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What that means is that only one individual in the whole country is in a position to challenge provincial home grow bans, and there’s no way of knowing who that person is. One of the most contentious arguments before cannabis was legalized last year was whether provinces could ban home grows. On Sept. 3, Quebec Superior Court Justice Manon Lavoie ruled Quebec's legislation infringed upon the jurisdiction of the federal government, which has sole responsibility for legislating on criminal matters. The Quebec government says it will appeal a decision invalidating parts of Quebec's cannabis law that prohibited home cultivation.
These restrictions do not apply to most who are authorized to grow for personal medical use. Property owners, landlords, and condo boards also have the right to place limits on whether or not cannabis can be grown on property, and municipalities can also place further limits on how and where cannabis is grown. Part of the push and pull between the provinces comes down to an issue of how much control a province has over its own jurisdiction. Because a fine of a few hundred dollars isn’t life-changing, it may be hard to motivate a person to spend years in court to avoid it, says cannabis lawyer Matt Maurer. “I will have wished that the federal Parliament at the end agreed with us on that,” he said last Juneafter the Senate rejected an amendment to the Cannabis Act that would have let provinces decide whether to allow home grows. In the end, Quebec and Manitoba chose to completely forbid residents from growing their own marijuana.
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In September 2021, Quebec’s Court of Appeal reversed a previous ruling from the Quebec Superior Court in 2019 that said the ban on Quebecers growing their own cannabis was a violation of federal law. This week, the Court of Appeal sided with the Quebec government on the province’s ban on homegrown cannabis. These regulations do not apply for approved and licensed home-grown medical marijuana, which is governed by national laws. Quebecers are free to grow cannabis at home, at least for now, after a Quebec Superior Court judge rule the provincial law prohibiting Quebecers from growing cannabis for personal use is unconstitutional.
However, Quebec chose in June 2018 to legislate against home cultivation. The Coalition Avenir Québec government still plans to amend the law to raise the legal age of consumption from 18 to 21. On Thursday, Lionel Carmant, the province's junior health minister, who oversees cannabis policy, said the government looks at the issue from a public health angle. Lavoie said the legislation was unconstitutional because such a ban amounts to criminal legislation, which is under federal jurisdiction.
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Law professors opined on whether a constitutional challenge would succeed. Quebec has the lowest prevalence of cannabis use in the country, according to figures from Statistics Canada. The national average is 16.1% and Nova Scotia leads the way with 24.4%, but use in Quebec stands at just 10.3%. It is a priority for CBC to create a website that is accessible to all Canadians including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges.
The decline was greater for marriages between two people born in Canada (-64%) than for those where at least one person was born abroad (-35%). The increase of 110,000 people in 2019 resulted from a natural increase of 16,400 people , a net migration of 32,700 people and the addition of 60,700 non-permanent residents . This is the highest number of net non-permanent residents recorded in Québec since comparable results have been available. House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler plans to tour 15 communities to discuss the issue and will author a legalization bill in the next legislative session. However, as CBC News reports, the province could appeal this decision and keep the matter in litigation limbo.
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It will be allowed in private residences and rentals unless prohibited by lease or property agreements. Landlords will have until January 17, 2019 to put cannabis restrictions into leases. Employees will be required to pass government-sponsored cannabis training programs. Federally, the legal limit for THC in the bloodstream is two nanograms per milliliter. Concentrations between two and five nanograms result in a fine up to $1,000.
Premier Francois Legault told reporters that the Quebec government “will go right to the limit in the courts to do what we think is good for Quebecers”. By submitting a comment, you accept that CBC has the right to reproduce and publish that comment in whole or in part, in any manner CBC chooses. Please note that CBC does not endorse the opinions expressed in comments. Comments on this story are moderated according to our Submission Guidelines. To encourage thoughtful and respectful conversations, first and last names will appear with each submission to CBC/Radio-Canada's online communities (except in children and youth-oriented communities).
