Canada on track to violate three UN drug treaties
By Kyle Duggan. Published on Jun 30, 2017 5:00am
As of July 1, Canada will be on track to violating several UN drug treaties under the Liberal government's current timeline to legalize recreational pot — a scenario that could eventually create a political headache for the government.
That's the deadline for Canada to serve notice it will withdraw from three key war-on-drugs era UN treaties, which effectively prevent Canada from legalizing marijuana.
The three treaties are: the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs; the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances; and the 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
The Liberal government, soon approaching the two-year mark of its mandate, has so far avoided discussing the issue and explaining its plans on the treaty front.
Without withdrawing, Canada can't legalize pot until January 2019, at the very earliest, and still comply with its international obligations.
That would put the legalization date dangerously close to the next election – although the Liberals may intend to ignore the treaties altogether.
The latest media lines suggest some amount of indifference to the issue.
Adam Austen, spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Chyrstia Freeland, said that the government is considering its international commitments, but also singled out various U.S. states that have already violated the treaties.
"It should be noted that four American states have legalized recreational marijuana while another four have voted to legalize," he said in an emailed statement.
"We are committed to working with our global partners to best promote public health and combat illicit drug trafficking. Canada remains fully compliant with its obligations under the international drug treaties at this time."
U.S. states such as Colorado have legalized even though the U.S. is still a party to those treaties and therefore in violation of them.
Others have gone different routes. Bolivia, for instance, had asked for a reservation to the treaties so indigenous peoples could chew cocoa leaves (the raw ingredient of cocaine), which has cultural significance. It ultimately withdrew from them before changing its constitution, and re-joining the treaties afterwards.
The harshest immediate consequences for Canada would be facing down some international outrage, and the usual domestic opposition. But the lasting problem this would create for the Liberals is a hypocrisy headache heading into the 2019 election.
In a previous interview with iPolitics, Steve Hoffman, an associate professor at the Centre for Health Law at University of Ottawa, pointed out that it becomes more difficult to argue other countries should meet their own international commitments.
"Canada's at the forefront of upholding human rights treaties, nuclear non-proliferation treaties, treaties against war crimes," he said. "We can't be, at the same time, just violating whatever treaties we don't like or align with our own policy objectives."
And it would have an extra bite for the Liberal Party, which campaigned in 2015 on showing strong support for the United Nations and working collaboratively with other countries.
The Conservatives have already said not withdrawing will hurt Canada's international reputation, and would condemn a treaty breach.
Their foreign affairs critic, Peter Kent, said that the government should withdraw – at least temporarily – rather than violate the treaties, and suggested the lack of clarity over their plans suggests the Liberals are making policy up on-the-fly.
The NDP's justice critic, Alistair MacGregor, pressed the prime minister what his government will do about the deadline in a question period exchange last month. Justin Trudeau only replied that "everywhere around the world, people are grappling with a failed war on drugs."
"People are very interested with the leadership that Canada is showing in terms of figuring out how to protect our kids and pull away the profits from criminals and organized crime," he said.
Last year, Bill Blair, the Liberals' pot point-man, had suggested that Canada wouldn't be violating the treaties because the policy goal of legalization is to better control the drug, and accepts the premise that the war on drugs has failed. Blair, though, hasn't been part of talks over how the Liberals plan to deal with the treaties.
The Liberal government's Bill C-45, which would legalize recreational use of cannabis in Canada, resumes study at committee stage for a marathon week of study in September before the House returns for the fall sitting.
The government wants to have legal marijuana in place in Canada by July, 2018 – ample time before the next federal election – but this is at least one policy bump along the road bound to make that legislative trip a bit rocky.