs (Canadian Institutes of Health Research)
• Indigenous Mobility and Canada’s International Borders: Reflecting back and looking forward (Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada)

Legislative Review of the Cannabis Act: Final Report of the Expert Panel

The Canadian statute that legalized the possession of cannabis in 2018 provided for an official review of its implementation and impact by an independent panel.

That panel has published its final report.

From the executive summary:

"Based on the evidence presented to us, we believe that there has been significant progress made on several of the key objectives of the legislation. Notably, these include:

• the establishment of a licensing framework supporting a legal industry that is providing adult consumers with a quality-controlled supply of a variety of cannabis products
• steady progress in shifting adult consumers to the legal cannabis market
• for the most part, adherence to rules on promotion, packaging and labelling, including prohibitions about making claims about health or lifestyle benefits
• a significant reduction (95% between 2017 and 2022) in the number of charges for the possession of cannabis and minimizing the negative impact on some individuals from interactions with the criminal justice system"

"However, it would be a mistake for governments to adopt an attitude of complacency with the current regime or move away from a public health and public safety approach to cannabis. Continuous assessment of what works and what needs to change is necessary in a framework that is a radical shift from an era of prohibition, which limited research and evidence-based policy. Our consultations have uncovered the following areas of concern..."

Those areas of concerns are related to young people's use of cannabis, high-potency products,  Indigenous communities, various costs to industry, the need for better enforcement of regulations, and access to cannabis for medicinal purposes.

Legislative Review of the Cannabis Act

The Government of Canada Weekly Acquisitions List can be a great way to discover new research reports published by various public bodies and agencies of the federal government.

In a recent edition of the list, there was a link to a report about the Legislative Review of the Cannabis Act:

"We are honoured to have been appointed by the Minister of Health and the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions as the independent Expert Panel to conduct the legislative review of the Cannabis Act (the Act). As the Expert Panel, we will offer our observations and advice—based on our own expertise—independent of outside influences, including our professional affiliations. We take our mandate, independence, and impartiality extremely seriously, and have devoted significant time to this important work."

"After almost a century of prohibition, Canada became the first major industrialized nation in the world to legalize and regulate cannabis when the Act and its regulations came into force. The Act allowed for the production, sale, and distribution of cannabis. The purpose of the Act is to protect public health and public safety, including by providing access to a quality-controlled supply of cannabis, and by enhancing public awareness of the health risks associated with cannabis use (...)"

"Parliament’s decision to mandate an independent review three years after the Act came into force in 2018 recognized that there would inevitably be some gaps between what Parliament intended to achieve with the legislation and other supporting measures, and how those elements actually worked. However, it was clear that these gaps, and the modifications necessary to address them, would only become apparent once there had been some practical experience with the new framework. The primary purpose of this review, therefore, is to identify how the new framework is working in practice to date, and to provide recommendations to make it more effective."

"This report marks the completion of the first phase of our work, which was focused on engaging with stakeholders and experts to consider evidence and collect opinions and perspectives. For the second phase of our work, we will re-engage stakeholders in multi-sectoral roundtables and host other discussions to gain a deeper understanding and fill any knowledge gaps from our first phase. We will then prepare a final report for the Ministers, which is expected to be tabled in Parliament by March 2024 with our advice and recommendations. Our final report will be based on the data that we have gathered and what we have heard."

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary on Bill to Pardon Simple Cannabis Possession

The Library of Parliament frequently publishes legislative summaries for some of the federal bills of the current session. The summaries contain background and analysis of bills in front of the House of Commons and the Senate.

One recent summary is about Bill C-93: An Act to provide no-cost, expedited record suspensions for simple possession of cannabis:

"Bill C‑93, An Act to provide no‑cost, expedited record suspensions for simple possession of cannabis, was introduced in the House of Commons by the Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness on 1 March 2019 and received first reading that same day."

"The introduction of this bill follows the passage of the Cannabis Act, most of whose provisions came into force on 17 October 2018. That Act legalized several cannabis‑related activities, such as the possession of 30 g or less of dried cannabis or equivalent in a public place, and the possession of four or fewer cannabis plants per dwelling house. The result is that there are individuals with criminal records for past activities that are no longer considered criminal offences."

