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B.C. poll reveals clash between Indigenous views and drug policy

Published

3 hours ago

9 minute read

By Alexandra Keeler

A supermajority of First Nations respondents disagree that criminalizing drug use is racist, challenging public health advocates’ assumptions

A new report shows a majority of British Columbians — and a plurality of all ethnic communities surveyed — disagree with the contention that drug criminalization policies are racist.

The findings challenge assertions made by prominent B.C. policymakers, who have advocated for drug decriminalization and harm-reduction initiatives on the grounds of anti-racism and reconciliation.

The report, published by the policy nonprofit Centre for Responsible Drug Policy and think tank Macdonald-Laurier Institute, draws from a poll of 6,300 B.C. adults that was commissioned by the centre and conducted by Mainstreet Research.

“Chinese and Indigenous leaders keep telling me that their communities are very anti-drug, but public health officials and harm-reduction activists keep saying that legalization is integral to anti-racism and reconciliation,” said Adam Zivo, a journalist and founder of the centre.

“Now we have data to show which side is more accurate.”

When asked whether criminalizing drug use is racist, just 22 per cent of all respondents agreed, while 60 per cent disagreed. Notably, 79 percent of the respondents identified as white.

Disagreement was strongest among First Nations respondents, with just nine per cent of the 172 Indigenous respondents agreeing that criminalization is racist and 67 per cent disagreeing.

Agreement was stronger among Asian communities, with East Asian and South Asian respondents being most likely to say criminalization policies are racist.

In the East Asian cohort, 42 per cent said they disagreed that criminalizing drug use is racist, while 36 per cent strongly agreed. Similarly, 46 per cent of South Asian respondents disagreed and 32 per cent agreed.

Self-determination

The poll challenges views articulated by some prominent B.C. policymakers and public health groups.

In July, B.C.’s provincial health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, released a report asserting that drug policies prohibiting the use of hard drugs are rooted in racism and colonialism.

“Prohibitionist drug policies are deeply rooted in colonialism, reflecting and perpetuating systemic racism that disproportionately impacts Indigenous peoples,” Henry’s report says.

“These policies were designed to control marginalized populations and have led to over-incarceration, intergenerational trauma, and significant health disparities within these communities.”

Henry’s report contends that decriminalization policies — such as those implemented by B.C. as part of a three-year trial project that began January 2023 — can help to rectify these injustices by prioritizing health and safety over law enforcement.

Henry’s report was released mere months after B.C. rolled back some of its decriminalization measures in response to growing public concerns over decriminalization’s effects on community safety and order. Henry’s report, which is published by the BC Ministry of Health, urges the province to move in the opposite direction.

“This report’s recommendation is to continue to refine and expand prescribed alternatives to unregulated drugs, and critically, to explore implementation of models that do not require prescription,” Henry writes, referring to harm-reduction initiatives such as safer supply that dispense prescription opioids to drug users.

The report presents decriminalization as a move supported by Indigenous communities, citing the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act Action Plan. Action 4.12 aims to “address the disproportionate impacts of the overdose public health emergency on Indigenous Peoples by: applying to the Government of Canada to decriminalize simple possession of small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use.”

The Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, a policy advocacy group based out of Simon Fraser University, has similarly contended that drug criminalization is racist.

The coalition’s website says, “the demand by Black communities to decriminalize drugs and to immediately expunge records are a vital necessity for minimizing the racially disproportionate harms of drug criminalization, part of a broader struggle to end the war on Black communities.”

And in December 2023, the Harm Reduction Nurses Association, a national organization that advances harm-reduction nursing, obtained an injunction to prevent the B.C. government from imposing restrictions on public drug consumption.

The association alleged the government’s actions “would put people at greater risk of fatal overdose, make healthcare outreach more challenging, and drive racial discrimination, particularly against Indigenous people.”

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Minority polling challenges

Some Indigenous groups have expressed reservations about blanket decriminalization policies in other contexts.

