Province looks to shut down another cannabis store

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This article was published 02/07/2021 (1735 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province has filed a statement of claim seeking to shut down the Indigenous Bloom cannabis store in Portage la Prairie, the provincial regulator’s latest attempt to rein in what it claims to be the operation of an unlicensed retail shop.

The Indigenous Bloom store in Portage is a partnership between Long Plain First Nation and Indigenous Bloom, a B.C. company.

In May the provincial regulator terminated the licence for another store Long Plain First Nation is a partner in, Meta Cannabis Supply Co. at 420 Madison St., even though that store was in compliance with all the regulations. It is not clear what the status of that store is, although officials from High Tide Inc., a company that acquired the Meta cannabis retail chain late last year, said it was divesting its stake in that store.

Long Plain First Nation Chief Dennis Meeches declined to comment on Friday afternoon after the Manitoba attorney general’s office issued a press release on the lawsuit that seeks an interim and permanent injunction against the parties who own the store.

The release notes the attorney general’s office desires to “apply one set of rules to everyone.”

In the past, Meeches has claimed the store is not selling unregulated product and has intimated that a legal battle was imminent.

Meanwhile, a store attendant who answered the phone on Friday afternoon at the Indigenous Bloom location in question, at 79 Keeshkeemaquah Dr. in Portage la Prairie, said the store was open.

Some believe the matter is the first salvo in a battle over Indigenous rights in the cannabis industry, something observers say was left ambiguous in the original federal legislation to legalize recreational cannabis in 2018.

Meeches has said in the past his band is the government authority “for all business on our lands.”

The statement of claim states, “The absence of any cannabis store agreement with MBLL (Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corp.) and the absence of any retail cannabis stores licence, means all sales of cannabis occurring at the Indigenous Bloom store are contrary to the laws of Manitoba and Canada.”

The attorney general’s office said it is taking the action to protect the public interest and follows earlier efforts by the provincial cannabis industry regulators to stop what it claims to be the unlicensed sale of unregulated products at the Portage store on the Long Plain First Nation. It said regulators have “extended multiple opportunities to resume participation in the licensed legal framework” but those actions have not had the desired effect and sales of what it says is unregulated cannabis products have continued.

 

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca