Ontario First Nations have the authority to set their own cannabis laws and license their own retail outlets. But federal law still requires those stores to buy from a provincial regulatory body, side stepping the sovereignty of Indigenous communities.
Dispensing Freedom
A heavily-redacted memo that appears to have been signed by Ian Shugart as deputy minister of Foreign Affairs — just a month before cannabis became legal — discusses "withdrawing Canada's objections to treaty actions by Bolivia.
There has been confusion over the legality of dispensaries doing business on First Nations land without a provincial licence, selling unregulated cannabis products.
A group of dispensary owners and concerned citizens in Garden River First Nation are advocating to chief and council to remove the community cannabis ban.
Canada’s indigenous peoples are pioneering the billion-dollar bonanza that is the country’s growing cannabis market.
City council voted to allow cannabis stores in Thunder Bay nearly a year ago, on Jan. 15. Since then, a dispensary on Fort William First Nation was shut down by the band, while an operator who was approved to operate a shop was disqualified
stores on First Nations land operated under their own rules, despite the disagreement of the federal and provincial governments. Indeed, a stretch of Westside Road became known as "The Green Mile."
RCMP officers conducted raids on shops in Millbrook on Wednesday and say charges are pending after cannabis products and paraphernalia were seized.
Ben MacDonald of One Nation Cannabis presented his ideas about what council should do in implementing the Six Nations Cannabis Law. MacDonald asked Six Nations of the Grand River General Council to provide a motion allowing One Nation to establish a cannabis task force to work with the Cannabis Commission and council.
The Assembly of First Nations has published a presentation they obtained from MLT Aikins on the possible paths to indigenous jurisdiction over cannabis. The first option would be to exercise Aboriginal Rights, which are vaguely defined in the Constitution Act of 1982. It is often up to the courts to…