POILIEVRE SLAMS `ACTIVISTS' PUSHING SAFE SUPPLY
`No experience getting people off drugs'
• Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre doubled down on his criticism of the federal government's approach to dealing with the opioid crisis, and insinuated advocates of the safe supply program are “activists” or wilfully perpetuating the crisis to make money.
His comments came as Conservatives used their opposition day motion in the House of Commons to ask the government to reverse its policy of offering a safe supply of drugs to people who are at high risk of an overdose, and instead redirect the money to treatment and recovery programs.
In his opening speech on Thursday, Poilievre accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of having implemented “a theory backed up by a group of activists, most of them tax-funded, pharmaceutical companies and others who stand to gain from perpetuating the crisis.
“These so-called experts are typically pie in the sky theorists with no experience getting people off drugs, or they're members of the misery industry, those paid activists and public health bureaucrats whose jobs depend on the crisis continuing,” he said.
B.C. New Democrat Gord Johns expressed surprise at the comments, and said Health Canada created an expert task force on substance abuse, which included public health officials, community and business leaders among others, that recommended a safer supply of drugs.
He also said that the Canadian Association of Police Chiefs, as well as British Columbia's chief coroner and chief medical officer have expressed support for the policy.
“And the leader of the Official Opposition calls them `activists,' ” said Johns.
Ben Perrin, a former adviser to prime minister Stephen Harper and author of a book on the opioid crisis, said in an interview Poilievre's comments are “repugnant and really hurtful” for all those who, like him, are arguing for a safer supply of drugs in order to save lives.
“I was part of their party for years,” he said. “And I have been very public about the reasons for why, I'm sure with my views, and, you know, no one's got me in their back pocket.”
The Conservatives have been pushing the issue on drugs ever since the National Post published an investigation showing that some B.C. drug users who were given government-funded opioids would trade or sell them to buy fentanyl or other street drugs.
A reporter from Global News tested that claim in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and demonstrated that this phenomenon of “diversion” is not just anecdotal. In fact, the reporter was able to buy 26 tablets of hydromorphone in just under 30 minutes for $30.
Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Carolyn Bennett said the federal government has been aware that there is an “issue” with diversion but still believes safe supply is saving lives.
The political debate on the issue became so heated earlier this week that Poilievre accused federal Liberals of “killing” people with their drug policies, which prompted Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland to stand up and defend her colleague, Bennett.
“Unlike the leader of the opposition, who is a career politician and has done nothing else, she is a doctor,” said Freeland of Bennett.
British Columbia's coroner confirmed on Thursday that the unregulated drug market is to blame for most of the deaths related to the opioid crisis, and that illicit fentanyl continues to be the “most lethal driver” — not the prescribed opioids that are considered to be safe supply.
“Members of our communities are dying because non-prescribed, non-pharmaceutical fentanyl is poisoning them on an unprecedented scale,” said B.C.'s chief coroner Lisa Lapointe.
The House of Commons is expected to vote on the Conservative motion to reverse the government's safe supply policy on drugs next week, but it seems unlikely that any of the other political parties will support it.
“We have lost thousands of lives to an unregulated toxic drug supply and what do the Conservatives do? They bring forward this motion, they play politics with people's lives and they oversimplify this really important health issue,” said Johns.
Even the Bloc's SimonPierre Savard-Tremblay accused Conservatives of indulging in “demagoguery” and said that Canada should focus on an approach focused on public health.
“We lived through 10 years of that Conservative government taking harm reduction out with their deadly war on drugs that has been proven to be ineffective, costly, as well as deadly. These policies have also had a profound negative effect on Canada's most vulnerable,” said Bennett.
“Fight against evidence-based programs that are actually saving lives just has to stop. People are dying, but not for the reasons that (Conservatives) are giving.”