"Bill C‑93 amends the Criminal Records Act (CRA) to allow individuals who were convicted for possession of cannabis products before 17 October 2018 to request a record suspension (formerly known as a pardon) without having to wait the usual period of time and without being required to pay a fee. The Minister of Justice published a “Charter Statement” declaring that he has examined the bill and has not identified any potential effects on the rights and freedoms protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

Most Recent Issue of LawNow: Legal Weed

The most recent issue of LawNow is available online.

The magazine is published by the Centre for Public Legal Education Alberta.

The issue features a series of articles on the recent legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada.

Cannabis Laws Across Canada

Now that recreational cannabis use is legal in Canada as of this morning, what do the laws actually look like?

Well, this being Canada, everything depends on the province or territory in which you live.

A number of sources have tried to describe the situation:

• Cannabis is legal in Canada — here's what you need to know (CBC News)
• A coast-to-coast guide to Canada’s cannabis laws (Toronto Star)
• Cannabis across Canada - Legislation and regulations by province (Canadian Lawyer)
• The Cannabis Channel (Thomson Reuters) 

And here is the Library of Parliament's legislative summary of Bill C-45: An Act respecting cannabis and to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the Criminal Code and other Acts which got the whole ball rolling.

Law Firm Bulletin Articles on the Recent Federal Budget

The website of the CAIJ (Centre d'accès à l'information juridique), which is associated with the courthouse libraries in the province of Quebec and the Quebec Bar Association, has a section devoted to private law firm news publications.

 

There have been many articles written about various aspects of the recent federal budget, including tax, trusts, charities, cannabis, trade and  financial institutions. There are articles in English and French:

• March 26 roundup
• March 27 roundup

Canadian Lawyer Magazine Grades Trudeau Government on Justice Reform

The magazine Canadian Lawyer has created a report card for the Canadian federal government, evaluating how it has been doing on justice reform issues since the late 2015 elections.

The results are all over the map:

• Family Law: F
• Access to Information: C
• Mandatory victim fine surcharge: D
• Cannabis: B
• Solitary confinement: C
• Pardons: D
• Court Challenges Program: B
• Judicial Vacancies: C
• Judicial Diversity: A

Law Firm Bulletin Articles on Cannabis Legalization

The website of the CAIJ (Centre d'accès à l'information juridique), which is associated with the courthouse libraries in the province of Quebec and the Quebec Bar Association, has a section devoted to private law firm news publications.

In recent weeks, many participating law firms have been writing about the legalization of recreational cannabis that will take place later this summer in Canada. Articles are in English or in French:

• November 16, 2017 roundup
• December 11, 2017
• January 9, 2018
• February 19, 2018

Overview of Canadian Cannabis Laws

Toronto-based lawyer Matt Maurer (profile on the Minden Gross LLP website) published a post on Slaw.ca that provides a Coast to Coast Provincial Cannabis Legislation Update:

"While it is still early days with the Cannabis Act having only been tabled about two months ago, things have begun buzzing at the provincial and municipal level where issues such as sale, distribution and consumption will be legislated. Below is a coast to coast summary of what is transpiring at the provincial (and in some instances municipal) level."

How Do Other Countries Regulate Marijuana

Now that it appears that the Canadian government will legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Canada by July 1, 2018, it might be interesting to look at what the policies are currently here and  how other jurisdictions have handled the issue of legalization/decriminalization.

Last year, the Library of Parliament produced two documents on the topic.

The first is a brief overview in its HillNotes blog entitled The Regulation of Marijuana under Canadian Law:

"Marijuana, otherwise known as cannabis, has been legally prohibited in Canada since 1923. The 2002 report of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs noted that there was little debate surrounding this addition to the criminal law at the time; as such, the precise motivation for doing so remains unclear."

"Today, the prohibition of cannabis is found in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA), which makes it an offence to possess, traffic, import and export, or produce cannabis."

"Penalties upon conviction for these offences range from a fine for the least serious possession offences to potential life imprisonment for the most serious trafficking offences. Sentences are more severe if the amount of cannabis involved is large."

"Mandatory minimum sentences apply if certain factors are present, such as the threat or use of violence or a weapon in the commission of the offence. A mandatory sentence need not be applied if an offender successfully completes a drug treatment program."

The article also looks at how marijuana is regulated in other jurisdictions such as the states of Washington and Colorado, Uruguay, Portugal and the Netherlands.

