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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 200

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 18, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 200 - May/18/23
Mr. Gord Johns (Courtenay—Alberni, NDP)
  • May/18/23 10:28:03 a.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we have lost thousands of lives to an unregulated toxic drug supply. What do the Conservatives do? They bring forward this motion, play politics with people's lives and oversimplify a really important health issue. Health Canada created an expert task force on substance use. It included members from public health, indigenous health, communities, business, unions, universities, social service agencies, law enforcement and public policy thinkers. They said that we need a safer supply of substances, that we need to stop criminalizing people who use drugs, which causes more harm, and, yes, that we need treatment-on-demand, recovery, education and prevention. The Leader of the Opposition calls them activists. The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, Moms Stop the Harm, the chief coroner of British Columbia and the chief medical health officer of British Columbia all support a safer supply. Will the leader of the Conservative Party allow his colleagues and members to go back into their communities next week and meet with their chief medical health officers, their chief coroners and law enforcement? Will he allow a free vote on this motion, or is he going to continue to do more harm?
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Context: House Hansard - 200 - May/18/23
Mr. Gord Johns
  • May/18/23 12:11:50 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, first of all, I do agree that we need to have a proper, respectful dialogue. I just want to backtrack to the question from the Conservative Party. Every person incarcerated deserves health and treatment. That is actually the law in this land. It is not being delivered by the government, so that bill would be ineffective in what it was asking for. It is just an action and, again, the government is failing people who are incarcerated as well. On what my colleague was saying about safe supply, the evidence speaks for itself. We need to continue to be driven by evidence and science in how we design our policies. The expert task force on substance use guided my bill, which was voted against by Conservatives in the House. They voted against the government's own expert task force. They do not want to hear from the experts. They call them “activists”. They call the police chiefs “activists”. They say the chief coroners are “activists, public health officers are “activists”, and moms who have lost their kids are “activists”. They are not activists. They are people with lived experience who understand this issue and have actually done the work.
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