Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Claire Rattée, MLA for Skeena and Official Opposition Critic for Mental Health, Addictions and Housing Supports, is calling on the NDP government to immediately release critical addiction and public safety data following a direct request from leading BC researcher Dr. Julian Somers. In a letter sent to the Minister of Health , Dr. Somers, who advised the province for over two decades, is now asking the government to restore access to data his team was ordered to destroy in 2021, so long-delayed research on addiction policy can finally be completed. This is the moment of truth for this government,” said Rattée. “A respected, independent researcher is asking for the data to be released so British Columbians can finally see the results, and the government now has to decide whether it will allow that transparency.” “For years, British Columbians were told these policies were grounded in evidence. Now the very expert who helped build that evidence is saying the work was shut d...

Conservative Critic for Mental Health & Addictions Claire Rattée As new witnessed-consumption rules for BC’s prescribed safer supply program takes effect December 30, Conservative Critic for Mental Health, Addictions and Housing Supports Claire Rattée says the change confirms the NDP government ignored years of warnings and allowed a failed policy experiment to continue long after its harms were clear. “ As of today, the NDP is quietly admitting what families, front-line workers, and the Opposition have been saying all along: handing out take-home opioids without supervision was reckles s,” said Rattée. “ The government is acting now because the consequences became impossible to deny .” The shift ends the widespread take-home model that was expanded during the pandemic and maintained long after concerns about diversion emerged. It follows leaked internal law-enforcement documents showing a significant proportion of prescribed opioids were being diverted, including thr...

Conservative Critic for Mental Health and Addictions Claire Rattée Responds to Squamish Nation State of Emergency on Drug Crisis  Conservative Critic for Mental Health and Addictions Claire Rattee, issued the following statement responding to the Squamish Nation’s declaration of a State of Emergency on the drug crisis that is devastating Indigenous communities: “Under the NDP government, Indigenous life expectancy has fallen by over seven years since 2017, largely due to the out-of-control drug crisis. Meanwhile, First Nations Health Authority data shows that Indigenous people represented 17.7% of toxic drug deaths in the first half of 2023, despite being just over 3% of population. “Tragically, Indigenous British Columbians are dying from the drug crisis at rates far higher than the rest of the population. When a Nation is forced to take emergency action to address drug trafficking, community safety, and collapsing life expectancy, it is a damning indictment of this government’s r...

When Premier David Eby finally committed to apprehending people in addiction and mental-health crisis and treating them involuntarily, he needed some solid medical backing to make the decision. He recruited a noted psychiatrist with long experience in the field, Dr. Daniel Vigo, and named him B.C.’s Chief Scientific Advisor for Psychiatry, Toxic Drugs and Concurrent Disorders. Vigo produced a detailed report last spring providing general guidance for physicians on the use of the Mental Health Act when treating adults with substance-use disorders. It validated the move to curb the catch-and-release approach to street crime, where mentally ill people who commit crimes while addicted are routinely arrested, then returned to the street without treatment ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

Some of the addiction health workers the NDP says it is trying to protect objected Monday, pledging to refuse to implement the “violent expansion of involuntary treatment.” A coalition organizing a “refusal campaign” seized on a bill introduced late in the legislative sitting under curious circumstances. After years of consideration and some recent announcements about providing involuntary care for people in the grip of drug addiction, the NDP government waited until the last moment to change the fundamental legal basis for such treatment ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

Back-to-back overdose surges have prompted the BC Conservative Caucus to call for an immediate end to decriminalization and a reversal of the government’s drug-enabled policies. On November 21, Vancouver Fire Rescue Services responded to 54 overdose calls in a single day, the highest in its history. Firefighters now average 45 overdose calls daily, with major spikes during income-assistance week. Three days earlier, the Cowichan Valley saw 80 overdoses in 24 hours, exhausting local naloxone supplies. Statement issued by Critic for Mental Health and Addictions Claire Rattée: “Vancouver’s highest-ever overdose call volume is a devastating warning that this crisis is only getting worse. If this government’s approach worked, we would see results, but we don’t. “Vancouver has the most concentrated access to safe supply, overdose prevention sites, decriminalization, and every harm-reduction measure the government champions, yet more people are dying than ever. Policies that n...

