Juno News - June 02, 2023


Exposing Canada's drug and crime crisis (feat. Aaron Gunn)


Episode Stats

Length

40 minutes

Words per Minute

180.84059

Word Count

7,405

Sentence Count

170

Misogynist Sentences

6

Hate Speech Sentences

13


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.
00:00:05.640 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.
00:00:11.000 Welcome everyone, this is the Andrew Lawton Show here on True North,
00:00:15.140 Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show, first show of June.
00:00:18.660 So the summer months are upon us here.
00:00:21.260 It is Friday, June 2nd, and as you know, we always try in the final show of the week
00:00:26.900 to do things a bit differently.
00:00:28.120 We get to delve in depth on some of the big topics of the day
00:00:31.500 with some of the big thinkers of the day.
00:00:34.400 And the one I wanted to focus on today is Aaron Gunn,
00:00:38.240 who has been on the show before, but he's just released a fantastic,
00:00:42.640 and I would even say explosive documentary called Canada is Dying,
00:00:48.080 which looks largely at the drug crisis that is overwhelming cities across this country,
00:00:54.180 communities across this country,
00:00:56.020 and has become one that's been put, I think, pretty squarely in focus
00:00:59.140 by some political leaders now, with Danielle Smith in Alberta,
00:01:03.040 Pierre Polyev in the federal realm here.
00:01:06.380 Let's first take a look at the trailer.
00:01:08.460 We begin with breaking news tonight.
00:01:10.980 Police say a man stabbed and assaulted at least four people.
00:01:14.440 Video of the incident shows the woman pushed onto the track.
00:01:17.640 Police say the victim was hit in the head with a large pole.
00:01:20.900 Security footage captures a drug-fueled rage in Nanaimo.
00:01:23.840 The police got him, and the cop said,
00:01:25.840 he'll be out just after he goes to court in the morning after breakfast.
00:01:28.700 I was just seeing familiar faces in the criminal justice system,
00:01:33.860 and frustrating aspect was they were continually being released.
00:01:39.060 I don't understand how our justice system can allow him to be out walking the streets.
00:01:44.380 My son should never have been murdered.
00:01:46.580 That is the trailer for Canada is Dying,
00:01:49.520 well over half a million views,
00:01:51.560 and it's keeping on climbing.
00:01:53.860 Aaron Gunn joins me now.
00:01:55.500 Aaron, good to talk to you.
00:01:56.340 Thanks very much, and congratulations on the release.
00:01:59.700 Well, thank you for having me, Andrew,
00:02:01.140 and thank you for the congratulations.
00:02:02.780 It's been a lot of sweat and tears over the past couple of weeks and months
00:02:07.260 to get this out, but it's doing well, so we're grateful.
00:02:10.980 Why did you set out to tell this story?
00:02:14.920 Well, actually, if we roll back the clock a little bit,
00:02:17.160 it started with another documentary I did called Vancouver is Dying,
00:02:20.080 and the reason I went and set out to make that particular documentary
00:02:24.260 was living in BC, coastal BC for the past 20 years.
00:02:27.820 I just saw the exact same policies being implemented
00:02:30.480 and increasingly worse results, whether that's overdose deaths,
00:02:34.700 whether that's homelessness, whether it's just general degeneracy
00:02:37.820 and decay in our city streets,
00:02:39.620 and all we heard from politicians and the media
00:02:42.660 was that we needed more of the same,
00:02:44.620 and I thought, this doesn't seem to add up, so let's investigate it.
00:02:48.060 We did that in Vancouver.
00:02:49.400 It blew up, and then what happened after Vancouver is Dying
00:02:53.480 with such a success is people reached out to me from across the country,
00:02:56.660 and they were saying, you know, it's not just Vancouver.
00:02:59.460 Come to Kelowna.
00:03:00.260 Come to Nanaimo.
00:03:01.620 You have to come to London, Ontario, where you are, obviously,
00:03:05.760 or Toronto or Ottawa or Calgary or Edmonton or Lethbridge,
00:03:08.840 so it became quite clear that even if Vancouver was kind of the epicenter
00:03:13.480 of the crisis, all of the issues we investigated in Vancouver's dying
00:03:19.000 was actually quite a bit more widespread,
00:03:21.260 and we wanted to dig a little bit deeper to see what we would find,
00:03:24.560 and we found out quite a bit.
00:03:26.860 Is your central thesis or observation that this is just a universal national problem,