The second is a background paper on The Legal Regulation of Marijuana in Canada and Selected Other Countries:

"This document discusses the legal regulation of marijuana in Canada and in a number of other jurisdictions. After some material on marijuana itself, it provides an overview of the international drug control regime, including current debates surrounding the possible reform of this regime and the outcomes of the 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem, which took place in April 2016. The document then turns to the legal treatment of marijuana in Canada, including the prevalence of use of marijuana in this country. It then examines different regulation approaches - including legalization and decriminalization - in a number of jurisdictions."

Those jurisdictions include Uruguay, the United States, Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Legal Regulation of Marijuana in Canada and Selected Other Countries

The Library of Parliament has just published a background paper on The Legal Regulation of Marijuana in Canada and Selected Other Countries:

"This document discusses the legal regulation of marijuana in Canada and in a number of other jurisdictions. After some material on marijuana itself, it provides an overview of the international drug control regime, including current debates surrounding the possible reform of this regime and the outcomes of the 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem, which took place in April 2016. The document then turns to the legal treatment of marijuana in Canada, including the prevalence of use of marijuana in this country. It then examines different regulation approaches - including legalization and decriminalization - in a number of jurisdictions."

Those jurisdictions include Uruguay, the United States, Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Library of Parliament Article on Marijuana Regulation in Canada

The Library of Parliament blog HillNotes has published a brief overview of The Regulation of Marijuana under Canadian Law:

"Marijuana, otherwise known as cannabis, has been legally prohibited in Canada since 1923. The 2002 report of the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs noted that there was little debate surrounding this addition to the criminal law at the time; as such, the precise motivation for doing so remains unclear."

"Today, the prohibition of cannabis is found in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA), which makes it an offence to possess, traffic, import and export, or produce cannabis."

"Penalties upon conviction for these offences range from a fine for the least serious possession offences to potential life imprisonment for the most serious trafficking offences. Sentences are more severe if the amount of cannabis involved is large."

"Mandatory minimum sentences apply if certain factors are present, such as the threat or use of violence or a weapon in the commission of the offence. A mandatory sentence need not be applied if an offender successfully completes a drug treatment program."

The article also looks at how marijuana is regulated in other jurisdictions such as the states of Washington and Colorado, Uruguay, Portugal and the Netherlands.

Statistics Canada Article on Drug-Related Offences

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat today published an article on Drug-related offences in Canada, 2013.

Highlights from the article:

• Since peaking in 1991, the police-reported crime rate has decreased by half (-50%), while the police-reported rate of drug offences has increased 52% over the same period. Police reported about 109,000 Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) offences in 2013, representing approximately 5% of all incidents reported by police.
• Two-thirds (67%) of all police-reported drug offences in 2013 involved cannabis. In particular, cannabis possession accounted for more than half (54%) of all police-reported drug crime.
• British Columbia recorded the highest provincial rate of drug crime in 2013. This has been the case each year since 1982, with the exception of 2012, when Saskatchewan had the highest provincial rate.
• About one-quarter (26%) of all police-reported drug crime is cleared by departmental discretion (i.e., a warning or referral to a community-based program rather than a charge), a considerably higher proportion than crime in general (8%).
• The rate of persons accused of police-reported drug offences was highest for the 18 to 24-year-old age group (1,176 per 100,000 population), followed by youth (ages 12 to 17) (741 per 100,000).
• In about half of all completed adult criminal and youth court cases that involved offences related to cannabis, the cannabis charge was the only violation. Cases involving drugs other than cannabis had a single charge in about one-quarter of cases.
• In adult criminal court, completed cases that include charges related to drugs take longer to complete than non-drug-related cases, with cases involving cannabis requiring the shortest median case length among drug-related case (105 days).
• Cases that included charges related to cannabis completed in adult criminal court were more commonly stayed or withdrawn (55%) than cases involving other types of drugs (38%).
• Of drug-related cases in completed in adult criminal court that resulted in findings of guilt, about one in three involved a sentence of custody. Cases related to drug supply involved custody about twice as frequently as cases related to drug possession, though custody was less often imposed in cases involving cannabis.

Library of Parliament Legislative Summary of Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act

The Library of Parliament has published an updated version of its legislative summary of Bill C-2: An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. It relates to safe injection sites for intravenous drug users:

"Bill C-2, An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (short title: Respect for Communities Act), was introduced in the House of Commons on 17 October 2013 by the Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Health. It was referred to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on 19 June 2014, and was reported back to the House of Commons without amendment on 18 November 2014. The bill passed third reading in the House of Commons on 23 March 2015 and received first reading in the Senate on 24 March 2015."

