Hello,
The federal government has granted British Columbia’s request for the recriminalization of certain drugs, addressing an issue that had led to sustained criticism of the Prime Minister and his government by the Official Opposition.
Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks announced the development ahead of Question Period today in an exchange with journalists on Parliament Hill.
“We have said yes, and it is effective immediately,” the Minister said.
The B.C. government had asked Health Canada to amend an exemption that decriminalized hard drugs in that province to make public drug use illegal once again.
Toward the end of April, Premier David Eby asked for the exemption to be amended to recriminalize the use of those drugs in public spaces, such as hospitals and parks, after concerns from police and health workers and a backlash from the public.
The province was more than a year into a three-year pilot project to decriminalize possession of small amounts of certain illegal drugs, including heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine. A Health Canada exemption was issued to allow the pilot to proceed.
Saks said today that the federal move means the proposal put forward by B.C. to prohibit possession of controlled substances in public spaces has been granted.
The Minister noted that decriminalization is not the cause of overdose deaths that have caused concern. Instead, the deaths are linked to the illegal toxic drug supply. “It is a poisoned supply and it is highly dangerous,” said Saks.
Earlier today, the BC Coroners Service announced toxic drugs had claimed the lives of at least 192 residents of the province in March, and at least 572 lives in the first three months of 2024. The service said the tally reflected an 11-per-cent decrease in the number of lives lost when compared with March 2023.
Saks said decriminalization is one tool among many tools for the federal government in dealing with opioid crisis, with prevention, harm reduction and treatment being other methods.
The B.C. request had become a major focus of the opposition Conservatives, with Leader Pierre Poilievre asking the government to immediately recriminalize drugs in public spaces in B.C.
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TODAY'S HEADLINES
India and Canada:
Trudeau was forced to accept meeting about Sikh activists in order to land in Punjab during 2018 trip: During the meeting, India’s minister for the Punjab handed the Prime Minister and then-defence minister Harjit Sajjan a dossier containing the names of about 10 Sikh activists whose activities the Indian government wanted curtailed, a source said.
India’s envoy to Canada scheduled to speak on bilateral ties after arrests linked to killing of Sikh activist: High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma’s speech today to the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations on current and future relations between India and Canada was announced in April, months into a diplomatic spat over the slaying of Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Three Indian nationals accused of Hardeep Singh Nijjar slaying face B.C. court: The three suspects – Karan Brar, Karanpreet Singh and Kamalpreet Singh – briefly responded to questions as they appeared by video in provincial court.
Other news:
Official Languages Commissioner sees complaints drop by more than half in past year: But Raymond Théberge says it’s too early to say there is a downward trend.
Federal program matching refugees with jobs set to be made permanent: Since being launched in April, 2018, the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot has helped 257 refugees and other displaced people fill job vacancies here. The pilot is set to be expanded and then made permanent, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
Oops – CBSA has effectively lost 12,000 open-access requests: An access to information crisis has been quietly playing itself out at the Canada Border Services Agency during the past few months.
TODAY’S POLITICAL QUOTES
“An invasion of Rafah, which would endanger the lives of women and children and innocent civilians, is completely unacceptable,” – Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly, on arrival at today’s federal cabinet meeting.
“We were hoping that the operation would not happen.” – International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen, arriving for today’s cabinet meeting on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on Israel’s operation in Rafah.
THIS AND THAT
Today in the Commons: Projected Order of Business at the House of Commons, May 07, accessible here.
Deputy Prime Minister’s day: Private meetings in Ottawa, and Chrystia Freeland attended the weekly cabinet meeting. Later she held a news conference on the government’s economic plan and she attended Question Period.
Commons committee highlights: Peter Loewen, director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, appears before the access to information committee on the impact of disinformation and misinformation on the work of parliamentarians. Carolyn Rogers, senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada, was scheduled to appear before the public accounts committee, which regularly reviews details on how Ottawa spends tax dollars. Magna International founder Frank Stronach appears before the agriculture committee on issues related to the horticultural sector. Catherine Tait, president and chief executive officer of CBC-Radio Canada, was scheduled to appear before the Canadian heritage committee on job cuts announced at CBC-Radio Canada.
PRIME MINISTER'S DAY
Justin Trudeau, in Ottawa, chaired the cabinet meeting and attended Question Period.