A commentary by a Victoria resident. Recalling her own family’s tragic experience with addiction — and our government’s utter incapacity to tackle the problem — a letter-writer wonders: “But what’s to be done?” Good question, since nearly every large community reports problems with addictions, ­homelessness or both. As the writer points out, nothing we try seems to work. Despite billions spent on health care and law enforcement, successive governments — federal and provincial — have failed to turn the tide of fortune for some of our most vulnerable neighbours. Over time, if it seems ­government responses to ­addictions and ­homelessness (whether compassionate or ­punitive) have improved ­nothing, perhaps then this might be a clue that solutions to addiction and homelessness lie somewhere other than with our governments. If not governments, then who?  CLICK HERE for the full story

So now we’ve reached a point in British Columbia where people literally caught buying heroin, cocaine, and meth on the dark web… testing it… packaging it… and selling it on the street are not only fighting the charges, but launching a constitutional challenge arguing they had the right to run their own drug-trafficking operation because government policy wasn’t moving fast enough for them. You can’t make this up. You can’t fabricate a clearer indictment of what the NDP has created in this province. A pair of activists, backed for a time by public money, let’s not forget, set up what they proudly called a “compassion club.” They bought hard drugs online. They tested them. They labelled them. And then they sold them. That’s trafficking. Not metaphorically. Not philosophically. Legally. And after being convicted, their response isn’t remorse or accountability, it’s a challenge arguing that the drug laws themselves are unconstitutional because enforcing them “kills people.” This is what ha...

The following is a commentary which was posted by BC Conservative leader John Rustad, on his "X" account: There’s a line the NDP keeps parroting, this idea that their policies are about “dignity.” Dignity in drug use. Dignity in letting people inject on sidewalks. Dignity in handing out government opioids like they’re vitamins. It’s all a fantasy. A slogan. A shield. Because let’s be brutally honest: there is no dignity in addiction. Not for the person trapped in it. Not for the community watching their neighborhood collapse under the weight of it. Not for the families praying every night that their son or daughter survives another day. Addiction steals dignity. There is nothing dignified about what the NDP has done. Nothing dignified about pretending addiction is a lifestyle choice. Nothing dignified about watching human beings decay in public while calling it compassion.  The government’s job is not to validate despair. It’s to pull people out of it. That means recovery. Th...

Sometimes writing columns about stuff that happens in this country is, if you’ll forgive the cliché, a little like shooting fish in a barrel.  We’ve collectively normalized so much sincere and well-meaning insanity, that inevitably people in positions of power and authority are going to say things that sound indistinguishable from a carnival circus organ. And the only thing I have to do in response is to make note of how far out to sea on the tides of madness we’ve drifted ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

British Columbia’s Human Rights Commissioner is criticizing the province’s handling of the deadly opioid crisis, saying it takes a stigma-based approach that is “a violation” of human rights. Kasari Govender says in a position statement issued by her office that the provincial government has failed to take “evidence-based action” and focuses instead on criminal justice and involuntary care. Govender says the government is treating drug use as a moral failing instead of a health issue, and responding to the toxic drug crisis deserves the type of “utmost urgency” seen during the COVID-19 pandemic ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

Bulkley Valley–Stikine MLA Sharon Hartwell is calling on Housing Minister Christine Boyle and BC Housing to immediately halt construction of what she calls an “experimental shelter” being forced on the people of Smithers without consultation, safety planning, or accountability. “This so-called shelter is not a solution. It is a reckless social experiment being imposed on a northern community that has already been stretched to the limit,” said Hartwell. “Families, doctors, and small business owners were blindsided by a $700,000 decision made in Victoria without consultation or care for local impacts. People are angry and they have every reason to be.” The shelter, funded through BC Housing, is being installed near homes and medical offices without community input. The site will also include a tent that will support the provision of so called “safe supply” drugs for users of the shelter. In a letter to government, local physicians described it as “deeply irresponsible and p...

