Photo: The Liberal government in New Brunswick has taken a hands off approach to cannabis on First Nations, unlike in Nova Scotia. Getty Images/iStockphoto
By: John Chilibeck
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Daily Gleaner
It turns out more than one provincial cabinet minister recently toured a First Nation pot facility in New Brunswick ahead of an RCMP raid.
Keith Chiasson, the minister of Indigenous affairs, told reporters at the legislature on Friday that he too was on the tour of Madawaska Warehouse, alongside Luke Randall, the minister responsible for Cannabis NB, on March 30.
Only 27 days later, on April 26, the warehouse was raided by the RCMP, one of six locations in the First Nation, Nova Scotia and Ontario where the police force executed search warrants. They say they were targeting organized crime, drug trafficking, and money laundering. As of Friday, no charges had been laid.
“I was there, yeah,” Chiasson said about his cannabis tour inside the First Nation. “It was just part of a visit like we’ve done to every First Nation community in the province. There was nothing out of the ordinary with the visit because I visited every single First Nation community.”
But there was one big difference. The minister acknowledged that it was the first time a couple of cabinet ministers toured pot facilities in a First Nation to learn about how the recreational drug market worked outside of the provincially sanctioned Cannabis NB stores.
Randall also admitted to Brunswick News last week he had toured the private cannabis wholesaler along with a few pot shops in Madawaska First Nation on that day. He said several government officials were in tow, without mentioning another minister was with him.
Chiasson said they went on the tour in the Indigenous community beside Edmundston after Madawaska Chief Patricia Bernard invited them to take a closer look at how her community handles the recreational pot trade.
In 2023, the First Nation passed its own law regulating cannabis and tobacco sales.
However, such legislation isn’t granted explicit permission in the federal Cannabis Act and hasn’t been tested in court.
The raid targeted the business of Cindy Bernard, who is the chief’s niece and the daughter of John Bernard, the successful owner of the Grey Rock casino and various other enterprises. He had rented the warehouse to his daughter and condemned the raid as baseless and traumatizing, arguing that organized crime had nothing to do with the business.