Provinces can limit it, place restrictions on how it’s done, but they can’t prevent that right, which all Canadians are afforded, says the federal government. Julien Fortier, the lawyer who led the challenge, said anyone wanting to grow cannabis at home can now do so legally, but the province has decided to appeal the ruling. The Quebec government will have control, operate, and distribute all legal cannabis in the province. The SQDC plans to have 20 stores open by Oct. 17, 2018 with expansion to possibly 100 or more within three years. The SDQC also announced that it would have an online purchasing platform up and running by the time the new laws go into effect. The judge in that case ruled against the provincial government’s ban, but the province quickly appealed the ruling, meaning their law stayed in place, pending appeal.
David Brown has been working in and writing about the cannabis industry in Canada since 2012. He was formerly the Editor in Chief and Communications Director for Lift Cannabis and Lift News, a Senior Policy Advisor for Health Canada's cannabis legalization branch, and is the founder of StratCann Services Inc. While Manitoba and Quebec are the only provinces to ban homegrowing altogether, other provinces rule how you grow those four plants. It places limits, such as not allowing more than four plants, and allows provinces jurisdiction over how those plants are grown, and how many.
Legault pointed out that both his own party and the previous Liberal government were opposed to home growing. Amy German is a Montreal based journalist that has worked in the industry since 2001. With a journalism career that has spanned almost 20 years, she has covered everything from Indigenous issues, politics, entertainment and has a focus on health. Statistics Canada had clocked illicit sales at approximately $6.37 per gram opposed to the provincial average of $9.99 per gram. From January to August 2020, Québec registered half as many marriages as in the same period in 2019 (-54%). The context of the pandemic particularly affected marriages celebrated by a designated person (-70%), while marriages celebrated by a notary were much less impacted (-20%).
All other provinces except Alberta enacted the federal government's 19-year-old limit. While federal Canadian law says Canadians are entitled to grow up to four cannabis plants per household, two provinces, Quebec and Manitoba, have denied this right to their citizens. In March of 2018, then-federal justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould said Ottawa would not challenge provincial home grow bans in court, though she said she thought the federal government would win if it came to that. Martin Green is an experienced journalist with a strong focus on the cannabis, alcohol, and gambling industries. He is particularly interested in the political issues affecting the global marijuana trade, and he has a keen focus on regulation changes and legal topics. He holds a BA English Literature, MA Creative Writing and a National Qualification in Journalism diploma.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Manon Lavoie has ruled that the CAQ government’s ban on growing cannabis at home is unconstitutional, due to it technically falling under federal criminal legislation. The “spirit” of the federal regulations, argues the federal government, is to create an allowance for access to cannabis, including possession and growing. Quebec Superior Court Justice Manon Lavoie ruled Tuesday the provincial law prohibiting Quebecers from growing cannabis for personal use is unconstitutional.
In Quebec, a team representing a Quebecer named Janick Murray Hall successfully challenged his province’s ban on growing cannabis at home in 2019 in a Quebec Superior Court. The judge ruled unconstitutional the sections of the Quebec Cannabis Regulation Act prohibiting the possession and the cultivation for personal purposes of cannabis plants. It is also seeking to raise the legal age of cannabis consumption to 21 in the province, which would be the highest legal age in the country. It has also launcheda high-profile campaignwarning Quebecois of the dangers of using cannabis and it continues to resist the liberalization seen at a national level. Even with the constraints, Quebec was more permissive in some respects than other provinces or territories, allowing more consumption in public areas and adopting a minimum age of 18 to purchase or use cannabis.
Premade edibles and extract will not be available until the federal government authorizes such through legislation that they anticipate having in place on or before October 17, 2019, although consumers can create their own edibles as they wish. Daniel Chornopyski with Chornopyski Law in Manitoba, Levoie’s lawyer, says he won’t speculate on any larger jurisdictional goals but says he thinks the province is certainly motivated by an anti-cannabis attitude. In the meantime, he’s been trying to draw attention to his cause, with events around Winnipeg, including a recent one in August to commemorate the one-year anniversary of him filing his challenge. As folks get ready to harvest their plants at home, two provinces are still prohibited from cultivation. While his team is prepared to, he says he’s unsure the province would be willing to risk potentially losing in the Supreme Court and creating a precedent of this aspect of federal jurisdiction over Quebec’s own rules.
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