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.
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