Media Report
Membertou First Nation is pressing ahead with its own cannabis law, amid a Nova Scotia crackdown on unlicensed retail outlets and federal government indifference over self-government rights.
Retired Canadian senator Dan Christmas, appointed to engage his home community of Membertou on a proposed new cannabis law, said it’s time the federal government fulfilled its promise to include Indigenous authority over marijuana in its legislation.
It has ceded control in other areas of jurisdiction. Recently, Christmas presented a Senate committee with a clause to be added to the Cannabis Act, which became law in 2018, that would recognize First Nation self-government rights.
“A similar amendment was recently recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada in the child welfare bill and I just basically modeled the very same section and just replaced the child welfare with cannabis,” he said.
A 2024 review of the cannabis legislation recommended correcting that oversight.
“There’s been some glaring missteps by the government, I believe, and it’s eight years now since the 2018 act passed, and still no sign of recognizing First Nation jurisdiction on First Nation lands,” Christmas said.
‘A new era’
“It’s a new era. It’s an era of … First Nations developing their own laws and enacting them and putting them into place [to] make sure they meet community needs.”
In the meantime, Sipekne’katik and We’koqmaq recently approved their own cannabis laws. Christmas has launched a month-long survey of voting-age Membertou band members to gauge reaction to their proposed law , which has been in the works for years.
Included in the draft is a suggestion that could alleviate a common concern among reserve residents, Christmas said.
“One of the proposals is that, yes, we would relocate cannabis stores out of residential areas into more of the commercial areas and thereby protecting the residents in residential areas.
“But at the same time, when you move stores into commercial areas, there’s high visibility and much better access, better parking, and I think it’ll be beneficial for the cannabis stores themselves.”
One idea is to have the band build a strip mall with space to lease for one or more cannabis outlets, but the details haven’t been decided yet.
“We haven’t really landed on that yet and I’m hoping that the next few months of discussions will sort of make that clear,” Christmas said.
Band members are also concerned about quality control for the products sold in retail outlets, which may or may not include testing by Health Canada.
“The how hasn’t yet been figured out,” Christmas said.
“I mean, there’s several options, right? And I think the one that’s favoured the most is that Membertou would invest in its own facilities to test the product and to have our own labs.”
Moving ahead, with or without Ottawa
Once the survey period has ended, Christmas said officials will review the draft law and make adjustments, if necessary.
But the plan is to move ahead, regardless of what happens in Ottawa.
“My goal is to have a community plebiscite on a new draft of the cannabis law by the end of 2026, so I’m hoping to get this wrapped up this year,” Christmas said.
Read more
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/membertou-cannabis-law-federal-recognition-9.7193191