Involuntary care. It's a legal process that has existed for a long time, but has gotten more attention in British Columbia as the province has looked to expand treatment for those suffering from mental illness and addiction. Involuntary care was put in the spotlight last fall, during the provincial election campaign, when Premier David Eby announced plans to expand that type of care for people with addiction. The BC Conservative Party also included involuntary care legislation in its platform.  In March, the province's recently-appointed chief scientific adviser for psychiatry shared guidance for clinicians who may be making decisions about involuntary care for adults in B.C. with substance-use disorder  ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

“For eight years, David Eby and the BC NDP have pushed their reckless decriminalization experiment while overdose deaths continue to climb. After the controversial firing of their last 'czar,’ they’ve appointed another one, but British Columbians are still left without answers.” “We have multiple FOI requests for Dr. Vigo’s reports to the Ministry of Health, yet months later, nothing has been released. Instead of transparency, all we’ve seen are vague promises and no clear plan to address this crisis.” “Addiction doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It is fueled by a lack of mental health supports, a lack of education, and a lack of opportunities for people to build stable lives. On top of that, law enforcement has had its hands tied, leaving communities without the tools to deal with open drug use, trafficking, and crime. Mismanaged and underfunded SROs have become warehouses for addiction instead of pathways to recovery.” “British Columbians don’t need more czars or consultants. They need...

BC has slid into an attitude of “endless accommodation” of antisocial behaviour by desperately ill people on downtown streets, says the man at the epicentre of the epicentre of Victoria’s downtown decay. Julian Daly, CEO of Our Place, the agency most directly involved in the drug-infused mental-health crisis most obvious on Pandora Avenue, told municipal leaders at the Union of BC Municipalities convention that the balance between compassion and enforcing expectations has been lost. The ongoing “what to do” debate has flattened into an overly simple artificial choice between compassion and enforcement, he said, but both elements and a lot more are needed to make a difference ... CLICK HERE for the full story

The head of a large shelter on Pandora Avenue in Victoria — in the midst of the street disorder of the city's most high-profile homeless encampment — told delegates at the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) conference that the province needs to shift its focus on homelessness. Our Place CEO Julian Daly said BC must treat it as a health issue, and that the most compassionate way forward may be involuntary treatment for some. "That is controversial, I know," Daly said, "but if someone is so unwell that they cannot make informed decisions about their health care, then leaving them to die on the sidewalk with little but their liberties intact is not compassion. It is abandonment" ... CLICK HERE for the full story

For Trevor Botkin, Sunday's International Overdose Awareness Day is a chance to reflect on his journey with addiction. The manager of industry relations for the Construction Foundation of British Columbia said his experience with addiction was worsened by the stigma associated with asking for help, especially in a male-dominated industry. Now in recovery, Botkin ­advocates for widespread job-site access to the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, along with a shift in culture at trades workplaces ... CLICK HERE for the full story  

The province’s refusal to consider a request from Nanaimo city council to provide sober housing for those who qualify for supportive housing has the mayor of Nanaimo scratching his head. In an interview, Mayor Leonard Krog said he can’t understand why the province won’t give people trying to recover from addiction a fighting chance to succeed. “Surely, if we can offer facilities where people who are in active addiction can take their drugs safely, and we’re prepared to staff and fund those, is it unreasonable to expect that we would be able to provide housing for people who, hopefully, have a chance to not end up on the streets in the horrible conditions that many live in now”  ... CLICK HERE for the full story

A new civil forfeiture case in British Columbia has surfaced extraordinary details about a clandestine fentanyl production network that investigators say operated with academic-level expertise, imported laboratory equipment from overseas, and, significantly, relied predominantly on 4-Piperidone, a precursor chemical that Chinese suppliers moved to after the U.S. government cracked down on previous analogs. The Bureau’s analysis of the filing and information from expert sources suggests the network is consistent with the hybrid model now driving the global fentanyl trade ... CLICK HERE for the full story 

... it’s perplexing to me to see Victoria’s chief of police having to launch a deep undercover operation to figure out that there are drug dealers on the 900-block of Pandora. Anyone who has eyes in their head can see that — that’s no surprise. I’m a 70-year-old man who occasionally picks up coffee at McDonald’s on that block. I can see it happening without being undercover. If I were a drug dealer, that’s where I’d set up ... CLICK HERE for the full commentary