There's nothing quite so refreshing, so very cleansing to the soul, as the shameless hypocrisy of a crusading politician. Time and again some high-horse moralizer will preach and preach about the evils of this or that, only to find themselves quickly turning about when offered the opportunity for a quick buck.
This week's stunning greedhead is Julian Fantino. You may remember him as a bumbling scold on the benches of Stephen Harper's government, but before that, he was a scold with a gun and a badge.
A Toronto-area cop who made no secret of the dangers of the demon weed, who then found himself at the head of the Ontario Provincial Police, where he set up a task force to crack down on grow ops. A man who lost an election preaching the dangers of Justin Trudeau's legal cannabis policy as dangerous for children.
A man who now finds himself as the executive chair of a medical marijuana company Aleafia.
Ah, just so.
You may remember flyers Fantino sent around to his constituents before the last election warning the people of his Toronto riding how dangerous and terrible the Liberal's plan to legalize marijuana. In the flier he said, "Legalization is an irresponsible policy that only puts dangerous drugs on the streets and in our communities, and sends the wrong message to children that recreational drug use is okay."
And it wasn't long after that Fantino was telling the Toronto Sun he wanted no part of the selling of recreational marijuana:
" 'There's a lot of money in it,' Fantino said. 'Big money.' He said he was offered 'to fall in with a company' that wanted to pay him very well to simply lend his name to it. Not a chance. 'I would never do it.' "
Medical pot, though? Well, that's a different story. The former minister says his time overseeing the nation's veterans convinced him of the benefits of medicinal marijuana for the treatment of illness. But he was also able to see the other important factors. For example, there's a butt-load of money in selling medicinal pot to people.
While he was minister, his department saw a huge increase in the amount it paid out to reimburse veterans with a cannabis prescription. As the Canadian Press reported at the time: "The cost of providing medical marijuana to the country's injured soldiers under a Veterans Affairs program jumped to more than $4.3 million [in 2015], an increase of 10 times what was spent last year."
Now, $4.3 million isn't a huge amount of money in a federal context. But a tenfold increase year-over-year? That's something interesting. So when Fantino talks about there being "a lot of money" in marijuana, he knows exactly what he's saying. Now he gets a slice of that.
But let's not forget what context Fantino is coming from. Here's a guy who was a cop at the height of the drug war. A cop who spent his fair share of time putting people in prison for drug crimes. And as Andray Domise made a point of on Twitter, a cop who has a history of inflaming racial tensions wherever he goes.
Who is it that police lock up in disproportionate numbers you may ask? Well, why don't we take the word of another former Toronto cop turned politician: "I think there's a recognition that the current enforcement disproportionately impacts poor neighbourhoods and racialized communities, and there's something unjust about that." That's former Toronto police chief and current Liberal MP Bill Blair talking to Maclean's.
Of course, Fantino isn't the only hypocrite in this. He's got a partner in not-crime, former undercover drug cop and deputy commissioner of the RCMP, Raf Souccar.
Our friend Mr. Souccar's involvement has the added benefit of being on the marijuana legalization advisory board for the government. This is, by his own admission, a spot where he could be in a conflict of interest. "There is clearly a potential conflict that could have occurred. And I made sure to the extent that I believe is safe and ethical, I separated that," he told the National Post. He separated that by waiting a couple months after the panel submitted its report before discussing whether to join the company he's now CEO of.
This is madness. Here we have a couple of former cops, cashing in on selling a drug they spent much of their lives putting people in jail for. One of those cops who was saying less than two years ago how, despite all the money, he didn't want in the marijuana business. A cop who spent his time as a politician dying on the hill that marijuana legalization is bad.
My good gracious, THESE COPS ARE SELLING DRUGS NOW.
It's a utterly mind-boggling disgrace, but it's no real surprise.
Photo Credit: Macleans