DHC6to8:
I recommend that you review the licensing requirements that are set down in Canada. One of the requirements is that the Minister of Transport (and his Transport Canada underlings by assignment) SHALL issue a license to any and all applicants who meet the required criteria. It does not say that they "may issue it if they feel like it", but that they shall issue the license. Nowhere in the regulations does it indicate that an applicant must have never had a criminal conviction for drug trafficking.
He did the crime and did whatever time the Crown felt he deserved. If you want this to change, you need to lobby the legislators first, as it is they who would change the licensing requirements, not Transport Canada.
I still think my biblical quote above applies, but some refuse to believe that all human beings are not perfect. Living in glass houses is fraught with risk when one is casting stones.