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Local pot petitioners expect to hit goal

Terrace Sensible BC organizers say they should collect enough signatures here, but that might not be the case for the rest of B.C.
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Sensible BC's Skeena-area coordinator Zachary Canuel at his store

With just over a week to go in the campaign to reform how marijuana is policed in B.C., organizers are having trouble rallying support in some parts of the province, and are already talking about a potential relaunch later in the new year.

But Sensible BC's regional coordinator for Skeena, Zachary Canuel, says he believes petitioners here will cross the 10 per cent signature threshold – although they probably won't make the 15 per cent target they'd set in order to give themselves a cushion in the case of scratched votes.

“We're really close to 1500 signatures right now here in the Skeena area, so we're about three quarters of the way to our minimum goal, which isn't quite as good as we had hoped,” Canuel said. “It's very doable that we do get our 10 per cent, I don't think we're going to be able to make the 15 per cent buffer that we were hoping for.”

Sensible BC launched its campaign with the end goal of decriminalizing marijuana on Sept. 9. Under Elections BC's recall and Initiative Act, petitioners have 90 days to collect the signatures of 10 per cent of registered voters in every provincial district. That means the Dec. 9 deadline is soon approaching.

If that goal is met, a provincial vote could be held in September 2014 asking voters to consider the Sensible Policing Act, which would “stop police from searching or arresting otherwise law-abiding citizens for possession of marijuana,” reads the description on Sensible BC's website. The draft bill could also be introduced into the legislature for debate.

But the campaign has come across more resistance than they'd initially anticipated.

“We haven't had any trouble from the RCMP here in the Skeena area, but I know down south they've really had a lot of harassment,” Canuel said.

Skeena region organizers still faced some pushback though.

“We couldn't set up in front of the mall unfortunately. People didn't want us in places where I know the HST campaign had fantastic success,” he said.

Canuel chalks this up to people not understanding the campaign or thinking decriminalizing marijuana is more controversial with the general public than it actually is.

“They think they're taking a stance on an issue that is very divisive,” he said. “Higher job positions feel that they can't take any stance on the issue whatsoever.”

He said this is “unfortunate because it is about creating a safer neighbourhood, taking the money out of organized crime, and getting guns and drugs out of neighbourhoods and into a controlled environment, which not enough people understand.”

But that doesn't mean he hasn't seen support in the area.

“There's a big number of businesses around town that are actually in favour of this,” he said. “I've talked to quite a few business owners who are very supportive of what we are doing. When I'm out canvassing, it's always been very positive, I don't run into very many people who are negative.”

Canvassing into the winter was one challenge the group might not have anticipated.

“That was another thing the HST campaign had in their favour,” Canuel said.

In 2011, the HST petition initiative was successful in collecting enough signatures to ultimately result in a province-wide referendum which led to the repeal of the HST.

“They started in May, so they had the summer months to have weather on their side, whereas we started in September and half of the province is already getting into bad weather at that time,” he said.

Statements from Sensible BC president Dana Larsen suggest the campaign could be relaunched next year, if petitioners are unsuccessful this time around.

But the campaign isn't giving up yet. In Terrace, those interested in signing can still do so at Canuel's store Deviant Fibres. And the group is hoping to set up tables in front of WalMart and/or Canadian Tire – if those businesses permit it – as the deadline approaches.