"Bill C-2 was previously introduced in the 1^st Session of the 41^st Parliament as Bill C-65, which died on the Order Paper when Parliament was prorogued on 13 September 2013. At the time, Bill C-65 was awaiting second reading in the House of Commons."


"Bill C-2’s most noteworthy clauses provide for amendments to section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA). Section 56 deals with the conditions under which the Minister of Health may consider granting an exemption from the application of any provisions of the Act or its regulations for medical or scientific purposes or any other purpose in the public interest. The amendments to section 56 focus specifically on exemption requirements for the operation of supervised consumption sites in Canada. The term 'supervised consumption site' will be used throughout this paper when referring to the bill ... Other sources referred to in this paper, including the Supreme Court of Canada, instead use the term 'supervised injection site' or 'safe/safer injection site'."

Bill C-2, and its earlier incarnation as Bill C-65, were introduced in reaction to the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Canada (Attorney General) v. PHS Community Services Society, 2011 SCC 44, [2011] 3 S.C.R. 134.

It is possible to follow the progress of the bill in Parliament on the LEGISinfo website.

Recently Released Research Summaries from Correctional Services Canada

The latest issue of the Weekly Checklist of Canadian Government Publications refers to a number of research documents released recently by Correctional Services Canada :

• Substance Abuse Problem Severity, Treatment Readiness, and Response Bias among Incarcerated Men: "Offenders with severe substance abuse (SA) problems were aware of their SA problems and ready for treatment. This finding was true for both reliable and unreliable responders. In other words, those who needed help appeared to be the most ready to receive it. However, offenders with moderate to low level SA problems appeared less ready to accept treatment and were more likely to deny having a SA problem. This finding suggests that a focus on treatment readiness (TR) for this group could be beneficial, particularly for those with moderate level problems who may require intervention while incarcerated."
• Preliminary Analysis of the Impact of the Restorative Opportunities (RO) Program in CSC:"A preliminary examination of the impact of the Restorative Opportunities (RO) program involving victim-offender mediation (VOM) within the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) indicates that the program shows some promise in reducing recidivism on release for participating offenders. A longer follow-up period would be required to allow for stronger conclusions."
• Gangs and institutional adjustment in the context of the Security Reclassification Scale: "The results of the present study indicate that no further weight should be placed on gang affiliation when scoring the Security Reclassification Scale (SRS). Overall, gang affiliation does not appear to be predictive of SRS relevant outcomes (i.e., institutional adjustment, risk of escape, and risk to the public in the event of an escape). While some covariance between the indicators and gang affiliation was found, associations were mostly very weak and inconsistent. Further analyses revealed that those offenders identified as being affiliated with a gang had higher scores on the SRS, thereby reflecting that gang affiliation is already sufficiently accounted for within the current SRS assessment."
• Descriptive Analysis of Unsuccessful Unescorted Temporary Absences: "Overall, the vast majority of unescorted temporary absences (UTA) are completed without incident. Of the 1.3% of UTAs that were recorded as 'unsuccessful' only about half represent genuine failures. Therefore, UTAs allow for important reintegration opportunities without posing significant risk."
• Preliminary Development of a Dynamic Risk Assessment Tool for Women Offenders: An Examination of Gender Neutral and Gender Specific Variables: "Risk assessment measures have largely been developed using samples of male offenders. When applying these measures to women offenders there is a risk in misrepresenting women’s needs and over-classifying their levels of security and required intervention. As such, there is a need to develop risk assessment tools that are specific to women and reflective of women’s diverse risks and needs."

The Weekly Checklist includes a listing of titles made available by the Parliament of Canada, federal departments, and Statistics Canada to the Depository Services Program for distribution to a network of Depository Libraries in Canada and abroad.

Recently Released Reports from Justice Canada

The most recent issue of the Weekly Checklist of Canadian Government Publications refers to a number of reports recently made available by Justice Canada. They deal with family violence, Canada's assistance in international criminal investigations, and drug use.

