The owner of an unlicensed cannabis dispensary in Stratford says "all he is trying to do is provide medicine for people."
“And I can’t even do that," Kirk Marquette told StratfordToday.
Marquette is the operator of Organic Solutions at 279 Monteith Ave.
The owner of the unlicensed cannabis dispensary said he was told to shut down by Stratford Police Services (SPS) this week.
Marquette operates the store with Waabskhiibiness Niini, who goes by the English name of Thomas Adam Jackson. He runs another Organic Solutions in Kettlepoint.
Marquette asserts that it is his right to trade traditional medicine as an Indigenous person, as protected by sections 25 and 35 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms – and those freedoms trump the need for a license or a permit.
Section 25 guarantees that “certain rights and freedoms shall not be construed as to abrogate or derogate from any aboriginal, treaty or other rights or freedoms that pertain to the aboriginal peoples of Canada.”
Section 35 recognizes and affirms the existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal people of Canada, defined as the “Indian, Inuit, and Métis people of Canada.”
Marquette said that because the City of Stratford acknowledges that the municipality is on Indigenous land, a motion which was adopted by Stratford City Council earlier this year, his rights to trade on the land are valid.
“Stratford wants to pretend that they have truth and reconciliation,” Marquette said. “Here we are today, shutting down an Indigenous business. So you tell me who has truth and reconciliation or who has rights?”
Cannabis as a traditional medicine has been subject to debate, though as part of Section 25 and 35, Indigenous people are to determine what exactly their traditional rights are, as explained by Chief Delbert Riley.
“The importance of 25 is that we put it in because we didn’t want every person trying to interpret what the rights were – not even judges … The only ones that can interpret it is the First Nations themselves.”
Riley is the Hereditary Crane Clan Chief of the Chippewa Nation. He is also the last president of the National Indian Brotherhood, the predecessor to the Assembly of First Nations.
As president, he developed and negotiated Sections 25 and 35 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982.
Riley told StratfordToday that there are perhaps about 500 other stores across the country operating similarly to Organic Solutions – without a permit and displaying Sections 25 and 35 of the Charter in the store. It is an endeavour to rebuild an Indigenous economy.
“We've got to get back to where we have a decent economy,” Riley said. “Right now there isn't one. They're still confined to these concentration camp reserves with no chance of any kind of economy.”
On June 1, Marquette, Jackson, and Riley delivered letters, written by Riley, to the SPS, the City of Stratford, and Mayor Martin Ritsma. The letter indicated the intent to open the trading post at its location and the reasons why it would be allowed.
In the letter, Riley calls the trading post medicinal in nature and therefore falls outside the scope of provincial regulation.
After the letters were delivered, he said police arrived at Organic Solutions to inform Marquette that his dispensary needed a permit and needed to cease operations.
A video of the interaction was posted to a friend’s Facebook page, though the audio of the interaction is too faint to hear.
Marquette also claimed that bylaw officers came after to let him know the accessibility ramp is not up to code and needed a permit to install.
In the subsequent days, Marquette contacted SPS and claimed they said Riley had no jurisdiction in the city and indicated that he had the freedom to apply for a permit like everyone else.
Marquette is not operating until he sorts things out. Still, he plans on protesting should Organic Solutions be shut down.
“My end goal is to run my business,” Marquette asserted. “It’s our trading post … I’m not here to hurt people.”
Given that the investigation is ongoing, SPS Chief Greg Skinner declined to comment.
The City of Stratford and Mayor Ritsma were likewise contacted for comment, though did not respond as of publication.
