Lyndsay Armstrong · The Canadian Press · Original Article
Nova Scotia’s justice minister has directed police across the province to crack down on illegal dispensaries, prompting criticism that the government may be interfering with law enforcement to target First Nations communities.
In a directive issued Thursday, Justice Minister Scott Armstrong called on all Nova Scotia police agencies to prioritize cannabis enforcement by identifying and disrupting illegal operations and distribution networks.
He also wrote to 13 Mi’kmaw chiefs Thursday, requesting their co-operation as they tackle the “growing public safety problem” of illegal cannabis sales.
In response, some First Nations activists say the moves are racist, and one legal scholar says the justice minister appears to be infringing on police independence.
Wayne MacKay, professor emeritus of law at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said the justice minister has the authority to issue directives to police regarding administrative and operating procedures. But he said Armstrong’s decision to order a crackdown on illegal cannabis operations appears to go too far.
“The political branch of government, including the minister of justice, are not to interfere with the discretion of the police at the specific operational level in relation to either who they are pursuing or what particular laws they’re enforcing,” MacKay said in an interview Thursday.
MacKay compared the move to recent developments in the United States, where President Donald Trump has escalated the use of levers of presidential power to target his political rivals and pressure the Justice Department to pursue investigations and prosecutions of those he disdains.
“It would be completely contrary to police independence … if [the government] was targeting specific operations [to] be investigated and prosecuted,” MacKay said. “That’s the kind of thing, frankly, that we see happening south of the border with U.S. President Donald Trump.”
When asked about MacKay’s comparison to Trump, a provincial Department of Justice spokesperson, Denise Corra, said that is “frankly ridiculous and inflammatory. We are asking police to enforce the law.”
Armstrong also said, “We don’t direct police on how they approach doing their job.”
Some First Nations members see it differently.
Thomas Durfee, a First Nations cannabis advocate, says the government’s crackdown is “blatantly racist” and an attack on Mi’kmaw sovereignty.
Durfee said in an interview he has a legal right to sell cannabis at treaty truckhouses — the term used for trading posts in treaties signed by the Mi’kmaq and British Crown in the 1700s. He is currently involved in a legal case moving through the provincial court system following a raid on one of his cannabis outlets.
He said he has repeatedly asked to meet with provincial officials to discuss plans for selling cannabis that meets legal health and safety standards.
“As a First Nations entrepreneur I would never risk people’s health and safety. We are not here to harm anyone,” Durfee said.
“We are ready to sit down at the table with them and take any questions they have,” he added.
In Armstrong’s letter to the chiefs, which was released to reporters Thursday morning, the minister wrote that there are at least 118 illegal dispensaries operating in First Nations communities.
However, when questioned by reporters, Armstrong said he didn’t know how many of the 118 illegal stores were actually on First Nation land or elsewhere in the province.
The province would later issue a correction, explaining that the letter should have stated that the number referred to illegal stores operating provincewide.
In an email, Corra, the provincial government spokesperson, said “it doesn’t really matter” how many dispensaries are on or off of First Nation territory.
“They are all illegal and they all pose significant risk to public health and safety,” Corra said.
In the letter, Armstrong also said the government had received a number of requests from chiefs who are seeking provincial support to run their own cannabis retail system.
“Rather than respond to each of these requests individually, I felt it important to share our government’s clear and unequivocal position with all of you today: Given the implication to public health and public safety, all cannabis retail activity, including on-reserve activity, must operate under the existing provincial framework as detailed in the Cannabis Control Act, 2021,” the letter says.
Provincial law strictly controls the sale of cannabis, which is done through Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. outlets. There are 51 legal cannabis outlets across the province; one is located on a First Nations reserve.
This means that the Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. must remain the exclusive cannabis retailer, his letter added. “I am not aware of an even remotely credible basis for suggesting that use of or trade in cannabis is a Mi’kmaq Aboriginal or treaty right.”
Some Mi’kmaw leaders dispute this, including Millbrook First Nation council member Chris Googoo.
Googoo said that in August, the community had asked the RCMP not to enforce the Cannabis Control Act on reserve as it works to develop its own independent regulations for selling cannabis.
The councillor said in a statement Thursday that Armstrong’s directive is a deliberate violation of Mi’kmaw treaty rights.
“It is, at its core, an act of systemic racism dressed in bureaucratic language,” he said.
Googoo said treaties signed in the 1700s, including the Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1752, ensures Mi’kmaw people are allowed to trade freely, and that this would extend to cannabis sales.
“It was never frozen in 1752. It lives today in our moderate livelihood fishery, in our community economies, and in our sovereign right to build a future for our children on our own terms,” Googoo said.
Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn, which works on behalf of the Assembly of Nova Scotia Mi’kmaw Chiefs, said in a statement that the minister’s letter took them by surprise.
“The contents of that letter are not a fair description of the process or the reality on our reserves,” Kwilmu’kw Maw-klusuaqn told The Canadian Press in a statement. “There are Aboriginal and treaty rights involved here.”