"Madam Speaker, the Minister of Health said she has the highest regard for Dr. Patricia Daly, Dr. Bonnie Henry and Mayor Kennedy Stewart. Why, then, has the minister refused to follow their sound advice and decriminalize simple drug possession to help save lives?
In B.C. alone, 1,386 people have died from overdose. Across the country, over 16,000 people have been taken by the war on drugs. The Downtown Eastside is under siege, with record overdose deaths, and it now has the highest COVID-19 infection rates in the city. Our communities are also grappling with the largest homeless encampments in the country.
We need urgent help from the federal government. Vancouver's city council is calling on the government to decriminalize, and the province wants the federal government to cost-share, fifty-fifty, in its aggressive pandemic housing plan to house the homeless. Housing advocates want the port to stand down and not pursue civil proceedings against those who acted in solidarity with the people—".
https://openparliament.ca/debates/2020/11/27/jenny-kwan-1/
