Tories Not Coming Clean on Crime Bill?

The text of the bill goes against Conservative messaging that pot growers would have to have at least six plants to face mandatory minimum sentences.

Anthony Doob, a criminology professor at the University of Toronto and a contributor to The Mark, hipped us to the fact today that the Tories might not have been entirely honest when they announced their Gazillion-Dollar Pot-Growers Act on Tuesday. After poring over the text of the bill, specifically the subsections on what conditions must be met for a marijuana grower to face a mandatory minimum sentence, Doob writes:

"... A 40-year-old who grows five marijuana plants for himself and his friends IN A HOUSE HE OWNS has no mandatory minimum penalties if convicted. But the 18-year-old who grows one plant for himself and his friends in an apartment owned by someone else faces a nine-month mandatory minimum. This is organized crime?"

To wit, the bill's text states that marijuana growers can face:

i) imprisonment for a term of nine months if the number of plants produced is less than 201, the production is for the purpose of trafficking and any of the factors set out in subsection (3) apply,

[N.B. Note that the above section does not say "and more than five," as the Tories had said would be the minimum required.]

(3) The following factors must be taken into account in applying paragraphs (2)(a) to (b):

(a) the person used real property that belongs to a third party in committing the offence;

(b) the production constituted a potential security, health or safety hazard to persons under the age of 18 years who were in the location where the offence was committed or in the immediate area;

(c) the production constituted a potential public safety hazard in a residential area; or

(d) the person set or placed a trap, device or other thing that is likely to cause death or bodily harm to another person in the location where the offence was committed or in the immediate area, or permitted such a trap, device or other thing to remain or be placed in that location or area.