Tough year for Canada on the world stage. First we had a huge spat with the Saudis over a tweet which encouraged the release of peaceful protesters. Then Trump went on his NAFTA binge which ended in, well, no significant changes. Finally, we arrested a Chinese businesswoman for the US and everything has hit the fan with China.
I am totally on Canada’s side with the first two. Trump and the Saudis are both bullies and telling them to f off was 100% the right decision. The third is much harder. I hate that we were used by Trump to arrest a businesswoman for something that isn’t a crime in Canada (dealing with Iran). That said, we do have such a treaty with the Americans and treaties are worthless if one side ignores them. I can only hope our Supreme Court declines to extradite her and releases her.
That’s exactly right. It is nothing and will go away. And you’re totally gullible for believing such an absurd and obviously false story.
A report from Newpunch has revealed, “Justin Trudeau has announced plans to legalize hard drugs for children, including heroin and crack cocaine, as part of a new radical policy aimed at destigmatizing drug addiction.”
God. Anyone who believes this should probably be sent to forced reeducation camps.
It did not go away and the country is worse off for it. Trudeau the PM just lost a by election in a riding his party has held for 30 years they were expected to win by 5% and lost by 2%. The national poll shows the opposition Tories 20% ahead.
A riding is our version of a congressional district. I thought the idea was bad policy and that it would fail street disorder went up as did the fatal overdose rate they walked back part of the policy this year they should scrap the whole thing.
Not mine or society’s job to give junkies their addictive and soul destroying substances. When I was living in Richmond, BC they tried to open a safe injection site two buildings from where I was staying. There was a large protest against it and 17,000 signed a petition against it and the plan was canceled. I grew up in Richmond there was almost no homeless
and minimal IV drug use. There is a noticeable homeless problem now in the Downtown area and I would hear ppl talking about East Van and HA drug gangs causing problems on the street. I have met ppl who quit IV drugs hopefully more will.
Canada experimented with a harm-reduction strategy in which we stopped prosecuting public drug use. Drug dealing was still illegal.
The idea was to reduce jail usage and to divert the saved funds to more treatment programs. This is an option that has been discussed for my entire life. I remember hearing people advocate for this back in the 70s, and not just in Canada but all around the world.
It was a worthy effort but it failed, and we admitted it failed. Public drug use increased. Now we’ve tried it, we’ve seen that it didn’t work, and we can take this option off the table.
At no time did “Trudeau want hard drugs available for kids”. That is just typical lunatic US media talking excrement, which is normal for them as they’re full of the stuff.
That’s a real shame but those are the unintended consequences. Did you support the city’s plan?
Drug use and idle hands are a recipe for disaster. Didn’t Reg just recently state that humans are not wired to do nothing and yet there you have your proof and the problem continues on.
Admitting it failed doesn’t fix the monster problem they created. Now you all just have to deal with higher crime and more homelessness since your government doesn’t have a plan to fix it.
The original source, True North, was Canadian. Their reporting was from a letter from local officials in the city of Toronto. They didn’t consider a plan B in the letter and you should be offended by their less than professional approach instead of this oh well, that didn’t work out. Let’s scrap the agenda and focus our energy on airport delays.
It’s not a monster problem at all. We have far less desperation than almost any US city. And our government did have a plan, implemented the plan, and successfully addressed the problem. We built well over 500 new units for homeless people in Vancouver alone, not counting those in Surrey and other suburbs.
They are our version of OAN. They’re full of excrement, too.
I don’t doubt that at all. Under Biden, nothing has been addressed except the war in Ukraine.
The City of Toronto experimented with decriminalization of drugs. They have yet to address the core issue. In fact, those city officials are still pushing for decriminalization.
First, I think that’s a positive step in the right direction and demonstrates real concern for the homeless, at least those in Vancouver, but how many of those who received housing were actually drug users? How long do you think a drug user will live in a real home before the electricity is turned off? I’m certain it won’t take very long as wired up humans are not motivated for work to pay the bills. At best, they will take from any source with more than them.
Having said that, Toronto, where this decriminalization experiment took place, has not addressed homelessness nor has it really addressed the issue of drug use and the danger of dirty needles on the streets, beyond resisting the push to decriminalize drugs.
What about The Star, Reg? Does The Star measure up to praiseworthy degree of excellence as a reliable source for reading, research and reporting on current events?
Keep in mind, it is far less of an issue here than it is where society does not pay for these things. Vancouver, especially, has done an amazing job cleaning up homelessness.
They tried just like Trevor Robinson did in his two terms of Mayor but it is still bad and there are homeless camps even in Hope, BC also see them in Langley and Kelowna the one there had 50 tents next to the railway tracks right beside the emergency night shelter which I assume was full. Back under Harper it was not this bad not even close and that was when I was homeless. Reg is right drugs and mental illness are major causes of homelessness but some are failed career criminals and some are drunks a few are just having bad luck. Saw a guy on a sidewalk today in Hope seen him before he had dirty clothes black crap over his lips too and bottom and was holding his drug pipe in both hands was friendly had a European accent.
I can’t speak for Hope or Kelowna or anywhere in the BC interior, but I lived in Vancouver right through the Harper years and it was vastly worse than it is today. Ken Sim (mayor of Vancouver), David Eby (NDP Premier of BC) and Justin Trudeau (Liberal Prime Minister of Canada) have Vancouver looking vastly better than it ever looked under Harper and Christy Clark. I drive the Downtown Eastside several times a week and I spend almost every day in downtown Vancouver. I feel I know this city at a detail level better than the large majority of people. Harper was a disaster as a PM as far as I’m concerned. The city and the country both look far better now that he’s gone. The best thing he will ever do for the world is depart it, and I wish he would hurry up with that.