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Let their loss not be in vain: Poilievre vows to fund 50K recovery spaces, defund drug dens
Apr 9, 2025
We need a new Conservative government that can reverse this radical experiment and move the country towards hope and change. And that's why I'm here today to announce that a new Conservative government will fund recovery for 50,000 Canadians who need it. We've lost 50,000 people to overdoses. The least we can do is in their honour save 50,000 more. Let their loss not be in vain to fund this program. We will end federal funding for opioids, defund the drug dens, sue the opioid manufacturers and consulting companies who created this crisis. We will eliminate back office bureaucracy and we will fund directly those people who need the help through groups that have success in delivering drug-free outcomes. And make no mistake, we will be shutting down drug dens. We will ban drug dens within 500 meters of schools, hospitals, daycares, playgrounds and other places where the community is vulnerable. Let's be clear these drug consumption sites do not work.
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and his beautiful wife
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[Applause]
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far I was just saying that aside from my
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wife my wife and my mother Carrie Lynn
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is the only person in the world that
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scares me so uh she's our whip that's
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why she's the whip um but uh I want to
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thank her uh Stefan Karen um Rajir Dylan
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Zack Seagull Lita Kabal uh Souk Pander
1:02
Indie Panchi and Keith Roy are great
1:06
Canada first conservative team i want to
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thank more than anyone though the
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survivors of drug addiction who are with
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us today they inspire us all we have an
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some incredible stories uh we have three
1:19
main organizations that save lives and
1:21
get people off drugs last Door Recovery
1:24
Together We Can Cedar Recovery and I've
1:27
had just had an opportunity to meet with
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numerous survivors of drug addiction
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who've uh shown the courage and the
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strength to turn their lives around and
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inspire countless other people i was
1:42
just speaking with Cody who has broken
1:45
his addiction now he's working in the
1:47
energy sector and having a very
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successful happy life with his
1:51
girlfriend and his cat um and Kristen
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who also defeated addiction has been
1:58
clean now for several years uh and is
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building a wonderful family life jared
2:03
who's helping to helping others uh
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repeat the success that he's had in
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being clean for over 18 years now just
2:12
to uh before I go any further uh I want
2:16
to say I want to talk a bit about
2:19
the enormity of this
2:23
problem imagine if the entire city of
2:26
North Vancouver vanished from the face
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of the
2:29
earth that's what happens when 50,000
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people
2:34
die like uh a region a city like
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um a midsize city in Canada vanishes off
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the place of the earth the face of the
2:44
earth we've lost 50,000 people in Canada
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to drug overdoses more than died
2:50
fighting for Canada in the Second World
2:51
War and thousands more continue to
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suffer living in misery as fentinel
2:56
takes control of lives every single
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death is an unspeakable tragedy
3:02
these are our neighbors our friends our
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brothers or sisters our children they
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had their own lives and their own dreams
