In Canada, Indigenous Cannabis Shop Owners Fight Ottawa Closures
“We believe the evidence and arguments will be of national legal significance”
The email came one day in May, 2025.
Bryan Brant’s landlord said that the police had contacted him about his cannabis dispensary and that Brant was being evicted. He had 48 hours to vacate his shop — Native Cannabis Depot — on Bank Street.
Brant, as an Indigenous businessperson, claimed he had rights to open and run such an unlicensed shop. But the closure became just one of several in Ottawa that he and another Indigenous owner have been fighting.
Brant and Robert Fisher separately owned unlicensed shops and were evicted last year after their landlords were contacted by the Ottawa Police Service.
Fisher and Brant both subsequently filed complaints at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal against the Ottawa Police Services Board, claiming that the police’s actions were “abusive, discriminatory and racist,” and that they had treaty rights to operate the businesses, according to tribunal documents. Those complaints were dismissed due to jurisdictional issues, but Fisher has also filed an application in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
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