LEADERS
Green Party Leader Elizabeth May did a reading at the National Prayer Breakfast, attended the House of Commons and was scheduled to attend the annual Politics and the Pen gala.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, in Ottawa, met with Klara Geywitz, Germany’s housing minister and attended Question Period.
No schedules released for Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
THE DECIBEL
Today’s podcast features Roberta Lexier, an associate professor at Mount Royal University, on the subject of campus protests across Canada against the war in Gaza. The Decibel is here.
POLITICAL BOOKS
Justin Trudeau on the Ropes: Governing in Troubled Times.
By Paul Wells, Published by Sutherland House.
Veteran political journalist Paul Wells has cut to the chase in his new book on Justin Trudeau’s career in federal politics. The book runs slightly less than 100 pages, in line with the format of the Sutherland Quarterly series of essays. Wells, who has written on politics for Maclean’s, the National Post and The Montreal Gazette and now publishes a newsletter on Substack, writes that hard times wear leaders out, and Trudeau is now facing an “unsentimental bruiser” in Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre amidst multiple global crises. “He’s come back from tough situations before, but none this tough. I offer no prediction of the outcome, but I can’t look away.” Mr. Wells took several questions from the politics newsletter.
Your last book on a Canadian prime minister was The Longer I am Prime Minister about Stephen Harper, published in 2013. It ran to 448 pages. This new book is 95 pages. What was the challenge of writing short and how did you deal with it?
There are all sorts of writers’ jokes about how hard it is to be succinct, and there’s something to it. Short books are less work in a lot of ways. I did extensive fresh reporting for the Harper book, close to none for this one. This one is essentially an essay. But I found myself constantly having to decide what mattered, what could be left out, what advanced an argument vs. what would just slow it down. It was challenging.
Your book chronicles the challenges Justin Trudeau has faced as Prime Minister. How is Pierre Poilievre different from past challenges?
One of the choices I made for space was that I don’t address any of Trudeau’s opponents in detail. The book really is about Justin Trudeau, to an extent some readers will probably find weird. But Poilievre is obviously more formidable than the two leaders before him, more focused, and less willing to trim his sails to appear moderate. More than that, he’s simply the fourth Conservative leader Trudeau has faced, which means he’s relatively fresh even as Trudeau tests the limits of voter fatigue.
What’s your sense of what Justin Trudeau does when he’s on the ropes, and from that what’s your sense of his thinking through his current key challenges, including being competitive in the next federal election?
Trudeau himself gave us the best description of his fight preparation and philosophy, in his widely unread 2014 memoir Common Ground. He says he prepared more than people knew, thought harder about strategy. I suspect that’s still true. When his cabinet met in Charlottetown last summer, a lot of the commentary was about how it failed to come up with new housing policy immediately. What we’ve seen since then is they’ve rolled out new stuff for months. Probably much of it was based on decisions in Charlottetown. Even now, this guy doesn’t conform to the easiest dismissals of him.
Do you think Trudeau has entirely ruled out resigning, and making way for a new Liberal leader?
I don’t think he can rule it out. The question will keep coming up until much closer to an election. He has friends who broach the subject. He must hear it when he looks in the mirror. I think he still plans to run again, but a year is a terribly long time in politics.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
OPINION
The uneasy intersection of oil and climate
“Oil and climate have been tightly bound throughout the federal Liberals’ time in office. In late 2016, a year into their tenure, the Liberals approved the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion. Ottawa and the provinces soon after agreed to a climate pact, leading the way for a carbon tax and a bevy of climate policies.” – The Globe and Mail Editorial Board
Liberal delays on foreign interference carry profound costs
“It’s 2024, and Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has tabled the foreign-interference bill that would have been so useful in 2019. A new offence for foreign interference, with serious jail time as the penalty, would have been in effect before the last election. A foreign registry would not just be on the drawing board, but in place and working years before the 2025 election. Now it will almost certainly come after the vote.” – Campbell Clark
The crisis in health care staffing is no secret, so don’t try to hide the gruesome data
“There is a sickness in Canada’s health care system called secrecy. The latest glaring example is the determined effort by the Ontario government to keep its data on the province’s shortages of physicians, nurses and personal support workers from the public eye.” – André Picard
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Ian Bailey