The First Nations Leadership Council has called for Cannabis Act changes. The Cannabis Act, of course, is the bill that legalized cannabis in Canada in 2018.
The First Nations Leadership Council consists of executives from the B.C. Assembly of First Nations, the First Nations Summit, and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.
The First Nations group calls on specific Cannabis Act changes aligning the legal regime with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
First Nations Call for Cannabis Act Changes
“First Nations have inherent rights and jurisdiction to govern the cultivation, processing, sale, and consumption of cannabis in their territories,” reads the group’s media release.
But despite paying lip service to First Nations, the group says colonial governments ignored their “rights and unique needs during the legalization of cannabis.”
Indeed, the federal and provincial governments ignored anyone with inherent rights to cannabis cultivation. Alongside throwing Indigenous people under the bus, the B.C. government also ignored the pleas from Canada’s O.G. cannabis community, colloquially known as B.C. Bud.
B.C. Bud, of course, consists of many farmers, some of who are First Nation.
The First Nations Leadership Council released their statement on April 20, 4/20 or international cannabis day.
The release says, “While 4/20 is a time of celebrating progress and liberty for many, the lack of viable pathways forward on these issues has created barriers for First Nations communities to access the benefits of legalization and has caused additional challenges for ensuring community health and safety.”
The Orwellian “Community Safety Unit”
While First Nations call for changes in the Cannabis Act, the B.C. government moves ahead with business as usual. Their cannabis enforcement department – the Community Safety Unit – is unique among the provinces.
While places like Ontario or Alberta use existing police departments to crack down on illicit cannabis sales, the NDP government of British Columbia felt it necessary to create an entirely new government bureaucracy.
The Community Safety Unit is neither community-based nor interested in promoting safety. Claims from higher-ups that First Nation dispensaries on reserves wouldn’t get raided turned out to be false. Or, as honest as most Crown-based governments have been to First Nations.
Despite assurances of tax and revenue sharing from the B.C. government, bureaucrats have done nothing after nearly five years after legalization.
Meanwhile, cannabis stores on First Nation reserves still have to pay provincial taxes.
Not A Priority for “Public Health”
First Nations are calling for Cannabis Act changes because they realize that:
a) They have intrinsic rights to cultivate and consume cannabis
b) Cannabis is a gateway drug to liberty and sustainability
But of course, Canada’s colonial government didn’t legalize cannabis because prohibition violated individual rights. The Supreme Court squashed any indication of this belief last week when they ruled in favour of Quebec’s home-growing ban.
Canada also didn’t legalize as part of an effort toward truth and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.
No, Canada legalized cannabis due to “public health.” Beforehand, cannabis was unregulated, profiting organized crime and making young people hopelessly addicted.
Now that Ottawa singlehandedly approves every legal cannabis product in the Canadian economy, we have saved the children, and all cannabis products are safe.
Except for recalled products, hidden pesticides, and, oh, a growing issue of hospitalized children with “THC overdoses.” How that’s possible when edibles are capped at 10mg and have child-resistant packaging, I don’t know.
Best to leave the question to the experts. The same “public health” experts who want to bring about “fundamental changes in our socioeconomic structures” that involve overthrowing capitalism and the very concept of “liberty and individualism.”
Public Health Doesn’t Care About First Nations
First Nations are calling for Cannabis Act changes. Public Health is ignoring them and calling for the abolition of capitalism instead.
No, I’m not being hyperbolic. This was the conclusion of “public health experts,” including Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Tam (Canada’s Dr. Fauci, for those keeping track at home).
Authors who “identify as white settlers,” wrote a 72-page report at taxpayers’ expense. They concluded that Canada’s health care system is threatened by climate change, and only by addressing the “foundations of our society,” including “the capitalist system,” can we improve it.
The “expert” report is on the same intellectual level as flat-earth theories. They write how “liberty and individualism” will lead to “a huge number of problems,” since it seemingly “undermines the collective process.”
By which they mean their process. Put another way: your freedoms are getting in the way of our big social plan for everybody.
Which sounds a lot like justification for Indigenous Residential Schools. What about the liberty and individualism of First Nations children?
Doesn’t matter. Back then, it was about “removing the Indian from the child.” To disagree was to spread misinformation.
Now it’s asinine attempts to blame climate change and ineffective government health care on “White supremacy, capitalism, colonialism and racism.”
First Nations Call for Cannabis Act Changes
While First Nations call for tangible changes, like amending the Cannabis Act, public health busybodies do what they’ve always done: ignore them.
The report’s authors say they are “uninvited land occupiers” and are sensitive to Indigenous perspectives.
“Collectively, we have a deep appreciation for Indigenous Peoples’ close and continuing relationship to the land and waters that we live upon and we are committed to a lifelong learning journey toward becoming good guests here,” reads the report.
And then promote far-left theories under the guise that these are actually Indigenous values. Nonsense about “low meat” diets helping the environment, building more houses, and advocating against resource extraction.
Never mind that many First Nations had sustainable animal-based diets before Europeans killed off most of their bison.
Or that having Ottawa continually control immigration and housing policy is antithetical to the idea that we are uninvited guests on this land. In fact, it’s downright hypocritical.
And, of course, the authors ignore how many First Nations see local resource development as a path out of poverty. So long as the power remains in their hands, not Ottawa or some faceless multinational corporation.
But, of course, these government bureaucracies work for these large corporations. They may collect salaries from taxpayers, but the ideological narrative is identical to Klaus Schwab and other white, wealthy, well-connected elites.
To promote these ideas as if they are true values of Canada’s First Nations (and that criticisms are racist) is trashy.
First Nations Call for Cannabis Act Changes: Civil Disobedience
Regarding cannabis reform, civil disobedience is the only language governments understand. While it comes at a high cost, it will be hard for the B.C. government to defend continual CSU raids on peaceful, Indigenous cannabis shops.
As for the authors of Canada’s public health and climate change report: shut the fuck up.
They write: “Public health is under attack in some provinces… So, my worry is that with public health that we won’t actually be able to get out there and do what we need to do,” the report reads.
Of course, if “what we need to do” involves overthrowing free markets and the concept of individualism and liberty, then by extension, public health will also have to curtail entrepreneurship, free speech and freedom of the press.
And if that’s the reality, then the ballot box ceases to be a useful mechanism for change. And you know what happens then.
Better if we don’t get to that point. Better if we remember what Thomas Sowell said.
It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.