00:03:34.280 or in the communities where you see this happening,
00:03:37.860 are there kind of triggers that have caused it to be an issue
00:03:40.860 in those communities specifically?
00:03:44.980 Well, I would say the thesis of the documentary is that there are certain
00:03:50.360 problems being driven by the federal government
00:03:53.380 that is exacerbating the situation everywhere,
00:03:59.320 and then there are local or provincial factors that are making it specifically bad
00:04:04.360 in certain places.
00:04:06.260 So, for example, we look at, you know, the whole point of the documentary
00:04:10.540 is I think to connect the dots between this addictions crisis,
00:04:14.360 this increase in surge in violent crime, including random stranger attacks,
00:04:19.300 the decriminalization of drugs in BC, the provision of a so-called safe supply,
00:04:24.080 and trying to connect increases in homelessness.
00:04:26.960 So we're trying to connect all those dots together.
00:04:28.820 For example, the national level, though, like the criminal justice,
00:04:32.620 the revolving door justice system that we see the catcher on these policies,
00:04:36.360 those are being driven very specifically by bills like C-5,
00:04:40.880 like bills like C-75, which we jump into,
00:04:43.500 and this ideological push by the Trudeau government,
00:04:46.280 you know, that doesn't seem, that doesn't really accept the concept
00:04:50.100 of individual responsibility for these violent crimes,
00:04:52.700 but it's some kind of, you know, societal ills that we're all guilty of,
00:04:56.840 and we just need to be releasing these people as quickly as possible back into our streets,
00:05:01.380 how that's interwoven through our judicial system.
00:05:03.800 So there's, the criminal justice piece is very, I think, national in nature,
00:05:09.180 and then when it comes to things like the destigmatization,
00:05:14.360 normalization, and even enabling of hard drug use,
00:05:17.780 I think that gets very provincial specific, and in some cases, even city specific.
00:05:23.200 You know, it used to be that you'd have these two camps on the drug issue,
00:05:28.180 I mean, in Vancouver, literal camps, but I meant more philosophical camps,
00:05:31.920 where on one side, you have the tough on crime,
00:05:34.520 let's treat this as a criminal issue, drug trafficking, drug use side,
00:05:38.360 and on the other side, you say, no, no, no, it's not a crime,
00:05:41.300 it's a mental illness, we need to treat it.
00:05:43.320 I find there's increasingly a third category,
00:05:46.300 which says it's just a choice.
00:05:49.180 I mean, it's just a life choice.
00:05:50.780 We just have to normalize it.
00:05:52.600 We should offer safe supply and not push it into treatment.
00:05:56.580 We should eliminate criminal sanctions and not require treatment.
00:06:00.060 And are you seeing that side gain steam in B.C. or anywhere else?
00:06:06.940 I mean, I feel like, I mean, it's interesting what's happening in British Columbia.
00:06:13.440 I do feel there's a blowback coming,
00:06:14.980 so I guess it depends what you mean by gaining steam,
00:06:17.000 maybe in the policy world to a certain extent.
00:06:20.180 But, I mean, what's been happening in B.C.,
00:06:22.760 I think people are starting to wake up to it.
00:06:24.440 You have a poll that came out,
00:06:26.480 over 40% of people that live in Greater Vancouver
00:06:30.200 fear for their public safety on a daily basis.
00:06:33.480 I mean, that is an incredible,
00:06:35.560 that is a poll that you would expect to see out of a war zone,
00:06:38.740 out of eastern Ukraine or something like that.
00:06:42.660 I mean, it is shocking numbers.
00:06:44.600 And that has been, you know,
00:06:46.180 the result of an increase in violent crime of 32% since 2015.
00:06:49.460 And just the, you know,
00:06:51.800 the streets that you see in downtown Vancouver,
00:06:53.580 or even the suburbs like Surrey or Burnaby,
00:06:55.940 really are quite shocking to people and disturbing.
00:06:59.180 So I think that there's blowback coming.
00:07:03.140 You know, support for decriminalization is not high.
00:07:06.300 And, yeah, I think we're going to see the electoral consequences of that
00:07:10.740 probably in elections of the future.
00:07:13.300 The political power on this issue is incredibly significant.
00:07:18.140 I mean, one part that jumps out in the documentary,
00:07:20.460 you sit down with a pharmacist.
00:07:22.720 I mean, not a politician, not a physician,
00:07:25.180 but a pharmacist, which is an important role,