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they were little babies once and their
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parents looked at them with promise in
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their
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eye but maybe through a wrong turn maybe
3:20
through an injury they treated with a an
3:23
opioid just to relieve the
3:26
pain or maybe on a night out when they
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were just having a few drinks and were
3:30
offered something that would should make
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the night was supposed to make the night
3:35
a little more interesting but was were
3:37
laced with a deadly poison in the form
3:41
of fentinyl their their lungs stopped
3:44
and they were gone
3:46
forever during the last liberal decade
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we've seen this problem metastasize out
3:51
of
3:52
control it's not that the Liberals have
3:54
failed to take action they have taken
3:57
action they've taken a lot of action
4:00
they caused this crisis they
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decriminalized crack heroin cocaine
4:04
elicit fentinol in partnership with the
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NDP government they provided millions of
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dollars in taxf funded opioids which
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spread on our streets were resold to
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children and the proceeds used to b buy
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more deadly fentinyl
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they removed mandatory jail time for
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mass fentinol traffickers allowing the
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monsters and mass murderers who brought
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about this crisis and profit from it to
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be released from prison with very little
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penalty at all they set up drug dens in
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otherwise safe communities where addicts
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are fed dangerous drugs then children in
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nearby neighborhood schoolyards are
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forced to step on dirty needles or
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encounter other drug
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paraphernalia the Vancouver police have
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pointed out this problem and yet the
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Liberals refuse to listen going further
5:01
to expand these radical policies
5:03
policies I might add that are not done
5:05
anywhere else in the world these are
5:08
radical and extremely bizarre social
5:11
experiments and British Columbia has
5:14
been the ground zero for this massive
5:18
deadly liberal failure it is British
5:21
Columbia is probably the worst place for
5:23
fentinol overdoses in the world as a
5:27
direct result of liberal NDP policies
5:30
overdoses are up 200% nationwide and
5:34
more than that here in BC the Vancouver
5:37
Police Department has said that roughly
5:38
half of all hydromemorphone seizures
5:40
were diverted from hard drug the hard
5:42
drug program that the Liberals and the
5:44
NDP fund while the Waterlue Regional
5:47
Police and Niagara police have said
5:49
hydromemorphone seizures are up by more
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than
5:53
1,000% hydromemorphone is the taxpayer
5:56
funded drug that the Liberals are
5:58
distributing
6:00
and in downtown Vancouver the downtown
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east side fear of drug chaos has driven
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away
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businesses once thriving Chinese
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community businesses are forced to move
6:11
further and further away to avoid the
6:14
danger total visits last year were
6:17
almost up 10% compared to the year
6:19
before
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shoplifting shoplifting was up 12% and
6:23
the storefront vacancy rate is at 15%
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fondon despite the obvious death and
6:29
despair sadly the Liberals refuse to
6:32
change mark Carne recently told a group
6:35
of Liberal supporters that fentinyl is
6:38
