Since legalization, the annual April 20 protest in Victoria, B.C. has moved from City Hall to the front lawn of the B.C. Legislative Buildings. Celebrated in Victoria since 1997, April 20 has become the unofficial holiday of cannabis smokers around the world. Until this year, the staff at the B.C. Legislature have issued an event permit for the protest.
Before now, every time after the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club has sent the application for booking the front lawn, we are reminded that smoking cannabis is prohibited on the Legislature grounds. Then we were given the permit. This year things were suddenly different.
On Friday March 20, the Parliamentary Education Office sent the VCBC an email informing us of a sudden change of heart.
“As you are aware, according to the Precinct Use policy, events and event participants are prohibited from selling, serving, or consuming a regulated substance within the Legislative Precinct, including alcohol and cannabis.
If there has been non-compliance with these identified requirements, the Legislative Assembly may refuse to approve any future requests for authorization related to similar or connected events.
After careful consideration, the Precinct Use Committee is unable to approve your event request for April 20th this year unless the identified conditions are met.”
In response, the VCBC sent the following email.
“It is somewhat surprising that this would happen, given the fact that we have held this event at the Legislature on April 20 since 2019 with a permit. To our knowledge there have been no serious issues or complaints about this event that have not been addressed. For example, we have moved the event as far away from the building as possible.
In the past we have had meetings with the Precinct Use Committee to discuss any potential problems. It seems rather sudden that we have not even had an opportunity to address whatever concerns the committee has before being given a final no. Is it standard practice of the Precinct Use Committee to deny permits without an opportunity to directly address the concerns with the applicant, even in cases where the permit has been issued to the applicant for several years for the same event?
As we have said in the past, this event is a protest. There is no public property in Victoria, Vancouver or any major city in Canada where a large group can gather to smoke cannabis without being in violation of a smoking bylaw. This is despite cannabis being legally available to adults to purchase.”
No response has been received before going to print.
While it is unclear whether there will be any enforcement of the anti-smoking bylaws on April 20 at the B.C. Legislature, there is no doubt that many people will be there to have a puff at 4:20 pm. With a long history of cannabis activism in Victoria, there is a strong local cannabis movement determined to push for relaxing the smoking bylaws to allow for more indoor and outdoor public consumption.
If anyone gets a ticket for smoking cannabis on April 20 at the B.C. Legislature before me, I will be upset.
The only realistic way indoor cannabis smoking facilities and outdoor consumption spaces will be endorsed by the provincial government, is if they are embarrassed in international media for enforcing this bylaw. Cannabis might be legal, but it is far from free of unnecessary prohibitive regulations.
