The RCMP chose not to issue a press release it drafted following its spring 2014 bust at B.C.’s Kelowna International Airport of cannabis shipped to licensed cannabis producers in Ontario. The producers had told Health Canada it would be shipping plants, but instead shipped harvested bud packaged for resale. The documents obtained by the National Post via access-to-information request show that the RCMP was concerned the news would impact the stock price of one of the producers: Tweed Marijuana, now Canopy Growth. The RCMP remained silent despite a public statement from Tweed, which contained what some RCMP members saw to be “brutally misleading” information about the seizure. The police force eventually issued a stripped down version of the public statement it initially drafted, 11 days after the seizure. (National Post)

Talking point: A B.C. RCMP spokesperson said decisions surrounding communications always consider “whether (or) not a company is publicly traded.” However, Garry Clement, a retired RCMP superintendent, said Tweed’s status as a public company shouldn’t have factored into the RCMP’s decision to disclose the incident to the public. Canopy Growth—which changed its name from Tweed in September 2015—is now the largest cannabis company in the world by market cap, and has continued to grow since the legalization of marijuana in Canada in October 2018.