not a crisis in Canada just in the
6:40
United States it's hard to believe how
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anyone could be so out of
6:46
touch and he can't be trusted to change
6:49
course in fact he doesn't want to he's
6:53
doubled down and recruited candidates
6:56
who are even too radical for Justin
6:58
Trudeau for example
7:01
um his handpicked candidate said and I
7:04
quote "The li liberals would be smart to
7:07
lean into drug decriminalization." And
7:09
another said "Legalizing all drugs would
7:11
be good for Canada." Carney's star
7:14
candidate star Liberal candidate in
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Vancouver is Gregor Robertson an early
7:18
advocate of drug decriminalization and
7:22
unsafe government funded supply he wrote
7:25
to a House of Commons committee studying
7:27
the issue of drug dens these consumption
7:30
sites and he said that local community
7:32
opposition should be ignored i'm going
7:35
to quote him here factors such as the
7:37
impact of the site on crime rates and
7:39
expressions of community support or
7:41
opposition should not be relevant to the
7:43
federal government's approval process i
7:45
want you to digest that statement for a
7:47
moment factors such as the impact of the
7:51
site on crime rates and expressions of
7:54
community support or opposition should
7:56
not be relevant to the federal
7:57
government's approval process for drug
8:00
consumption sites so this Liberal
8:03
candidate who's running today newly
8:05
recruited by Mark Carney says that even
8:08
if drug
8:09
dens jack up crime rates in a given
8:12
community they should be able to go
8:15
ahead this is a federal decision under
8:18
the control drugs drugs and substances
8:20
act and the liberal team want more of
8:23
these liberals want more of these drugs
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in every single community in our country
8:28
no wonder that when Gregor Robertson was
8:30
mayor of Vancouver overdoses increased
8:33
by
8:35
600% for three terms in government the
8:37
Liberal Party has caused the addiction
8:39
crisis to spiral out of for out of
8:41
control the question in this election is
8:43
can we afford a fourth Liberal term of
8:46
rising crime drugs and chaos or is it
8:50
time for a new Conservative government
8:53
to stop the drugs treat addiction and
8:56
bring our loved ones home drug-free for
8:58
a change we need a new Conservative
9:01
government that can reverse this radical
9:03
experiment and move the country towards
9:06
hope and change and that's why I'm here
9:09
today
9:10
i'm here today to announce that a new
9:12
Conservative government will fund
9:14
recovery for
9:17
50,000 Canadians who need it thank
9:27
you thank you thank
9:33
you now we've lost 50,000 people to
9:36
overdoses the least we can do is in
9:39
their honor save 50,000 more let their
9:44
let their loss not be in
9:51
vain to fund this program we will end
9:55
federal funding for opioids defund the
9:58
drug dens sue the opioid manufacturers
10:01
and consulting companies who created
10:03
this crisis we will eliminate back
10:05
office bureaucracy and we will fund
10:08
directly those people who need the help
10:10
through through groups that have success
10:13
in delivering drug-free outcomes and
10:16
make no mistake we will be shutting down
10:18
drug dens we will ban drug dens within
10:21
500 meters of schools hospitals
10:25
daycarees playgrounds and other places
10:27
where the community is vulnerable we
10:29
will let's be clear these drug
10:32
consumption sites do not work and I'm
10:34
going to quote the Lancet Commission
10:36
study on this right now there is no
10:38
evidence that accessing a site lowers an
10:40
individual's risk of fatal overdose over
10:43
time and that or that sites lower
10:45
community overdose rates we owe it to
10:48
our fellow citizens who are still
10:49
struggling with addiction to offer them
10:51
a real chance to avoid adding to the
10:53
terrible number of losses we've had
10:55
already we will expand access to
10:58
recovery services with proven track
11:00
records the these organizations like the
11:04
Oak Center in Winnipeg or Harvest House
11:08
in Ottawa and Atlantic Canada or Last
11:12
Door Recovery Together We Can Cedar
11:14
Recovery these organizations have proven
11:17
track records they will be the ones that
11:19
get the funding we will set up a
11:21
different kind of funding model than
11:22
you've ever seen before normally
11:25
governments receive applications that
11:27
have all the right buzzwords they fork
11:29
over the check and afterwards a report
11:31
is written and it doesn't matter what
11:33
the outcome is as long as all the
11:34
paperwork is done that ends here's how
11:37
we're going to run our drug recovery
