Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is vowing to shut down safe injection sites in certain areas if elected. At a Montreal press conference Friday, Poilievre said he would represent the voices of concerned residents and families and focus on treatment rather than what he called “drug dens.”
“What we’re seeing here is a radical whacko liberalization experiment of drug legalization that has driven up overdose deaths and crime and now threatens once safe neighbourhoods,” Poilievre told reporters.
Poilievre said that despite the failed experiment that is destroying lives, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is “doubling down” by allowing a new drug injection site to open near the elementary school where he was speaking.
The Maison Benoît Labre injection site was opened less than 100 metres from Victor-Rousselot Elementary School in Montreal’s St. Henri neighbourhood.
Many concerned residents and parents protested its opening for months, but their concerns fell on deaf ears.
“Montrealers no longer recognize the once safe communities that they used to live in,” said Poilievre. “Now they see homelessness, crime, chaos and drug abuse which have become common.”
The opposition leader criticized Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante for comments she made telling residents to just accept the homelessness and drug problem.
He also blamed the Trudeau government for refusing to reject the City of Montreal’s request to legalize hard drugs, despite British Columbia now walking back its own similar legalization pilot project after only one year, which led to a 400% increase in overdose deaths.
“I’m calling for the Trudeau government to close its drug dens,” said Poilievre. “Under section 56.1 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the government has the power to accept or refuse supervised consumption sites like Maison Benoît Labre.”
“Justin Trudeau must immediately shut down this hard drug injection site, this drug den, to protect our children, reassure families and ensure the safety of all Quebecers and Canadians.”
Poilievre also criticized the Liberal framing of injection sites as “creating a cohabitation” calling it “the latest Orwellian terminology” that politicians were inventing.
“What they mean by that is that kids should have to cohabitate with people who are using crack, heroin, cocaine and other hard drugs in their play parks,” said Poilievre.
“This is total whacko. Kids should not have to cohabitate with hard drug use and crime. That’s not Canada.”
The Conservative leader went on to say that there was an entire industry of activists, bureaucracies and politicians “that profit off this misery and want to perpetuate it.”
“I will end it,” said Poilivre, who said he would cut funding from injection sites and reallocate it to resources that focus on treatment and rehabilitation to bring loved ones home drug free.
A reporter asked if it would just be the Maison Benoît Labre safe injection site that Poilievre would close or others as well.
“We will close safe injection sites next to schools, playgrounds, anywhere else that they endanger the public and take lives,” answered Poilievre. “By the way, they’re not ‘safe injection sites,’ I’m sorry. I used your dishonest language. You just repeat the language that is fed to you by the government. You guys repeat the same language you get from the radical Liberal-NDP activists and bureaucracies. You call them ‘safe,’ how can they be safe?”
Poilievre and the reporter from the Globe and Mail continued their exchange, with the Conservative leader objecting to the framing of these sites as safe.
“Do you think it’s safe when a bullet comes flying out of one of these sites to kill a mother in Toronto?” he said.“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?”
“They’re supervised,” the reporter responded.
“They’re drug dens and they’ve made everything worse,” said Poilievre. “Everywhere they’ve been done they’ve made everything worse.”
