Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre has accused media, politicians, and experts of concealing the failure of Canada’s "safe supply" drug policy. Blacklock's Reporter says he made these remarks while visiting a kindergarten playground near Montréal’s first federally-subsidized injection site, which opened on April 15.“I know wacko politicians in the Liberals and the NDP and their supporters in the media want to make it sound like there’s a constitutional obligation that we allow these drug dens anywhere they want to go up,” said Poilievre. “That is not true. That is the opposite of true.”Supervised injection sites require a federal waiver under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. In 2023, Poilievre sponsored a Commons motion to “redirect all funds from taxpayer-funded hard drug programs to addiction treatment and recovery,” which was rejected by MPs in a 209 to 113 vote.“There will not be a single taxpayer dollar from a Poilievre government going to drug dens,” Poilievre asserted. “Every single penny will go to treatment and recovery services to bring our loved ones home drug-free.”Globe & Mail reporter Eric Andrew-Gee asked Poilievre about his plans for safe injection sites across the country. Poilievre responded, “They are not safe injection sites, I’m sorry. It’s dishonest language. You just repeat the language that is fed to you by the government.”When asked who he was with, Andrew-Gee replied, “Globe & Mail.”“You guys repeat the same language you get from the radical Liberal-NDP activists and bureaucracy,” Poilievre said. “You call them safe. How can they be safe? Do you think it’s safe when a bullet comes flying out of one these sites to kill a mother in Toronto? Do you think that’s safe? Do you think it’s safe to have people using crack and heroin and cocaine next to a playground like this? Do you think that is safe? It’s not safe.”Andrew-Gee interjected, “Supervised injection sites,” to which Poilievre responded, “They are drug dens. They’ve made everything worse. Everywhere they’ve been done they’ve made everything worse.”Poilievre continued, “I know what you will do now. You’ll now go and call the same bureaucrats who caused the chaos and you’ll call them ‘experts,’ the people who caused the 400% increase in drug overdose deaths in Vancouver. You’re going to call them experts. They are experts at destroying communities and ending lives but at perpetuating their own industries, because that is what they are.”A 2023 Department of Health audit acknowledged that the "safe supply" drug policy had cost $820 million and failed to reduce opioid-related deaths. “Deaths have remained higher than pre-pandemic levels,” said the report Horizontal Evaluation Of The Canadian Drugs And Substances Strategy.“Despite notable efforts to reduce and minimize opioid-related harms and deaths, the number of substance use harms and deaths continues to be alarming,” the report added. “The COVID-19 pandemic has also exacerbated the overdose crisis.”