00:07:27.160 who didn't even want her face or name shown
00:07:30.700 because of the contention around these issues.
00:07:33.780 Explain that a little bit.
00:07:34.760 Why is there so much trepidation
00:07:36.820 in people being able to speak about these problems?
00:07:42.420 Well, a lot of, some of it just comes down to money.
00:07:45.580 So if we back up a little bit, Andrew,
00:07:49.420 I apologize if I'm getting in front of your questions here.
00:07:52.480 The Safe Supply Program that that pharmacist was talking about,
00:07:56.180 how she's basically handing out
00:07:57.840 1,008 milligram hydromorphone pills every single day.
00:08:02.500 This is her incredibly powerful and dangerous opioids,
00:08:06.960 basically make Oxycontin look like candy.
00:08:10.160 And she's handing out 1,000.
00:08:11.920 This is just one pharmacist at one pharmacy in British Columbia
00:08:14.740 is handing out 1,000 of these pills
00:08:16.880 to people who aren't in pain.
00:08:19.200 This is just supposed to be some fantasy land
00:08:23.240 fentanyl replacement theory.
00:08:25.720 And this program is being driven entirely
00:08:29.680 by the federal government.
00:08:31.560 And you have got doctors that basically apply for grants,
00:08:34.580 and these grants come directly from the feds,
00:08:36.860 from Health Canada.
00:08:37.700 And even though, obviously,
00:08:39.540 health care is traditionally a provincial responsibility.
00:08:42.140 So for some of these doctors,
00:08:43.960 for some of these addiction clinics,
00:08:45.160 for some of these pharmacies,
00:08:46.180 there's a lot of money at play here.
00:08:48.400 And obviously, they don't like anyone rocking the boat.
00:08:51.620 London was another example of a city that we visited
00:08:54.800 and people that we talked to.
00:08:56.140 I mean, I haven't heard,
00:08:57.820 you should maybe tell me, Andrew,
00:08:59.360 because you would know better,
00:09:00.180 but I haven't heard the provincial government
00:09:01.600 in Ontario talking a lot about safe supplier,
00:09:04.080 the need to push it,
00:09:04.860 like they do in British Columbia.
00:09:05.960 And yet it's still happening in the province of Ontario,
00:09:08.940 in cities like London,
00:09:10.280 much in the same way it's happening in BC.
00:09:12.080 And that's because that money and those programs
00:09:14.360 are actually being driven by the feds,
00:09:16.640 driven by Health Canada,
00:09:17.980 and driven by Trudeau's cabinet.
00:09:20.440 Yeah, and I should just say as well,
00:09:22.520 I mean, the idea that we're talking about safe supply
00:09:24.800 as being the norm in so many cities is bizarre
00:09:29.180 if you look at how this issue has morphed.
00:09:31.160 Because I remember when supervised injection sites,
00:09:34.480 safe injection sites were in and of themselves
00:09:37.080 seen as quite radical.
00:09:38.480 And there, a lot of the activists said,
00:09:40.460 well, no, I mean, they have the drugs themselves,
00:09:42.340 we're just supplying a clean needle.
00:09:44.260 And it's amazing how quickly that changed
00:09:46.960 to we're going to provide the drugs themselves.
00:09:50.240 Yeah, I mean, on so many issues these days,
00:09:54.560 the slippery slope is incredibly steep.
00:09:58.520 And yeah, it's the ideology of harm reduction,
00:10:01.880 as you alluded to earlier,
00:10:03.520 kind of this ideological belief
00:10:07.060 that choosing to do hard drugs like fentanyl
00:10:11.040 and crystal meth is a respectable choice.
00:10:14.620 And we should simply try to make that respectable choice
00:10:18.400 as safe for these individuals as possible
00:10:21.100 instead of, and in many ways,
00:10:23.960 really entrenching and furthering the sense of denial
00:10:29.060 that exists in many of these individuals' heads
00:10:31.400 that they have a problem.
00:10:32.520 Even when they're stumbling around
00:10:34.680 the downtown cores of our major cities like zombies,
00:10:40.560 a lot of them are very much in denial
00:10:42.700 that they have addiction,
00:10:43.540 that they have a problem.
00:10:45.420 And these kinds of programs
00:10:46.740 and this kind of ideology
00:10:48.180 just, I think, makes it so much more difficult
00:10:50.820 for people to wake up to the fact
00:10:52.760 that this is not a way to live
00:10:54.560 and you need help
00:10:55.620 and you need to get into treatment
00:10:57.220 and you need to get into recovery
00:10:58.520 and you need to become a contributing member
00:11:01.540 of society once again.
00:11:04.740 How was it for you talking to people