• Making the Links in Family Violence Cases: Collaboration among the Family, Child Protection and Criminal Justice Systems (2013): "This report is intended for justice system professionals and those working within the criminal justice, family justice and child protection systems. This includes federal-provincial-territorial officials, Crown prosecutors, family and criminal lawyers in the private sector, children’s law yers, members of the judiciary, court officials, child protection workers, child custody assessors, mediators, parenting coordinators, law enforcement officials, corrections officials, victim service workers and front-line service providers. The annexes to this report (Volume II) also contain a wealth of information about legal, policy, and service frameworks across Canada that have been developed to address family violence. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to these challenges given that each jurisdiction is unique and not all of the promising practices will be applicable in some remote, rural or Aboriginal communities. It is important to note that this report does not provide a thorough assessment of the specific needs and issues of Aboriginal Canadians experiencing family violence and having contact with the different sectors of the justice system. Although this report does not make specific recommendations and the promising practices do not necessarily address all the identified gaps, it is hoped that the findings will serve as a basis for future efforts to enhance collaboration on this important issue. "
• Requesting Mutual Legal Assistance from Canada: A Step-by-Step Guide (2013): "A foreign state may request assistance from Canada in the gathering of evidence or the enforcement of some criminal orders (seizure orders, confiscation orders, fines) through three separate routes: (i) treaty and convention requests, (ii) letters rogatory (court issued non-treaty letter of request) and (iii) non-treaty requests. In rare circumstances, Canada may enter into an administrative arrangement with a non-treaty country to give effect to an individual request for assistance, for a time-limited period. The widest assistance can be provided for treaty or convention requests. More limited assistance is available for letters rogatory and non-treaty requests. "
• An overview of non-medical use of prescription drugs and criminal justice issues in Canada (2009, 2013): "In Canada, the non-medical use of prescription drugs, specifically prescription opioids (POs) and benzodiazepines (BDs), have gathered attention in recent years. Although nation-wide epidemiological data are currently sparse, provincial data and data from the US indicate an area of growing concern. The following report explores the trends of non-medical use of prescription opioids (NMUPOs) and benzodiazepines (NMUBDs), the health and societal implications of non-medical use and some of the criminal justice policy is sues in Canada."

The Weekly Checklist includes a listing of titles made available by the Parliament of Canada, federal departments, and Statistics Canada to the Depository Services Program for distribution to a network of Depository Libraries in Canada and abroad.

Organized Crime Research Highlights from Public Safety Canada

The most recent issue of the Weekly Checklist of Canadian Government Publications  has a link to the most recent issue of Organized Crime Research Highlights published by Public Safety Canada.

It contains summaries of recent sponsored research reports on:

• Anonymous Online Marketplace for Illicit Goods
• Victim-Offender Mediation and Organized Crime
• Locating the Source of Diffusion in Large-Scale Networks
• Drug Market Disruption and Violence
• Quebec’s Synthetic Drug Market

The Weekly Checklist includes a listing of titles made available by the Parliament of Canada, federal departments, and Statistics Canada to the Depository Services Program for distribution to a network of Depository Libraries in Canada and abroad.

Recent Research from Public Safety Canada

The most recent issue of the Weekly Checklist of Canadian Government Publications refers to a few research briefs produced by Public Safety Canada:

• Risk and Mentally Disordered Offenders: "The increasing numbers of mentally disordered offenders present a number of challenges for correctional staff. Decisions on security and supervision levels need to be made as well as placements into the appropriate treatment programs. Many of these decisions are facilitated with the administration of structured risk assessment instruments (...) However, most risk assessment instruments used by correctional agencies were developed on non-mentally disordered, general offenders. Therefore, it is uncertain as to how appropriate these assessment instruments and the risk factors measured by the instruments are for mentally disordered offenders."
• Organized Crime Research Highlights: this publication includes summaries on research relating to Internet-facilitated counterfeit crime; violence and gang territories; measuring police impact on organized crime; locating meth labs; strategic intelligence and transnational organized crime; sizing drug markets using sewage.

The Weekly Checklist includes a listing of titles made available by the Parliament of Canada, federal departments, and Statistics Canada to the Depository Services Program for distribution to a network of Depository Libraries in Canada and abroad.

2013 Stephen Hanson Awards for Excellence in Journalism

The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) has announced the winners of the 2013 Stephen Hanson Awards for Excellence in Journalism.

They "recognize outstanding broadcast and print or web journalism that fosters public awareness and understanding of any aspect of the Canadian justice system and the roles played by institutions and participants in the legal system."

The award in the print category was given to Paul Webster of Vancouver Magazine for his article entitled The War on The War on Drugs that shows that many law enforcement officers are skeptical of current drug laws.

The award in the broadcast category went to CBC reporter Joe Schlesinger and producer Bonnie Brown for their report Truth, Lies and Confessions about false confessions.

The CBA website has a complete list of winners from previous years.