11:39
program organizations are going to be
11:42
paid a set fee for the number of months
11:46
they keep addicts
11:49
drugfree and they will be paid more for
11:51
harder cases
11:53
so if someone is a casual drug user and
11:56
trying to break the addiction before it
11:57
becomes ser serious the funding might
11:59
not need to be as much it could be 10 or
12:01
15 counseling sessions for that person
12:03
but on the other hand if it's an extreme
12:05
addiction with someone living on the
12:07
street for multiple years and on the
12:09
verge of dying well obviously more
12:11
funding would be needed for that but the
12:13
funding will be paid to group
12:15
organizations that successfully get
12:18
people off drugs
12:20
those organizations and interest groups
12:23
who have been contributing to and
12:25
complicit in the distribution of
12:28
high-powered opioids and the harm
12:30
production programs will be cut off and
12:33
they will be totally ineligible for any
12:35
funding whatsoever we need to break the
12:39
addiction that these organizations have
12:41
to keeping the crisis going we're going
12:43
to build it out based on the Alberta
12:46
recovery model which has shown a 40%
12:50
u uh reduction in the number of
12:52
overdoses in 2023 more than three times
12:55
what has happened in BC in that same
12:58
time period we will ensure that the um
13:03
the Canadian people have hope that we
13:06
can break the addiction and free our
13:08
people from its grip children should not
13:11
have to witness open drug use or related
13:13
criminal activities as they walk by
13:16
dangerous encampments they shouldn't be
13:18
stepping on dirty needles seniors out
13:20
for a walk with their dog shouldn't be
13:22
worried that the dog might become
13:25
contaminated with a a a drug uh residue
13:28
left in the grass school parents in the
13:32
Lower Mainland should not have to comb
13:34
through an entire children's soccer
13:36
field before every game to make sure
13:38
there are no me needles for their kids
13:40
to step on and by the way that is not a
13:44
hypothetical that is what is happening
13:45
in the Lower Mainland today when parents
13:48
arrive to take their kids to soccer they
13:50
have a volunteer team that fuller form a
13:53
line and they walk up and down the field
13:56
to remove all the drug paraphernalia the
13:59
crack pipes and the needles this is
14:02
outrageous it we cannot go on like this
14:06
after lost liberal decade we can't give
14:09
them a fourth term and that really is
14:11
the
14:12
choice after a lost liberal decade of
14:15
crime chaos drugs and disorder through
14:18
radical liberalization of drugs can we
14:21
elect them for a fourth term or do we
14:24
need a change with a new conservative
14:26
government that will ban the drugs lock
14:28
up the mass
14:31
traffickers close the drug dens and give
14:34
treatment and recovery to the people we
14:36
desperately want to save and I'll just
14:39
conclude thanking J jeppe from the the
14:42
the last historical recovery center Kirk
14:45
Boxton who I'll be spending time with
14:46
himself a successful recovery story on a
14:50
note of hope we can turn this around you
14:53
know I was just talking to Cody a moment
14:55
ago he was
14:57
homeless and when he got taken off the
14:59
street the government put him in a hotel
15:02
he gets to the
15:03
hotel they put him in a room knock at
15:06
the
15:07
door who is it a drug dealer somehow
15:11
someone informed the drug dealer in this
15:13
hotel that there was a new person there
15:16
and he was feeling hopeless
15:17
and he was feeling lonely and he he
15:21
succumbed to the temptation so it was
15:24
actually in this government hotel
15:26
government funded hotel that his
15:28
addiction was respsparked and restarted
15:31
there was no offer of recovery or
15:33
treatment for him a similar story for
15:36
Kristen who was in various different
15:38
programs none of them ever sought to get
15:40
her off drugs they continued in these
15:43
places they continued to feed crack
15:45
pipes and other paraphernalia into these
15:48
people keeping them hopelessly addicted
15:51
and in on the verge of
15:53
death that's not hope that's not change
15:58
but these two incredible
15:59
people turned their lives around they
16:02
got real recovery services and now
16:05
they've got jobs they're contributing to
16:07
our country and in fact I would say they
16:10
have a superpower now a superpower that
16:12
none of that almost no one has because
16:15
they've been to the bottom of the valley
16:17
and they've climbed up to the
16:18
mountaintop and they now can inspire
16:20
others to do the same every single
16:22
person every single one of you who's
16:24
recovered do not look at that past as a
16:27
weakness look at it as a superpower i
