A BC lawyer confirmed on Tuesday that some of her clients wish to remain in jail so they can avoid overdosing on the mean streets of the province and remain housed..Vancouver criminal defence lawyer, Melanie Begalka, spoke briefly with the Western Standard via phone on Tuesday and said some clients of hers are asking to extend their time in custody..“The extreme housing crisis, fear of dangerous drugs on the street and general lack of resources, it’s all real," Begalka said.."And a terrible indictment of society when the best people can do is jail.”.Begalka wouldn’t disclose details of why her clients were arrested or in which municipality the alleged offence or offences occurred stating she wanted to remain professional..“[They say], ‘Let's just push this off, because I'm still waiting to hear from housing providers, I'm still trying to get on to a waitlist for treatment, and still trying to find somewhere to go after jail,'" Begalka said..“So jail is a better option. It’s really horrible, it's really sad.”.Begalka said it's almost always people who are homeless, who are using drugs, who are "tired.".“It's exhausting to be homeless. It's really, really hard. They call it ‘three hots and a cot’ — that's what you get when you go to jail. You get three hot meals and a bed and that’s more than some people get anywhere else," Begalka said.."They help people apply for disability or welfare, make sure that they're on MSP and stuff before they leave — and they're great, they're trying their best, but they can't manufacture housing.".Begalka posted the comments about her clients wanting to remain in jail on X/Twitter on June 28 which have caught the eye of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.."So inmates now ask to stay in jail because they can’t afford a home outside," Poilievre said.."The Trudeau housing market is literally worse than prison for many.". Conservative Leader Pierre PoilievreConservative leader Pierre Poilievre .READ MORE: EXCLUSIVE: Poilievre says Liberal's 'safe supply' money should be put into treatment, rehab.Poilievre told the Western Standard in an exclusive interview he believes the Liberal's “safe supply” of drugs in Canada is not safe..In 2020, Health Canada began funding safer supply pilot projects which use prescribed medications as an alternative to the toxic illegal drug supply to help reduce the risk of overdose..“The theory is, if the government gets people powerful products, it can guarantee they will be free of contaminants that cause sudden overdose or death,” Poilievre said..“But in practice, what happens is these drugs get people high for a while and then they're not strong enough. So then the criminal sells the drugs to kids. In order to profit to buy fentanyl and other more powerful drugs. Those kids get hooked on the government-funded supply. They then graduate to more dangerous drugs.”.The project of “safe supply” was announced in July 2019 at the cost of $76.2 million when the feds claimed key lifesaving measures protect people from an illegal drug supply that contains toxic fentanyl and addressed the growing methamphetamine use..“Vancouver is in a state of emergency. People are dying every day from an unregulated, contaminated drug supply — these are preventable deaths. People have been dying for many years as a result of the toxic drug supply and following a drastic spike in deaths in April 2016, a provincial public health emergency was finally declared,” the City of Vancouver stated..“Since that time thousands of people have lost their lives to a drug supply poisoned with Fentanyl; a cheap and synthetic opioid detected in the majority of overdose deaths. To date, drug testing indicated further contaminants such as Carfentanil and benzodiazepines, making it more difficult and complex to reverse overdoses.”.Poilievre said since the policy of providing taxpayer-funded drugs was introduced, BC has seen a 300% increase in overdose deaths..“So it hasn't worked. What we need is to take that same money and put it into treatment and rehabilitation,” Poilievre said.
