{"id":15033,"date":"2022-10-23T10:11:54","date_gmt":"2022-10-23T14:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=15033"},"modified":"2023-07-24T20:38:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T00:38:27","slug":"other-disconcerting-news-from-ottawa-on-drugs-assisted-suicide-and-asylum-seekers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=15033","title":{"rendered":"Other disconcerting news from Ottawa: on drugs, assisted suicide, and asylum seekers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Niagara Independent, October 21, 2022 \u2013<\/em> The Nation\u2019s Capital is the scene of an unprecedented public inquiry into the Trudeau government\u2019s invocation of the Emergency Act<\/i>, which has monopolized national news coverage and seized Canadians\u2019 attention. However, there are many other disconcerting issues that are currently being debated in the offices and committee rooms of Parliament Hill. Here are three issues that are having a profound effect on our country.<\/p>\n

Decriminalizing possession of hard drugs and the state of Vancouver streets\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

On January 31, 2023, British Columbia will remove criminal penalties for anyone possessing small amounts of hard drugs, including opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, having been granted a special exemption of federal drug laws by the Trudeau government. Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Carolyn Bennett expressed the hope that this B.C. pilot initiative will serve as a model for other parts of the country \u2013 such as her home of Toronto.<\/p>\n

The fact is the B.C. attorney general\u2019s office and the city of Vancouver are already treating drug possession and crimes resulting from drugs with leniency. The province\u2019s NDP government sought the federal exemption to fully implement its approach to drug possession. For years, Mayor Kennedy Stewart and a bevy of NDP city councillors undermined Vancouver law enforcement by under funding police and espousing a more liberal approach to drug users. Not surprisingly, the B.C. government and Mayor Stewart and councillors hailed the federal announcement.<\/p>\n

Minister Bennett waxed that this B.C. approach \u201cis about, obviously, saving lives,\u201d and she expected it would also help reduce the stigma of drug use. She claims the approach will prevent overdoses and cut crime. In making the announcement of the federal drug pilot project in B.C., she stated, \u201cCrime goes down, people aren\u2019t using in washrooms and really upsetting the neighbourhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stories from the streets of Vancouver say otherwise. Police statistics\u00a0show that serious assaults and robberies are up by more than 20 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels. There has been a steep rise in \u201cstranger attacks\u201d; random violent assaults by assailants who are usually on drugs or dealing with a mental health crisis. Police report there are four stranger attacks per day on Vancouver streets.<\/p>\n

Business owner Sabastian Cortez, whose downtown butcher shop has been repeatedly vandalized, sums up the reality of the sad state of Vancouver when he assessed, \u201cThe city of Vancouver, it\u2019s honestly like a zombie land\u2026 they [drug users] are spread out all over the city\u201d.<\/p>\n

In last week\u2019s municipal election, incumbent Mayor Kennedy Stewart was soundly defeated and his supportive NDP councillors were also sent packing. The mayor\u2019s challenger Ken Sim ran on a platform of public safety and one of his first acts will be to hire 100 new Vancouver police officers.<\/p>\n

The prevalent political commentary is that Sim\u2019s landslide victory signifies a public rejection of recent progressive policies. Coincidentally, a new Harvard-Harris poll from the U.S. reveals that two in three (64 per cent) Americans blame \u201cwoke\u201d politicians for the crime spike on their streets.<\/p>\n

Expanding eligibility for assisted suicide\u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s MAiD law, which was first introduced in 2016, permits Canadians to receive state-assisted suicide if suffering from a \u201creasonably foreseeable\u201d fatal condition. Since MAiD\u2019s introduction, the Trudeau government has been incrementally expanding the eligibility for the service. In 2021, the requirement that a person\u2019s death must be \u201creasonably foreseeable\u201d was removed, permitting people who are not terminally ill to use the state\u2019s service. One needs to have \u201cintolerable\u201d suffering or an \u201cadvanced state of irreversible decline.\u201d In March 2023, these requirements become even broader to include Canadians \u201cwhose only medical condition is a mental illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Statistics Canada reports the number of MAiD deaths since its inception has steadily increased every year. The total MAiD deaths between 2016 and 2021 is 31,664.<\/p>\n

Conservative MPs have been voicing concern in the House of Commons and at committee hearings reviewing the new MAiD law. The question is whether expanding the scope of MAiD is replacing the government\u2019s responsibility to help Canada\u2019s most vulnerable improve their lives. Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Canada, expresses the essence of the government\u2019s MAiD program in this way: \u201cIt\u2019s abandonment. So you\u2019re in a bad situation, and instead of receiving care \u2026 euthanasia is the only real option you can apply for and get.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the last few months there have been some alarming instances in the news that gives us reason to pause. Consider:<\/p>\n