Whether you’re in favour of Canadian sovereignty, provincial sovereignty or individual sovereignty, one thing we can all agree on is that international rules enforcing the drug war should have little to no bearing on domestic policies.
The fact is, the Liberal Party won a majority government because Canadian voters regarded them as the best alternative to the others. One of the reasons for this was Justin’s commitment to legal cannabis.
Cannabis has no lethal overdose, nor does it cause the health problems that alcohol entails, burdening the taxpayer by driving up health care costs. Cannabis only burdens the taxpayer by requiring police to enforce prohibition, hence legalization being the right move.
Justin Trudeau acts as if his hands are tied because of international treaties. I suppose in many ways his hands really are tied, since the United States government isn’t exactly an entity one would want to provoke in negative terms.
But, perhaps Justin can take a cue from his father and regard Canada as an independent nation rather than a council-member in some global bureaucracy subject to the wishes of the veto powers.
So if your vote means anything, then this should be a wake-up call to the fact that international agreements, standards, and regulations trump domestic interests.
Since World War 2, the sovereignty of the nation-state has been undermined for global interests. Recently, in places like Syria, this had led to all-out war. The 20th century was fraught with examples of the Americans overthrowing democratically elected governments to protect their crony-capitalist interests.
Therefore, it would seem, Canadian voters must stay within the guidelines of allowable opinion, less the Americans get angry.
University of Ottawa constitutional and international law expert Errol Mendes said the Liberal government would have to “explain why” it’s moving to defy international obligations that will see the legalization of a harmless herb.
Why? Because the people voted for it!
The drug war has been a massive failure and Canadians made it clear on October 19, 2015 that cannabis needs to be legalized. International treaties be damned.
Now, I’m no fan of democracy, but I loathe the United Nations even more. Who are these unelected bureaucrats telling the Canadian government that the voters are wrong and that our domestic laws are bound by the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971 and the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988?
No, the Liberals don’t have to explain why.
The United Nations must explain why its authority overrules democratic interests. Why treaties from the dark age of the drug war are still relevant. Why Republican opposition and elements of the Obama administration have any bearing on what the Canadian government does.
Colorado, Washington State, Washington DC, Oregon, and Alaska have all legalized without the sky-falling, and many more states have decriminalized.
There is no reason why Canada must answer to the United Nations. The burden of proof is on the unelected, unnecessary and irrelevant mandarins of this global bureaucracy.
Voters have spoken, but it’s clear where the power lies and it’s not at the ballot box.