Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is defending the Liberal government’s decision not to withdraw from three international drug treaties, which Canada will violate once cannabis is legalized, arguing it would have been a “mistake” and “very wrong” to pull Canada out of the international legal framework.

In an appearance before a Senate committee Tuesday, she used the country’s burgeoning opioid crisis as an example.

Freeland said the conventions regulate the movement of more than 100 drugs and substances, including “many that play a role in Canada and indeed North America’s opioid crisis.”

“I think it would be wrong for Canada to withdraw from conventions that play a useful role in helping us to respond to [the opioid] crisis,” she said.

Critics have argued that it’s hypocritical for Canada to follow some international laws but not others, and that violating the drug conventions could have ripple effects in the international community.

Some of the concerns raised over potential consequences have included whether violating the treaties will hurt Canada’s international reputation and if that could bruise the Liberal government’s bid for a seat on the UN Security Council.

In March, University of Cambridge researcher Bruno Gélinas-Faucher told the Senate Foreign Affairs and International Trade committee that a Global Affairs memo obtained under Access to Information laws showed a contradiction between what bureaucrats were saying internally (that it could have a big impact) and what they said publicly to the committee – that not withdrawing would merely lead to a “technical violation.”

“Legalization would have a significant impact on Canada’s binding obligation under the International Drug Control Convention,” the document said.

Conservative Sen. Thanh Hai Ngo pressed Freeland over the document – whether the government was ignoring its own advice.

Freeland said legalizing cannabis will result in Canada “contravening certain obligations related to cannabis under the three UN drug conventions,” but the country will continue to “be in line” with the objectives of the conventions.

“We do believe our approach is consistent with the over-arching goal of the conventions, which is to protect the health and welfare of society,” she said. “Both of those views are ultimately my judgement and the judgement of our government. And I believe they are consistent with advice.”

Freeland pointed to when Canada was re-elected to the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, one week after the Liberals’ cannabis legislation was tabled, as an example of how the country is still a “strong” and “active” player involved in the international drug control system.

Canada is party to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the 1988 Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances – all of which legalizing cannabis would contravene.

The Liberal government wants to legalize marijuana this summer.