It’s not the Senate’s job to block marijuana bills

The Senate should not block or unduly delay legislation to make marijuana legal, writes Independent Senator André Pratte
The Toronto Star (Canada)
Thursday, March 15, 2018

For several weeks now, the Senate has been immersed in the study of bills C-45 and C-46. The former implements a national framework for cannabis legalization, while the latter introduces changes to the Criminal Code’s impaired driving provisions. You can expect to hear a lot more about our debates as we get closer to the end of June, the deadline the Trudeau government has set itself for the adoption of both bills. On the one hand, the Liberal government absolutely wants to keep to that deadline. On the other, the Conservative opposition is attempting by any means to delay the adoption of the bills, if only to embarrass the government. Caught between the two are 43 independent senators (out of 93).