Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has sent a signal that his cabinet will vote against a bill that would acquit the entire country of possession of small amounts of the drug, arguing that it should be done in stages instead of by waving the “magic wand” “pan-Canadian.
The piece of legislation in question proposed by the New Democratic Party (NDP), C-216, is due to be voted on Wednesday afternoon, days after the Justin Trudeau government announced it had agreed to British Columbia’s request for temporary exemption to drug law throughout the province.
The prime minister insisted, on Wednesday, before going to a meeting of his council of ministers, that he was instead advocating a gradual approach to monitor each of the requests for decriminalization aimed at responding to the crisis excessively. dose of opioids. The City of Montreal made the request through a motion adopted by the city council in January 2021.
It needs support. It requires a complex approach and [maintenant qu’on aura] that in British Columbia, we are willing to look elsewhere in another jurisdiction that is willing to do sohe said in a press scrum.
You can’t just wave a magic wand and say, “OK, there, the problem is solved.” No! We know it needs support, investment from the provincial government, from health systems [prêts et] an integrated approachHe added.
Liberal whip Steven MacKinnon said the Liberal caucus could freely vote on bills like Bill C-216, which is not a vote of confidence, but the cabinet will vote in unison.
On Tuesday the NDP urged Liberals to vote his Bill C-216 to address the opioid overdose crisis, which the party disputes nationally in scope.
How can you sleep at night?launched the NDP critic for mental health and harm reduction, Gord Johns, to the Liberals who voted against.
The representative for Quebec of the association Moms Stop the Harm (MSTH), Isabelle Fortier, believes that the step-by-step approach presented by Mr. Trudeau is incorrect because it does not meet the urgency of the situation.
If we wait how it goes in British Columbia [ça nous amène] maybe in three, four, five yearshe said in an interview with The Canadian Press.
We can’t wait five years. This is happening now. The death toll, among other things, has doubled in two and a half yearshe insisted.
In his opinion, the federal government should move forward with clear guidelines at others follow. Ms. said. Fortier that he feels that more and more police in the field are open to an approach he describes as being more people.
Decriminalization […] is relatively open to what is next, i.e., access to medicines that will be safe, the diversity of access to care and therefore not only preventive treatments, but all injury reduction strategies and treatment to be subsidized accordingly.he summarized.
MSTH, which supports Bill C-216 and contacted NDP on the subject, is a group that brings together family members of people who have died of overdose.
Source: Radio-Canada
