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House Hansard - 198

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 16, 2023 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 198 - May/16/23
Hon. Carolyn Bennett (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/16/23 2:55:10 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we are pretty fed up with this fight against evidence-based programs that actually are saving lives. We cannot allow the Conservatives to take us back to the failed ideology of the past. Even Harper's adviser, Ben Perrin, thinks they are speaking nonsense. So just stop it and save lives.
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Context: House Hansard - 198 - May/16/23
Hon. Carolyn Bennett (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/16/23 2:56:52 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, people are dying— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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Context: House Hansard - 198 - May/16/23
Hon. Carolyn Bennett
  • May/16/23 2:57:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 46,000 overdoses have been reversed in safe consumption sites. The member says that he will stop that. I want him to speak to the parents of the people who would have been lost if there were no safe consumption sites and no safe supply. This is ridiculous.
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Context: House Hansard - 198 - May/16/23
Hon. Carolyn Bennett (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/16/23 2:59:44 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, people have to stay alive long enough to get treatment. People are dying because of the toxic drug supply. Safe supply allows people to stay alive long enough. In a CMHA study— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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Context: House Hansard - 198 - May/16/23
Hon. Carolyn Bennett
  • May/16/23 3:00:09 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, people have to stay alive long enough to get to treatment. People are dying because of the toxic, tainted drug supply. When people are on safe supply, the CMHA article from yesterday talked about how there is less drug use, fewer overdoses and less petty crime. This is an evidence-based project and program that meets the test of evidence and science, not a journalist who will only speak to the people who agree with him.
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Context: House Hansard - 198 - May/16/23
Hon. Carolyn Bennett (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/16/23 3:06:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, Canadian drug policy and international drug policy have all four parts: prevention and education, harm reduction, treatment, and enforcement. We lived through 10 years of the Conservative government taking harm reduction out. We are now having to build back. As Ben Perrin said, “rehashing Conservative, war-on-drugs tropes that have been long since discredited and have been found to be not only ineffective but costly and deadly.”
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Context: House Hansard - 198 - May/16/23
Hon. Carolyn Bennett (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/16/23 3:08:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we cannot allow the Conservatives to take us back to the failed ideology of the past. Our government will use every tool at our disposal to end this national public health crisis. Supporting a safer supply is just one of the evidence-based, comprehensive public health responses to the toxic drug and overdose crisis. They do include prevention, treatment and enforcement. Our government is working with stakeholders that help support a safer supply and build that evidence, like the recent CMHA study around this promising, life-saving practice.
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Context: House Hansard - 198 - May/16/23
Hon. Carolyn Bennett (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/16/23 3:11:56 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, once again I will quote from Ben Perrin, the public safety and justice adviser to former prime minister Stephen Harper: There is no indication that prescribed safe supply is contributing to illicit drug deaths. Safer supply has been tested and found to be beneficial for people who have been unable to have treatment for whatever reason, and are long-term substance-abuse users. We’re talking about essentially substituting a contaminated street drug with a drug that has known contents and potency to help people stay alive, first of all, and also to be able to stabilize.
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Context: House Hansard - 198 - May/16/23
Hon. Carolyn Bennett (Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Lib.)
  • May/16/23 3:13:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is impossible to bring one's loved ones home if they are dead. I am— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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Context: House Hansard - 198 - May/16/23
Hon. Carolyn Bennett
  • May/16/23 3:13:34 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the toxic drug supply means that people in construction or in the mines are using once and dying. We have to move to a safer supply of drugs, as we have with alcohol, cannabis and the other ways people actually use substance to numb their pain. Former prime minister Stephen Harper's adviser said, particularly on using people using drugs as props, “I was really disgusted by it. I honestly was so disturbed to see Pierre— Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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