SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 79

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 1, 2022 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 79 - Jun/1/22
Mr. Jagmeet Singh (Burnaby South, NDP)
  • Jun/1/22 2:34:18 p.m.
  • Watch
Mr. Speaker, since 2016, 27,000 Canadians have lost their life to a toxic drug supply. Experts agree that a criminal approach will not save lives and we need a health care-based approach. Now, the Prime Minister has agreed to take a health care-based approach by decriminalizing personal possession in B.C., but if that approach is good in B.C., why will the Prime Minister not support our bill to bring a health care approach for the rest of Canada to save lives across our country?
89 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
Context: House Hansard - 79 - Jun/1/22
Mr. Randall Garrison
Mr. Speaker, that may sound like a tough question, but for me, as someone who has been a public advocate of decriminalizing all drugs for more than a decade, that is an easy question. I think all drugs should be decriminalized, and that is what we put forward in Bill C-216 today. If we actually look at the statistics on the mandatory minimums that are applied by judges, we see that most of them are for things like simple possession or trafficking to support people's own drug habit. I am sorry that I do not have the statistic in front of me, but something like 61% are for those offences. They are not for the offences that the Conservatives have combed through the code to find and fearmonger on by saying that eliminating those mandatory minimums means that those serious crimes would not be punished by jail time. They would be.
153 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border