3 years after weed legalization, Ontario man still can't enter U.S. due to 20-year-old pot charge
CBC
It has been exactly three years since recreational cannabis was legalized in Canada and two years since a program to grant pardons for simple possession was introduced — but some people with pot convictions and those who advocate for them say not much has changed since.
In 2019, the federal government said those with a criminal record for simple cannabis possession could apply for a free record suspension — formerly known as a pardon — through a new program.
In the program's first year, the Parole Board of Canada, which is responsible for deciding whether record suspensions should be issued for convictions under federal legislation, received 436 applications, accepted 240, ordered 238 and discontinued two, according to a 2019-2020 report to Parliament.
But Darryl L, who lives in Clarington, Ont and was convicted of simple pot possession while in high school 20 years ago, is still waiting for his. He says the conviction, which still shows on his criminal record, continues to affect his ability to get a job.
"I am kind of upset with it," he told CBC Toronto, which is withholding Darryl's last name at his request because he's worried about his prospects for future employment.
He's worried the record suspension process will take a "ridiculous" amount of time. The parole board estimates up to 10,000 Canadians are eligible for cannabis record suspensions. But because of the COVID-19 pandemic, its website warns that delays are expected as the board has limited capacity to process applications. Darryl, however, feels his record should have been erased automatically.
"To me now, in Canada, I've committed no crime. It should have been expunged automatically when they changed the laws."
Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia can all expect between 20 and 40 millimetres of rainfall this weekend.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.