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Pot pardons don’t go far enough, Victoria MP Murray Rankin says

Victoria NDP MP says he would expunge records for simple possession
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NDP MP Murray Rankin asks a question during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill, Friday, Feb. 10, 2017, in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

The federal government’s plans to streamline pardons for minor pot possession convictions don’t go nearly far enough, says Victoria NDP MP Murray Rankin.

While the federal government is talking about speeding up pardons, Rankin’s proposal would go further — expunging records for simple possession.

“If you have a form in front of you that says: ‘Have you ever been charged or convicted of a criminal offence?’ If your record has been ‘expunged’ it’s deemed at law never to have happened. Therefore, you can truthfully say no,” Rankin said.

“If, on the other hand, you’ve just been pardoned, you can’t answer truthfully that way. So that’s key.”

> More cannabis coverage at timescolonist.com/more

There are an estimated 500,000 Canadians who have criminal records for simple possession. Those criminal records can impact everything from the ability to get a job or an apartment to crossing an international border.

Rankin said a disproportionate number are from visible minorities.

“The fact is that charging for possession has disproportionately impacted Indigenous kids, blacks and young people,” he said.

“They did some Freedom of Information work and found that you’re nine times [more] likely to be busted for possession of cannabis in small quantities in Regina if you’re Indigenous than if you’re not. In Toronto, you’re three times more likely if you’re black and five times more likely if you’re black in Halifax. So there’s an injustice here.”

One of those who has been caught in the current system is Tofino resident Adrian Dorst, who as a 24-year-old in 1967 got arrested for having resin in a decorative pipe hanging on the wall of the communal apartment where he was living in St. Catharines, Ont. The arrest ultimately resulted in a suspended sentence.

It came back to haunt him in 2012, when Dorst was turned back by U.S. Customs in Vancouver after the flight he was on to Ecuador was scheduled to make a 2 1Ú2-hour layover in Texas.

Dorst said Wednesday he agrees records should be expunged.

He hasn’t attempted to go to the U.S. since and thinks he probably has been flagged.

“If they expunged it, I’m not even sure that that would do any good because they would have a record of my being turned away,” he said.

Like the government’s bill, Rankin’s would make it so that those applying for a pardon do not have to wait, or pay the current fee of $631.

Rankin gave the government some credit for its proposed changes. “But the main event is that they are still not dealing with the issue of expungement versus pardon,” he said.

Until now, simple possession of marijuana has been punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and six months in jail. Individuals are eligible to apply for a pardon through the Parole Board of Canada five years after the conviction is handed down.

The waiting period and the cost of applying for a pardon, known as a record suspension, have proven difficult for some people. A suspension doesn’t erase a record, but can make it easier to get a job or travel.

U.S. border officials say that even with pardons, Canadians with pot convictions could still be refused entry into the U.S.

“Really, we don’t recognize the Canadian amnesty. If you’ve been the subject of a violation of U.S. laws, that will still make you inadmissible to our country,” Todd Owen, the assistant commissioner of field operations at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told reporters.

Owen said it doesn’t matter whether someone has received a Canadian pardon — just admitting to having illegally consumed the drug in the past is grounds to be barred from the U.S.

bcleverley@timescolonist.com

— With a file from The Canadian Press