16:30
need all of you i need you to take your
16:33
experience and go and lift someone else
16:35
up grab that next person who's on a
16:38
street corner pull them up and take them
16:40
to care and break their addiction turn
16:43
their lives around that's how we're
16:45
going to bring hope to this country
16:46
that's how we're going to bring real
16:48
change thank you very much
16:55
thank you we will now go to questions uh
16:58
please say your name and
17:02
outlet uh
17:07
Uh hello Mr paul Evra Muhammad National
17:10
Post uh first thanks for making this a
17:12
um an indoor event i'm glad you have
17:14
some someone from the Lower Mainland on
17:16
your advanced team to to give you a
17:17
sense of our climate that's right right
17:19
call that's right well you should have
17:20
been with us in the South Okonogan the
17:22
other day i grew up in Cam Libs man
17:24
you're Oh you know what it's all about
17:25
talking about my heart streakings my
17:26
heart's still in i know we We almost I
17:28
almost announced I was going to be
17:29
moving the capital to Oyuse but thought
17:32
that it should be New Westminster you
17:33
ever hear that story maybe we have time
17:35
for a story victoria stole it from from
17:37
out from under New Westminster is that
17:39
what happened gee somebody's got to do
17:41
something yeah so so the Victoria team
17:43
they switched up the speech uh that the
17:45
new Westminster delegation was going to
17:47
give and the new Westminster guy fumbled
17:49
and stumbled and the capital ended up
17:50
being in Victoria i think that's how it
17:51
went is that what happened yeah so so is
17:54
that correct i' I'd heard that story
17:55
kind of second or third hand it's
17:58
breaking news everybody sorry we have to
18:00
talk about fentanel now um so as you
18:04
know um President Trump is continuing to
18:06
use fentanel Canada's fentanyl crisis as
18:09
a smokeokc screen for his economic
18:12
coercion of Canada um even though a
18:14
number of his fellow lawmakers including
18:16
his fellow Republicans are calling BS on
18:18
his debunked premise uh that Canada is a
18:20
major transit country for fentanyl
18:22
ending up in the streets in the United
18:24
States um are you worried that some of
18:26
the language that you have used
18:27
surrounding Canada's fentanyl crisis uh
18:30
language like super labs uh kingpins um
18:33
concerns surrounding uninspected
18:35
shipping containers at the ports uh that
18:37
any of that sort of language is going to
18:39
give um oxygen to President Trump's
18:42
narrative which looks to be on its last
18:44
legs and are you planning to tone down
18:47
uh any of that sort of rhetoric
18:49
well there I have not used rhetoric i've
18:51
used facts uh they are super labs in
18:54
fact I think the police call them
18:55
superlabs the RCMP announced that they
18:58
had uh they had actually shut down a
19:01
super lab uh which had uh enough
19:05
fentinol to kill hundreds if not
19:08
thousands of people i couldn't care
19:11
less what a foreign leader thinks about
19:14
our fentinol problem as you noticed I
19:17
didn't mention any foreign leader in my
19:19
speech and I've been speaking about this
19:21
for years i held I put out a video about
19:24
the fentanyl crisis in the Lower
19:26
Mainland two years ago and remember
19:29
everyone said that it was all wrong and
19:32
all exaggerated now everybody admits
19:34
that not only was my identification of
19:35
the problem correct but so were all of
19:37
my solutions so I don't I don't accept
19:41
the idea that we should stop saving our
19:44
kids from fentinyl overdoses because of
19:47
something the United States is saying
19:50
the Americans have their the American
19:52
problem with fentinol has nothing to do
19:54
with Canada but at the same time we have
19:56
to take care of our own people i'm not
19:59
doing this for anyone other than the
20:02
people who are suffering from addictions
20:05
so that not one more mother has to
20:08
answer the the the wrap on the door from
20:10
a police officer who's there to tell her
20:13
that her little baby boy or girl died on
20:15
a street corner somewhere i'm doing this
20:18
for the 50,000 people we have lost and I
20:21
totally reject the idea that we cannot
20:24
solve the problems that are in our own
20:27
country because of a foreign distraction
20:29
thank you thank you we'll now go to the
20:31
next question
20:35
hello uh Mr polyf uh this is Janice from
20:37
Fairchild Television i want to get your
20:39
response of many Chinese Canadian
20:41
parents are increasingly worry about
20:43
youth exposure to drugs so how will your
20:46
plan includes prevention and education
20:48
for youth in immigrant communities thank
20:51
you very much and I want to take a
20:52
