Wording
On April 16, 2000, pursuant to a
motion by Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, the Senate adopted the
following order of reference:
That a Special Committee of the Senate be
appointed to reassess Canada's anti-drug legislation and policies, to carry out
a broad consultation of the Canadian public to determine the specific needs of
various regions of the country, where social problems associated with the
trafficking and use of illegal drugs are more in evidence, to develop proposals
to disseminate information about Canada's anti-drug policy and, finally, to
make recommendations for an anti-drug strategy developed by and for Canadians
under which all levels of government work closely together to reduce the harm
associated with the use of illegal drugs;
That, without being limited in its mandate by
the following, the committee be authorized to:
ˇˇ
Review the federal
government's policy on illegal drugs in Canada, its effectiveness, and the
extent to which it is fairly enforced;
ˇˇ
Develop a national harm
reduction policy in order to lessen the negative impact of illegal drugs in
Canada, and make recommendations regarding the enforcement of this policy, specifically the possibility of focusing on
use and abuse of drugs as a social and health problem;[1]
ˇˇ
Study harm reduction
models adopted by other countries and determine if there is a need to implement
them wholly or partially in Canada;
ˇˇ Examine Canada's international role
and obligations under United Nations conventions on narcotics and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and other related treaties in order to determine
whether these treaties authorize it to take action other than laying criminal
charges and imposing sentences at the international level;
ˇˇ
Explore the effects of
cannabis on health and examine whether alternative policy on cannabis would
lead to increased harm in the short and long term;
ˇˇ
Examine the possibility
of the government using its regulatory power under the Contraventions Act as an
additional means of implementing a harm reduction policy, as is done in other
jurisdictions;
ˇˇ
Examine any other issue
respecting Canada's anti-drug policy that the committee considers appropriate
to the completion of its mandate.
Upon adoption of the motion, the
Committee chairman asked the Senate to name the members who would form the
Committee. The following senators were thus appointed:
Pierre Claude Nolin, Chair, Sharon Carstairs, Deputy Chair,
Colin Kenny, Lucie Pépin and Eileen Rossiter.
The Committee thus constituted
approved a work program and a budget, which it then submitted to its peers in
the upper Chamber. The Committee's budget was approved in June 2000, thus
making it possible to hire the scientific and administrative personnel who
would support its work. The Committee organized its program of hearings of
expert witnesses and held its first hearings on October 16, 2000.
However, the Committee was dissolved
when the general election was called in October 2000, and restruck on
March 15, 2001, but with an amended mandate: the scope of its work was now
restricted to cannabis. The Committee's mandate in its present form therefore
reads as follows:
That a special committee of the Senate be struck to examine:
ˇˇ
The approach taken by
Canada to cannabis, its preparations, derivatives and similar synthetic
preparations, in context;
ˇˇ
The effectiveness of
this approach, the means used to implement it and the monitoring of its
application;
ˇˇ The related official policies
adopted by other countries;
ˇˇ
Canada's international
role and obligations under United Nations agreements and conventions on
narcotics, in connection with cannabis, the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and other related treaties; and
ˇˇ
The social and health
impacts of cannabis and the possible consequences of different policies;
ˇThat the special committee consist
of five senators, three of whom shall constitute a quorum;
ˇThat the Honourable Senators Banks,
Kenny, Nolin, Rossiter and (a fifth Senator to be named by the Chief Government
Whip) be named to the committee;
ˇThat the committee be authorized to
send for persons, papers and records, to hear witnesses, to report from time to
time, and to print from day to day such papers and evidence as may be ordered
by it;
ˇThat the briefs and evidence heard during consideration of Bill C‑8,
An Act respecting the control of certain drugs, their precursors and other
substances and to amend certain other Acts and repeal the Narcotic Control Act
in consequence thereof, by the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and
Constitutional Affairs during the 2nd Session of the 35th Parliament
be referred to the committee;
ˇThat the documents and evidence
compiled on this matter and the work accomplished by the Special Senate
Committee on Illegal Drugs during the 2nd Session of the
36th Parliament be referred to the committee;
ˇThat the committee be empowered to authorize, if deemed appropriate, the
broadcasting on radio and/or television and the coverage via electronic media
of all or part of its proceedings and the information it holds;
ˇThat the committee present its final
report no later than August 31, 2002; and that the committee retain the
powers necessary to publicize its findings for distribution of the study
contained in its final report for 30 days after the tabling of that report;
ˇThat the committee be authorized,
notwithstanding customary practice, to table its report to the Clerk of the
Senate if the Senate is not sitting, and that a report so tabled be deemed to
have been tabled in the Senate.
