HALIFAX – A Nova Scotia choose has rejected arguments by 4 defendants who say they violated Aboriginal rights to promote hashish at dispensaries on indigenous land north of Halifax.
In a choice launched Thursday, the provincial courtroom Decide Ronda Van der Hoek mentioned she agreed with the Crown's argument that two skilled studies offered by the defendants didn’t assist their claims. In consequence, defendants not have the choice of arguing for exemptions from the legislation below the Structure.
“I grant (the Crown's) software to summarily dismiss the constitutional points, primarily based on the data earlier than me right now,” the choice says, including that the applying for constitutional arguments was “manifestly frivolous.”
In Nova Scotia, hashish gross sales should be performed via Nova Scotia Liquor Fee shops, and all hashish merchandise are topic to provincial and federal duties.
The 4 have been charged below the federal Hashish Act with unlawfully possessing hashish for the aim of promoting and distributing it, and distributing hashish they knew to be unlawful. They have been additionally accused of not paying federal duties on their merchandise.
Two of the defendants argued that, because the operators of an indigenous enterprise within the Millbrook Frist Nation, they’re exempt from federal legal guidelines regulating the sale of hashish and have the suitable to function a parallel system primarily based on their standing as gang members.
In his determination, the choose says that the Supreme Court docket of Canada confirmed that two Mi'kmaq treaties signed in 1700 granted the suitable of aboriginal folks to commerce, however the supreme courtroom mentioned that the suitable is proscribed to the gadgets historically collected as a part of their hunt. fishing and gathering actions.
“The related time interval … is earlier than European contact,” the choose mentioned. “The claimant should present {that a} apply, customized or custom was integral to the indigenous neighborhood's distinctive existence and relationship to the land within the interval earlier than European contact.”
The Crown argued that there’s a lack of proof that the historic Mi'kmaq neighborhood ever used the psychoactive hashish plant, not to mention commercialized it.
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