Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he’s “open” to adopting a forced intervention and treatment approach to quell Canada’s growing drug problem, but he wants to see evidence that it would work first.
Speaking with reporters in a park in London, Ont. about rampant drug use and its perpetuation of crime, Poilievre called for an end to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “wacko policies” which he said distribute hard drugs in communities across the country.
True North’s Andrew Lawton asked Poilievre what his thoughts were on the Alberta government’s proposed plan to use legal means to push drug users into treatment, and whether he would support such an approach nationally.
“I don’t know, I’d need to study it more to understand how it would work. I want everybody who is on drugs to be in treatment and rehab to get off drugs,” responded Poilievre.
“What I haven’t been able to figure out is if someone doesn’t want to be rehabilitated, can you require them to be? I don’t know. I would like to see some evidence for and against before I make a judgement.”
Poilievre then cited a proposal of Conservative MP Tracy Gray to offer drug treatment in prisons, which could be mandated by judges along with a person’s sentence if their crime was drug related.
“Perhaps the offender was involved in theft, but we know the theft was linked to addiction, the judge could say, ‘While you’re in prison, you’re required to be drug-free and we’re going to provide you with high quality treatment behind bars,’” said Poilievre.
“That makes sense to me because they’re already going to be in prison anyway, they might as well be cleaning up their body and their souls and their addictions. But I don’t know if you can take someone off the street who has not committed a prison offence and successfully rehabilitate them. If we can, I’m open to it but I need to see more evidence at this point.”
Poilievre went on to say that Trudeau’s catch-and-release policies, which allow violent offenders to be repeatedly put back on the streets, in combination with drug decriminalization experiments, have led to an unprecedented crime wave.
“Today, Statistics Canada revealed that since Trudeau became Prime Minister, violent crime is up by nearly 50%. Homicides are up 28%, while sexual assaults, auto theft and extortion are up 74%, 45% and 357%, respectively,” said Poilievre in a statement released on Thursday.
Referencing Project Warlock, an Ontario police investigation that involved 18 offenders who were charged with over 150 crimes, Poilievre said it’s “a very tiny group of criminals doing all the crime.”
“Nine of them were already out on some sort of early release and since their arrest, six of them have been released again and what do you know, they’re out doing more and more crime,” said Poilievre.
He told reporters about how the justice minister has had his vehicle stolen three times.
“Incredible. You’d think the criminals would be somewhat grateful that he keeps releasing them but no, they steal his car too and he is too dense to figure out that they should be locked up,” said Poilievre.
The Conservative leader argued that the data are clear that catch-and-release Liberal-NDP policies have not worked and have instead caused “one of the worst crime waves in Canadian history.”
Poilievre also called out the Liberal government’s record on firearms, insisting that its gun control measures have only made life more difficult for law-abiding gun owners rather than the criminals responsible for gun crime.
“I want to protect Canadians from criminals, while Trudeau and the NDP want to protect turkeys from hunters,” said Poilievre.
