https://stratcann.com/information/nova-scotia-court-rejects-first-nations-cannabis-sovereignty-argument/A Nova Scotia court docket has rejected a declare that members of a First Nation can function hashish shops outdoors of the province. and federal hashish laws.
The defendants within the case argued that provincial laws for hashish retailers in Nova Scotia don’t apply to companies working on the territory of the Millbrook First Nation and that they aren’t required to pay provincial or federal taxes on merchandise bought.
In a provincial court docket ruling from June 7, a choose stated the defendant's case didn’t make an efficient argument for the existence of indigenous and/or treaty rights hooked up to its warehouse operations of hashish, alongside the Crown, which argued that the case was “frivolous”. ” is a waste of the court docket's time.
Counsel for the defendant argued that the First Nation had a historic connection to hashish and the hashish commerce earlier than contact with Europeans, that the event of federal and provincial hashish laws didn’t embrace session with the First Nation, and that the Millbrook First Nation is in unceded territory. .
The choose rejected the declare {that a} treaty proper to promote hashish exists and rejected the declare that there’s proof that the First Nation engaged within the cultivation or sale of hashish earlier than contact with Europeans.
Nonetheless, the choose additionally stated they might welcome a “stronger” argument alongside the identical traces.
“The matter can’t proceed on this foundation. I welcome a stronger one,” wrote affiliate chief choose Ronda van der Hoek in her resolution.
“The Court docket can’t enable the matter to proceed on such a basis given its position to guard scarce judicial sources and in gentle of the Crown having gathered proof to summarily dismiss, within the phrases of the Supreme Court docket of Canada, “manifestly frivolous” purposes. This resolution shouldn’t be taken flippantly…. It can’t be understated that selections affirming and defining, or denying and proscribing, indigenous and treaty rights are vital for the communities that advance them and Nova Scotians. The Court docket is conscious that we’re all individuals of the Treaty, however how the interpretation of the Treaties needs to be based mostly on a basis that deserves consideration. Presently, this basis shouldn’t be has not been established for the sale of hashish outdoors the authorized regime, and the prevailing regime applies to all Nova Scotians.
In an identical ruling issued the identical day by Choose van der Hoek, he additionally rejected efforts to have fees associated to the three raids of unlicensed hashish shops within the province in 2021 dismissed.
The defendants within the case heard in a court docket in Truro, Nova Scotia, tried to make a number of arguments to have the costs dismissed, together with claiming that the Crown couldn’t show that hashish was on the market or that one of many Arrested males was not. actually works within the retailer.
The choose rejected these arguments, noting proof that exhibits that the hashish merchandise have been listed as on the market, and the individual in query was discovered behind the counter of the shop when the police arrived.
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Nova Scotia court docket rejects First Nations hashish sovereignty argument
