Quebec appeals ban on self-cultivation of cannabis

While the cannabis was legalized in Canada in 2018, Quebec has chosen to ban self-cultivation. This provincial restriction was first challenged in court in 2019.

Quebec Superior Court Judge Manon Lavoie ruled in favor of the plaintiff, Janick Murray-Hall, stating that the provincial law had been violated. prohibiting Quebecers from growing cannabis for personal use is unconstitutional, against a backdrop of technical arbitration between federal and provincial law. A ban on self-cultivation would effectively amount to criminal legislation, which falls under federal jurisdiction. The announced that it would appeal the decision, the possibility of Quebecers growing their own cannabis.

The appeal hearing was held the day before yesterday, April 27. Maxime Guérin, counsel for the plaintiff, explains that in the first instance, «the Superior Court recognized that the ban as adopted by the Quebec government was tantamount to replacing and supplementing criminal law by prohibiting anew what had just been legalized. In so doing, the ban became unconstitutional. This being the case, it would have been possible to do as British Columbia has done, i.e. to regulate personal culture by prohibiting, among other things, that culture be visible from the street...».»

The purpose of the appeal procedure will be to determine whether a different interpretation of the constitutional principles to be applied is possible. In a recent potcast in which we participated, Maxime confided that the law was quite clear on the prohibition of self-cultivation, and summed it up as follows: «The Quebec parliament has encroached on the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal parliament by completely prohibiting what was previously a matter of federal criminal law».

The appeal decision will be issued within 3 to 6 months.

Also in Manitoba, the only other province to have banned self-cultivation, the provincial law is being questioned by an individual. Jesse Lavoie filed eight affidavits on Friday, seven from experts and one from himself, responding to the government's concerns about keeping cannabis out of the hands of children, the potential for black-market self-cultivation and protecting home grows.

«I really hope the Manitoba government will rescind this ban. Let's let people who are staying home because of COVID [have] the ability to monitor their plants 24/7 and just be in step with the rest of Canada,» a declared Lavoie.