Global News Canada reports…
As Canadians started to debate how — not if — cannabis would be legalized, a persistent question was: what about the hundreds of thousands of Canadians with prohibition-era convictions for possession?
In the end, the federal Liberals rejected a plan for records for possession to be expunged, or completely erased, in favour of a streamlined version of the pardon, or “record suspension,” process that’s available for other crimes, minus the waiting period and $631 fee.
About 250,000 Canadians are thought to have prohibition-era records for simple possession of marijuana, though because some people were charged under a generic drug possession offence rather than one specific to cannabis, it’s not clear how many there are. Also, those who have a record for other offences aren’t eligible for the program.