moment to thank the Chinese community
20:54
for leading the charge against the drug
20:57
den in Richmond and against the radical
21:01
drug liberalization agenda of the
21:04
Liberal Party um uh you know first of
21:07
all we have to close the drug gandens no
21:10
drug dens within 500 m of schools
21:14
playgrounds
21:17
um daycare centers hockey arenas or any
21:20
other place where children should go
21:23
secondly um we need to stop giving out
21:26
taxpayer funded hydromemorphone pills
21:28
which are being systematically resold to
21:30
children
21:32
third we need to bring in life sentences
21:36
for fentinol drug
21:38
kingpins these are anyone who is caught
21:41
trafficking or producing more than 40 mg
21:44
of fentinol should get a life sentence
21:48
fourth we need to secure our borders
21:50
with high-powered scanners uh and
21:53
watchtowwers to interrupt um fentinol
21:57
ingredients from coming into our
22:00
country and finally uh we need uh for
22:03
those young people who do get
22:05
unfortunately connected with a life of
22:07
drugs we need to get them treatment and
22:10
recovery services as soon as possible
22:12
um we want instead of having drug
22:15
consumption sites for example we want to
22:17
have welcoming place for people who are
22:19
addicted to come and get detox maybe
22:23
medication that will reduce the symptoms
22:25
of withdrawal give them counseling and
22:29
help them get connected with a recovery
22:31
center whose goal is to make them
22:34
drug-free and that is how we're going to
22:36
stop the spread of drugs and save our
22:39
children thank you so much thank you
22:41
we'll now take a question from the phone
22:43
liner thank you
22:46
Rob Shaw with Czech News
22:50
uh hello Mr pol um there's 50 overdose
22:54
prevention sites in BC we have a premier
22:56
here who supports them as you know the
22:59
provinces control the administration of
23:01
the health care system in many cases
23:03
they're funding these recovery centers
23:05
or or putting in their own policies so
23:07
what would you say to our provincial
23:09
government about what these changes mean
23:10
for its ability to manage its health
23:13
care system in this area uh with you as
23:15
prime minister
23:18
well we won't be making any changes to
23:20
the health care system we're we're
23:22
saying is
23:23
that drug use sites will be banned
23:27
within 500 meters of schools
23:29
playgrounds daycarees and other places
23:32
where children go
23:34
um they will not be allowed under the
23:36
federal laws of the drug uh and control
23:39
drug and substances act they will not be
23:42
allowed if their goal is to perpetuate
23:44
drug use there should be a small number
23:48
and limited cases that are open that
23:49
while they welcome uh drug users in they
23:53
immediately offer them a path to
23:56
recovery give them a connection to a
24:00
recovery program offer them counseling
24:02
on how to break their dependence and
24:05
start their lives again um we know that
24:09
the drug consumption sites have been a
24:12
total disaster here in British Columbia
24:15
and around the world we know the
24:16
research shows that they do not save
24:19
lives or protect the community uh we
24:22
also know that they provide cause a
24:25
massive risk when they are near children
24:28
um so that my message is we're not going
24:32
to allow these drug dens near our kids
24:34
or our vulnerable populations rather
24:37
we're going to move uh to put people
24:40
50,000 of our our loved ones into
24:43
recovery and treatment programs so that
24:45
we can get them off drugs and I note
24:48
that there has been a big change in the
24:50
debate i mean when I first made these
24:52
points two years ago everybody said it
24:54
was very
24:56
controversial but I persisted and now it
24:59
seems that the British Columbia
25:00
government is changing its position and
25:03
moving slowly towards recovery and I I
25:05
applaud that the Alberta model has been
25:08
by far the most successful let's build
25:10
on that
25:11
success
25:13
and I would also say the only ones that
25:16
seem to be committed to the free drugs
25:19
and liberalization policy is the Liberal
25:21
Party of Canada they keep pushing this
25:24
they have not reversed their position
25:25
they still want to fund drugs and and
25:27
decriminalize hard drugs they still want
25:30
to give light prison sentences to the
25:32
mass producers and traffickers who are
25:34
killing our people if you give the
25:36
Liberals a fourth term in power this
25:39
problem will only get worse that's why
25:42
we need a new Conservative government
25:45
that will ban the drugs lock up the
25:48
traffickers invest in treatment and
25:50
recovery to bring our loved ones home
25:52
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