The organization representing B.C. municipalities is welcoming proposed changes to drug decriminalization, but others are more critical.
Trish Mandewo, president of the Union of the British Columbia Municipalities, says her organization would like to see Ottawa amend the terms of decriminalization “as soon as possible.”
Premier David Eby Friday (April 26) announced that B.C. is asking the federal government to make illicit drug use illegal in all public spaces including parks, hospitals and on transit.
Proposed adjustments to the legality of drug possession in B.C. would not re-criminalize possession in private residences, overdose prevention sites, drug-checking locations or other places where individuals are legally sheltering. But the changes will give police power to enforce public drug use restrictions, the province says.
“This was a necessary step,” Mandewo said. “From the onset, local governments have been saying that the terms of decriminalization trial did not include realistic guidelines to support public safety and for us, public safety is critical.”
But if Mandewo praised B.C.’s move, she called for additional support for individuals consuming drugs.
“The announcement on Friday still has to be paired with providing those other supports and services,” she said.
Brittany Graham, the executive director of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, said that although she hasn’t seen specifics, the proposed change only seems to affect those who have no home and are living in poverty.
“They are going to be (re-criminalized) in every sense of the word and it is very disappointing, in the middle of this overdose crisis when 14,000 people have died, that our current government is blaming our larger problems of homelessness, and poverty, and the welfare state on the individual people who have nowhere to go,” she said.
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Federal New Democrat Gord Johns, who represents the riding of Courtenay-Alberni, said he is not against the provincial NDP’s move, adding that Friday’s announcement showed government was listening to the concerns of the public and police.
Police made it very clear they needed additional tools to ensure people aren’t using in public spaces, he added. At the same time, police have also made it clear they do not want to go back to criminalizing people who use substances, he added.
Johns said B.C. has been investing “heavily” in additional resources, but needs what he called a “federal partner” with a “sense of urgency” and the willingness to invest resources with experts — not ideology — guiding decisions.
“The federal Liberals are taking an incremental approach and in a health crisis that costs lives,” Johns said. “(Federal) Conservatives are spreading disinformation, which is absolutely deadly in a health crisis.”
Johns noted that the toxic drug crisis has yet to trigger a First Ministers’ Meeting, a national declaration of emergency and other necessary measures.
Speaking at an unrelated event in Langley Monday morning, Eby again made his case for Friday’s announcement, arguing that it tries to balance the safety of substance users with public safety. He also spoke of mistakes when asked what other jurisdictions contemplating decriminalization could learn from B.C.
He said addressing public concerns around safety is “critical” to get buy-in from the public when it comes to treating addiction as a public health rather than criminal issue.
“Balancing those two things is core and I hope other jurisdictions take that lesson and don’t repeat our mistakes,” Eby said.
Federal Tory Leader Pierre Poilievre, meanwhile, has accused Eby of a “panicked pre-election flip-flop” and is citing B.C.’s request as evidence of decriminalization’s larger failure, blaming it for “death, chaos and carnage across Canada” in a letter calling for an emergency debate in the House of Commons.
Eby did not directly answers questions around Poilievre’s comments, but warned against politicizing the debate.
Friday’s move also shaped the morning hours in the provincial legislature, when a motion by B.C. United calling for an end of decriminalization failed to make it to the floor with New Democrats using their majority to block it.
-with files from Canadian Press
Trudeau exempted BC from the Criminal Code ban on crack, heroin & fentanyl in parks & hospitals.
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) April 29, 2024
After tanking in the polls, the BC NDP did a panicked pre-election flip-flop, admitting Eby & Trudeau were wrong.
Common sense Conservatives demand an emergency Parliamentary debate… pic.twitter.com/fa3YxPjYIB