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.

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.