In January 2024, the First Nations Health Authority, an agency that manages health services for Indigenous communities in B.C., issued a statement acknowledging decriminalization may not be the best approach for all communities.

“FNHA acknowledges and supports the self-determination of each First Nations community when considering implementing this exemption,” the statement reads, referring to the three-year exemption B.C. obtained from federal laws prohibiting the use of hard drugs.

First Nations Health Authority has emphasized the need for culturally informed approaches that prioritize community health and safety and advocated for nuanced strategies tailored to each community’s specific needs.

The Mainstreet Research poll reveals challenges in accurately representing the views of B.C.’s smaller ethnic communities.

While non-white Canadians make up 40 per cent of B.C.’s population, they accounted for only 16 per cent of the poll’s 6,300 respondents.

Responses by Black, Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian respondents were excluded from the current analysis because sample sizes were too small, numbering below 100. The English-only and automated telephone polling format may also increase uncertainty.

As the poll focused primarily on B.C. and broad drug policy questions, its findings underscore the need for a deeper understanding of community beliefs to inform drug policies.

The Centre for Responsible Drug Policy is releasing the polling data and its report on a “preliminary” basis so it can inform drug policy discussions ahead of provincial elections, which are taking place this October in B.C., Saskatchewan and New Brunswick.

But Mainstreet Research is continuing to gather data, aiming for a final survey size of more than 12,000 respondents. Once completed, the survey will be one of the largest polls on harm reduction ever conducted in Canada.

“The final report, set to be released later this year, will include larger samples from B.C.’s diverse ethnic communities, providing further clarity on their beliefs,” Zivo said.

This article was produced through the Breaking Needles Fellowship Program, which provided a grant to Canadian Affairs, a digital media outlet, to fund journalism exploring addiction and crime in Canada. Articles produced through the Fellowship are co-published by Break The Needle and Canadian Affairs.

Subscribe to Break The Needle. Our content is always free – but if you want to help us commission more high-quality journalism, consider getting a voluntary paid subscription.

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Addictions

Pierre Poilievre endorses involuntary treatment for children, inmates severely addicted to drugs 

Published on October 16, 2024

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Amid record-high drug deaths, the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, now says he backs mandatory involuntary treatment for minors and prisoners severely addicted to drugs.

Poilievre, who earlier was cold to the idea, confirmed to the media last week that he is now fully on board with forcing severe addicts to get help and treating addiction with “rehab and recovery.”

“I believe for children and for prisoners who are behind bars, there should be mandatory drug treatment when they are found to be incapable of making decisions for themselves,” he said (24:33 min. mark).

Poilievre added that regarding forcing adults to get treatment, he is “still doing a lot of research on how that would work, but what I will say is we need to defund the unsafe government supply of drugs that the Trudeau and the NDP regimens are pushing on the population.”

According to Poilievre, he chose to back involuntary treatment for minors after hearing the testimony of 13-year-old Brianna Macdonald’s parents during a recent committee meeting on Parliament Hill. Macdonald, after battling drugs for a year, died in a homeless camp in Abbotsford, British Columbia.

Brianna’s parents noted their daughter had been battling illegal drug use from the age of 12, and despite them begging doctors to “keep her in hospitals,” the medical staff would “overlook what we said and release her, sending us home with Narcan kits.”

Additionally, Poilievre said that Canada needs to “prosecute drug criminals” and “treat addiction with rehab and recovery so that we can bring our loved ones home drug-free.”

His comments come after some provinces, such as Alberta and New Brunswick, have stated that legislation is coming that seeks to mandate minors seek treatment for severe drug use.

In British Columbia and Ontario, the so-called “safer supply” model has been in use and promoted by current and former governments. However, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, as reported by LifeSiteNews recently, said he wants to end “safer supply” in his province. He said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s continued push for lax drug policies has effectively turned the federal government into “the biggest drug dealer in the entire country.”

Some provinces, such as Alberta, appear to be having success with recovery-based approaches to dealing with addicts, instead of giving them more drugs.

As reported by LifeSiteNews last month, deaths related to opioid and other drug overdoses in Alberta have fallen to their lowest levels in years after Conservative Premier Danielle Smith’s government began to focus on helping addicts via a recovery-based approach instead of the Liberal-minded, so-called “safe supply” method.

While the federal government of Trudeau claims its “safer supply” program is good because it is “providing prescribed medications as a safer alternative to the toxic illegal drug supply,” studies have shown that these programs often lead to an excess of deaths from overdose in areas where they are allowed.

As for Poilievre, he has said that a Conservative government would slash funding to so-called “safe” injection sites.

After his federal government allowed the province of British Columbia to decriminalize the possession of hard drugs, including heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, meth and MDMA beginning on January 1, 2023, reports of overdoses and chaos began skyrocketing, leading the province to request that Trudeau re-criminalize drugs in public spaces.

A week later, the Trudeau government relented and accepted British Columbia’s request.

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Addictions

Harm Reduction is a Lie: Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan

Published on October 5, 2024

By

News release from Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan

Truth is wonderful. We can trust in truth. Truth leads to better choices and more happiness. Yet, there are many lies around us. A failure to comprehend things as they were, as they really are, as they will be, results in bad choices and unhappiness.

Sometimes lies are cloaked in words which distort their true outcomes. One such lie is so called “harm
reduction”. One government program under the heading of harm reduction is “safe supply”. Safe supply is a lie. It is not “safe”.

Another government program under the heading of harm reduction is an “overdose prevention site”. That is a lie also – these sites do not prevent overdoses.

Consider this, if your neighbor was drowning in filthy waters, would you row a boat out, and do nothing,
watching your neighbor flail and choke beside you in filthy waters, and just before he was about to go under, grab his hair as he was about to drown? And then, gasping for air, would you let him go, so that he resumes flailing and choking in filthy waters? What if you kept doing that bizarre thing?

What would be the normal thing to do? Get them out of filthy waters and onto shore, of course. Begin with the end in mind – for men and women drowning in filthy waters of addiction, that means recovery, not drug sites that keep them in those filthy waters.

Supervised consumption / overdose prevention sites are in fact drug sites – where illegal drugs are consumed accompanied with many other bad things.

Albertans did not ask for drug sites in their communities. Government imposed them on Albertans.

As a private citizen, prior to serving as an MLA, I attended packed town hall meetings at Red Deer City
Hall. The vast majority of townhall participants did not want the NDP to impose a drug site in Red Deer. They did anyways.

The drug site in Red Deer has now been in our community for too many years and its impacts are
evident for all to see. Let’s speak plainly and honesty. Drug sites in Alberta are an attraction for individuals seeking to live in drug addictions. Because of drug sites, there are more, not less, individuals living in addictions in communities with drug sites.

There is an exodus of businesses from areas containing drug sites. I have seen it. There is too much stealing, too much vandalizing, too much uncertainty for local businesses, their employees, their customers.

Regardless of good intentions, the truth is that drug sites facilitate a growing lawlessness, including embedding and emboldening criminal elements, which either abuse drug sites or prey on those living in addictions, some of whom support addiction lifestyles through stealing or robbing businesses and families in our communities.

The truth is that “harm reduction” drug sites result in “harm production” to businesses and individuals in our communities seeking to peaceably live their lives, working, and raising their families.

Communities that do not want drug sites should not be forced to have them.

Red Deer City Council, listening to its citizens and businesses, passed a motion to get the drug site out of Red Deer. The Alberta government listened, announcing that the drug site will be removed out of Red Deer. That is good for Red Deer!

Other Alberta municipalities that have suffered with drug sites will follow Red Deer and will seek to get drug sites out of their communities also.

It is good to confront and reject harm reduction lies, get drug consumption sites out of Alberta, and support recovery for those suffering under addiction, blessing themselves, their families, and our communities.

Alberta is the best province in a nation in trouble. Our lives belong to ourselves, not government. The machine is not greater than the creator.

Alberta is a land of freedom and prosperity. We must be vigilant to keep it that way.

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