Prime Minister and Liberal leader Justin Trudeau supports decriminalizing marijuana, which his government is adamant will be done by summer, but he indicated he does not support his party’s grassroots support to legalize all drugs.
An estimated 3000 party members attended the Liberal Party policy convention in Halifax, April 19-21. In advance, a pre-convention online process involving some 6000 party members had targeted a number of potential policy issues, of which the 30 most popular resolutions were debated at the convention’s policy workshops and of these, the fifteen most popular policies made to the full convention floor for consideration.
The delegates considered creating a national guaranteed basic income system, building an underwater fixed link between mainland Canada and Newfoundland, declaring an environmental bill of rights, and establishing a dedicated federal ministry for seniors.
Two moral issues made it to both the workshop and convention floor: decriminalization of all drugs (not just marijuana as the Liberal government says it will do by the summer), and the decriminalization of prostitution. Both were passed.
The resolution for decriminalizing drugs argued that government should treat drug abuse as a health issue rather than a criminal matter, expanding safe injection sites as a means of harm reduction. It cited a Portuguese experiment in decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs in 2001 as a model which led to a reduction in overdose deaths. The resolution was framed as a strategy to reduce opioid deaths in Canada.
A letter of support in favour of the drug decriminalization resolution was signed by 200 individuals and groups, including former Ontario NDP premier and interim federal Liberal leader Bob Rae, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, and the Canadian Association of Social Workers.
The CBC reported that a quarter of the supporters in attendance were 25 years old or younger, and while historically it was the youth wing of the party that promoted the idea of decriminalizing marijuana, the push to decriminalize all drugs was put forward as a “priority resolution” by the national Liberal caucus. The Liberal government seemed to shoot down the idea days before the convention when Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor told reporters that the Portuguese model – wherein those found in possession of illegal drugs appear before dissuasion commissions where they can be referred to treatment or face minor administrative sanctions such as fines — could not work in Canada, which is larger and has a decentralized health care system. She also said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has “made it clear that this is not the direction that our government is intending on going down” for harder drugs. At a post-convention press conference, Trudeau said: “We’ll of course reflect on next steps for a broad range of issues they bring up. On that particular issue, as I’ve said, it’s not part of our plans.”
Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (Beaches-East York), who is at the forefront of the decriminalization movement in Parliament, dismissed the Health Minister’s opposition, saying “Petitpas Taylor is one voice at a convention.” Erskine-Smith also said that Trudeau once opposed decriminalizing marijuana, too, so he held out hope the Prime Minister could “be convinced by the evidence.”
The Young Liberals promoted the resolution to decriminalize so-called sex work and the sex trade. The resolution called for the “repeal (of the) 2014 Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act, begin a consultation period with those in the sex work industry and advocacy groups, and move to decriminalize consensual sex work, and the purchase of said sex work, for those over the age of 18.”
In response to the Supreme Court overthrowing the Criminal Code prohibitions on prostitution, in 2014 the Harper government criminalized the purchase and advertisement of sexual services. The Young Liberals wanted to totally decriminalize all aspects of prostitution and the party supporters agreed with them.
According to the Hill Times, Liberal Youth president Mira Ahmad said “Part of our role as Young Liberals is to push the party status-quo to make sure that the issues we care about are being transferred at the higher levels. I think that’s what this policy is about,.”
In the past, the Liberal Youth wing of the party has promoted the idea of same-sex “marriage” and euthanasia and assisted-suicide.
Policy conventions for all the major parties pass resolutions that make it to the party’s policy book and in theory it is supposed to influence the party’s election platform. Trudeau was non-committal in his press conference about what, if any resolutions passed in Halifax, will make it to the party’s 2019 platform. “The basis upon which we will make any decisions about what’s in our platform and how we move forward as a country is whether or not it’s in the best interests of Canadians,” he said.
Although billed as a policy convention that would help guide the 2019 election platform, attendees also took part in other campaign election readiness exercises such as training for field organization teams, fundraising, and social media.
Among speakers that included numerous cabinet members was David Axelrod, an adviser to former U.S. president Barack Obama. In conversation with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s principal secretary Gerald Butts, Axelrod advised that the Liberals set aside their “sunny ways” strategy from the 2015 federal election campaign and attack their Conservatives and NDP opponents.
