Elenore Sturko: Pierre Poilievre’s bold policies on drugs and crime will save lives

I have dedicated my life to serving and protecting Canadians. As a police officer, I dealt with many people battling addiction who desperately needed to get off the streets and into recovery. I also locked up drug traffickers who preyed on vulnerable people with addiction. As a military reservist, I proudly helped guard Canada’s border. As an elected official in recovery myself, I have been in the trenches for the past few years fighting back against radical NDP-Liberal drug and soft-on-crime policies that have fuelled addiction, death and crime. I have advanced recovery-focused policies, called for tougher sentences for drug traffickers and kingpins, and for solutions to stop the flow of deadly fentanyl into Canada. I feel qualified to speak on drug policy.

The rampant street disorder plaguing downtowns across the country, a catch-and-release justice system that has tipped the scales of justice in favour of violent repeat offenders, and an addiction crisis that claimed tens of thousands of lives didn’t appear overnight. It was created over the past decade by poor decision-making and liberal policies that handcuffed police, weakened our justice system, and normalized self-destructive behaviours.

Canada is in the midst of an addiction crisis that has killed 50,000 people in the past 10 years. My province of British Columbia has been the hardest hit. Instead of trying to get people the care they need, Premier David Eby and prime minister Justin Trudeau spent the past decade pushing a dangerous drug-liberalization agenda. They funded pro-drug legalization and anti-police activists and bureaucrats to do their bidding. Problems have gotten far worse. British Columbia has become a hub for drug production and misery. Canadians who think new Liberal Leader Mark Carney will do anything different are sadly mistaken. He doesn’t even think fentanyl is a crisis in Canada. No matter what he says on the campaign trail, we can expect more of the same.

In 2020, British Columbia scaled up so-called “safe supply” programs with funding from the Carney-Trudeau Liberals. These programs hand out bottles of heroin-strength opioids to people with addiction, arguing that it will prevent overdose deaths. It hasn’t worked. It was never going to work. The opposite. The taxpayer-funded opioids flooded the streets, enriching organized crime. After relentless pressure from me and the federal Conservatives, and a leaked BC Health Ministry memo in February showing the significant harm and fraud caused by “safe supply,” the BC NDP announced it would be moving to a witnessed dosing model.

In January 2023, B.C. launched a three-year drug-decriminalization pilot after receiving an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act by the Carney-Trudeau Liberals. This allowed drug users to use in playgrounds, on beaches, inside restaurants and other public places, and took away a vital policing tool to confiscate drugs and initiate drug investigations. B.C. went on to set a record with 2,511 drug overdoses deaths in 2023 — a staggering seven deaths per day. Again, after relentless pressure from me and the federal Conservatives, B.C. changed course in May 2024 by making it illegal to use drugs in public spaces. However, despite the obvious harms, the federal Liberal government allowed the decriminalization pilot to continue.

Fentanyl precursors come into Canada unabated through B.C.’s ports, where 99 per cent of shipping containers are uninspected. Superlabs in B.C. then manufacture the deadly fentanyl that is killing Canadians.

Drug traffickers far too often are released on bail and go back to dealing. Drug kingpins have walked away with no consequences.

Canada needs change. Pierre Poilievre is that change. His bold policies offer a clear path forward. His pledge to defund “safe supply” programs, end decriminalization and redirect money into treatment and recovery is exactly what Canada needs — a focus on healing, not enabling. His plan to sue opioid manufacturers and consulting companies who created this crisis in the first place is on the mark. His promise to impose mandatory sentences for drug traffickers and kingpins is the kind of tough-on-crime stance that can dismantle the drug networks that are poisoning our streets. His vision to put more boots on the ground and use sophisticated technology to stop fentanyl from coming into Canada in the first place will save many lives, putting Canada and Canadians first.

Elenore Sturko is the MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale. She is British Columbia’s Shadow Minister for Public Safety and Solicitor General and former Shadow Minister for Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery.