(Ottawa) The highest court in the country decided Thursday to hear the case of Janick Murray-Hall on the cultivation of cannabis at home, prohibited in Quebec. The hearing will take place at a later date. The man who made himself known by the satirical site Journal de Mourréal challenges the constitutionality of two articles of the Quebec law.
Posted at 10:00 a.m.
Articles 5 and 10 of the Cannabis Regulation Act respectively prohibit the possession of a cannabis plant and the cultivation of it for personal use. Conversely, federal law allows any adult individual to have four cannabis plants at home.
“We penalized what had just been legalized”, summed up his lawyer Maxime Guérin in an interview with The Press the day before. He believes that the Quebec government has exceeded its jurisdiction by prohibiting the possession and cultivation of cannabis for personal purposes, although authorized by the federal government.
The Court of Appeal reversed in September a trial judgment which had first invalidated two articles of the Quebec law. The court considers that the federal law and the Quebec law are complementary and that, therefore, the objectives of the Quebec government “are in harmony” with those of the federal government.
The Quebec state had argued that its law was intended to reduce the harm of cannabis to protect the health and safety of citizens, particularly young people, and to avoid a breach in the monopoly of the Quebec Cannabis Society (SQDC).
In September 2019, the Superior Court invalidated the two articles of the Quebec law. Judge Manon Lavoie considered that they “significantly encroach on federal criminal jurisdiction”.
Quebec is not the only province to face a legal challenge for banning the cultivation of cannabis at home. A man named Jesse Lavoie is challenging a similar law in Manitoba. The case is due to be heard in May by a trial judge.
The Law governing cannabis in Quebec and the Cannabis law in Ottawa were passed within a week of each other in June 2018. Cannabis legalization was one of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s key promises during his first term. It entered into force on October 17, 2018.