Django Check and set permissions for a user group

Take a look at this blog post: Django: Using The Permission System

Adapted to your example:

can_fm_list = Permission.objects.get(name='can_fm_list')
newgroup.permissions.add(can_fm_list)

For others who are looking for adding multiple permissions at once,

permissions_list = Permission.objects.all()
new_group.permissions.set(permissions_list)