Mar 29, 2017

Feds Not Just Blowing Smoke: Recreational Marijuana to be Legal by July 1, 2018

Less than twenty-four hours after being called out by a candidate for the leadership of the NDP, CBC News has reported that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government plans on introducing legislation in early April 2017 with the intention of legalizing recreational marijuana by July 1, 2018.

According to the CBC report, the new legislation will “broadly follow” the final recommendations of the Task Force on Cannabis Legalization, providing landlords and retail marijuana business owners with some clues as to what the final regulatory system will look like.
Mar 28, 2016

B.C. Court of Appeal Upholds Regulatory College’s By-laws

The British Columbia Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Sobeys West Inc. v. College of Pharmacists of British Columbia[1] is an important decision for regulators in two respects. First, it recognizes the latitude regulators ought to be given when enacting by-laws. Second, it clarifies the nature of the evidence that regulators will need to provide when their by-laws are challenged on judicial review. On the whole, the decision comes as a welcome confirmation of the deference that courts will show to regulators when they enact by-laws in the bona fide exercise of their authority.