By scripting his recent expulsion from the House of Commons, rather than explaining it by the censorship of his remarks, Pierre Poilievre will have to see more the weight of his ignorance and his narrow-mindedness on the question of drugs in the country.
Protesting once again about the policies put forward by the current government – and particularly regarding the approach to decriminalization of simple possession of drugs introduced in British Columbia – the latter exhibited its penchant for disinformation.
Indiscriminately describing this approach and Prime Minister Trudeau as “crazy” and “extremist”, he distorted the request expressed by Prime Minister David Eby on April 26. Wishing that the guidelines of this approach would be adapted according to the current context in his province after a first full year of the project, the idea of putting an end to it was never expressed or even that of considering it a failure. The leader of the official opposition made him say the opposite.
This behavior reminds us that the Conservative Party of Canada, more particularly that of the Harper government from 2005 to 2015, swore only by law and order when it came to drug policies, to the detriment of people living with a problem. linked to use. Today, the current leader wants to succeed where this government would have failed, a goal that we should be concerned about.
The overdose crisis plaguing the country could have been avoided, or at least largely mitigated. The government to which he belonged, with its repressive vision in matters of drugs, will have fed it with greed. No, “it’s not Justin’s fault.”
The final blow will be given in 2006 with the withdrawal of a pillar of the Canadian Drug Strategy: “harm reduction”. An orientation which will have led to stigmatization and racism. Added to this will be the imposition of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses and the systematic refusal to recognize the importance of supervised consumption services in the country. The Supreme Court of Canada, in a unanimous decision in September 2011, severely reprimanded this government, accusing it of having abused its prerogatives and turning a blind eye to the facts. The Court will rule that a supervised consumption service constituted a necessary and life-saving health service. The decision will set a precedent. This is true more than ever.
In 2015, the Trudeau government will begin its mandate in the midst of the opioid crisis. He will quickly consider it national. The reintegration of “harm reduction” into the table of pillars of the new national strategy will launch the reform in 2016. Since then, with the legalization of cannabis, numerous actions will follow one another, all guided by an approach of health and respect for rights people struggling with substance use disorder. We had to dare and do things differently, recognizing that thoughts had evolved, since the “war on drugs”, dictated more particularly against users more than 60 years ago, constituted a bitter failure.
In November 2022, in a review of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the government ruled that addiction was not a question of criminal law, but of health, that our repressive policies had contributed to the prison over-representation of racialized communities. and indigenous people, and that other approaches, based on evidence, should be considered before criminalizing drug possession for personal use.
The efforts made to tackle the social problems brutally exposed by the national opioid crisis cannot be denied nor the gains made erased. As part of evidence-based data, public health approaches and human rights, they must be preserved to guide the future. The manipulation of public opinion through the use of fear and truncated argumentation must be firmly rejected.
Today, discussing and thinking intelligently about the evolution of drug policies means knowing that in Vienna, on March 22, the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs adopted a very first resolution recognizing the importance of the harm reduction approach. The consensus established until then around repressive policies was broken. A revolution within the international community, the North American opioid crisis is its source. A few months earlier, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights invited states to focus on decriminalization.
Every day, addiction workers, standard bearers of harm reduction, dedicate themselves to welcoming, listening and directing, with still insufficient resources, these people affected by addiction. Their actions also have a considerable impact on families and the environment in which they take place. Pierre Poilievre’s rhetoric, based on repression and exclusion, misses the target. Modern drug policy is not built on anecdotes.
And then, how can we not conclude by remembering the exceptional contribution of Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, appointed by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, President of the Canadian Senate from 2013 to 2015? A conservative senator, in 2002 he signed the report of the Special Senate Committee on Illicit Drugs. He was visionary in taking care to trace the contours of a drug policy free from the moral judgment of the State, focusing on a humanism built in relationships with others within communities.
A reading to be prescribed urgently.