Check out the video above for the audio from the standing vote at the end of yesterday’s Senate session, where the Cannabis Act passed with a vote of 50:36, with one abstention, following almost six hours of debate. It was a historic day as the Cannabis Act passed the third and final reading in the Senate!
Find out which senators voted “Yay” and which voted “Nay”. There are 32 Conservative senators who were very opposed to the Cannabis Act, and they voted as a block, and it appears that they were able to convince a few independent senators to vote against the bill as well.
This was a crucial vote for the Trudeau government as the July deadline for legalization is fast approaching, and a defeat would have put the entire time frame in jeopardy as the Cannabis Act already spent seven months being reviewed in the Senate.
Even though the bill passed, there are no guarantees that cannabis will be legal by July because there still is a way to go before the bill can become law.
Now, the Cannabis Act (aka Bill C-45) is going back to the House of Commons so legislators can review the Senate’s amendments. The amendments may be kept, struck down, or altered, after which it will be sent back to the Senate for another vote, where more amendments may be made.
Once that is completed, the bill will be sent to the Governor-General for Royal Assent and become law, which means that cannabis legalization is almost here!
Sources
CTV News: Senate passes marijuana bill.