00:11:06.760 who have dealt with addiction,
00:11:08.460 people who have lived on the streets?
00:11:10.700 I mean, you did, I think,
00:11:11.900 a very respectful job of having those conversations
00:11:15.000 and I was just wondering,
00:11:16.380 first off, I mean,
00:11:17.020 what were some of the big takeaways for you?
00:11:18.740 But how was it sitting down with these people?
00:11:20.420 Because I think oftentimes
00:11:21.340 they're very patronized by the policy approaches
00:11:26.060 and they're spoken about in ways
00:11:27.820 as though they don't have the autonomy
00:11:30.260 and the maturity
00:11:31.060 that I think you brought out of them
00:11:32.980 in your discussions.
00:11:33.720 Yeah, so you're talking about the individual
00:11:37.180 still suffering from addiction?
00:11:38.740 Well, both, both.
00:11:39.760 I mean, people that were in recovery
00:11:41.660 and even people that were, you know,
00:11:43.240 you talked to just on the streets.
00:11:45.640 Yeah, so first, the people that are in recovery
00:11:47.520 who have got it clean,
00:11:48.940 from them, the response has been over.
00:11:51.840 Like that first, especially in Vancouver is dying,
00:11:54.200 I was a little bit nervous
00:11:55.580 going up to chat with them
00:11:56.680 and the response was just overwhelmingly positive.
00:11:59.580 They said, honestly, unanimously,
00:12:03.760 that if they were in a situation
00:12:05.420 when they were still on the streets,
00:12:06.800 if they were given free drugs by the government,
00:12:09.340 if they were given a free hotel room by the government,
00:12:12.060 that they would probably be dead
00:12:14.060 on the floor of that hotel room
00:12:15.660 with the drugs beside them.
00:12:18.940 And that the path forward
00:12:22.260 needs to be through treatment,
00:12:23.880 through education
00:12:24.660 and getting people clean.
00:12:27.020 And they just laugh at the fact
00:12:28.480 when you look at some of these, you know,
00:12:29.760 talking points put out by the government
00:12:31.060 that we need to de-stigmatize hard drug use
00:12:33.980 in order to save lives.
00:12:35.660 As far as the people on the street,
00:12:37.960 still, there has always been a really mixed bag.
00:12:41.700 Because I think you get people
00:12:42.460 in different stages of their addiction.
00:12:44.840 So some people are full on denial
00:12:47.020 that they even have a problem.
00:12:49.160 You see them, you know,
00:12:50.900 half alive on the side of a city street,
00:12:54.120 whether it's Kelowna and IMO, Vancouver, Calgary,
00:12:56.240 or whatever,
00:12:56.680 who say, I don't have a problem.
00:12:58.480 I don't know.
00:12:59.120 You're living your life.
00:12:59.920 I'm living mine.
00:13:00.820 And then you get others
00:13:01.800 who are very open and honest
00:13:04.780 and say they have,
00:13:05.740 they're addicted to fentanyl
00:13:07.100 and they struggle with it
00:13:08.220 and they maybe tried treatment before,
00:13:10.220 but they just weren't able to do it.
00:13:12.940 And they seem very worn out.
00:13:16.520 But out of that phase of denial
00:13:19.240 and unfortunately,
00:13:21.360 I think in a phase
00:13:22.240 where they really need our help as a society
00:13:25.680 to pull them back out of that hole
00:13:27.640 and get them to where they want to be.
00:13:31.760 One of the biggest arguments
00:13:33.480 I see in favor of the permissive regime,
00:13:36.980 if I can call it that,
00:13:37.960 and I include in that safe supply,
00:13:40.220 supervised injection sites,
00:13:41.400 all of that,
00:13:41.900 is that the criminal approach didn't work.
00:13:44.640 The so-called war on drugs didn't work
00:13:46.740 and it led us to where we are now.
00:13:48.480 And I'm wondering
00:13:49.500 what your argument to that is
00:13:50.960 because certainly I would say
00:13:52.700 it didn't do what people wanted it to do.
00:13:55.720 But at the same times,
00:13:56.720 I think the problems in the last five years
00:13:59.140 have gotten so much more worse
00:14:01.280 or at the very least,
00:14:02.420 so much more visible
00:14:04.100 than they were before then.
00:14:07.840 Yeah.
00:14:08.380 So I think a lot of the pro-drug advocates
00:14:12.020 are trying to create a false binary
00:14:14.900 based on political debates
00:14:17.120 from the 1990s
00:14:18.060 that were before my time
00:14:19.120 of being politically aware.
00:14:21.300 The just say no era of drug policy, right?
00:14:24.180 Yeah.
00:14:24.600 So it's,
00:14:27.480 I mean, no one's talking about,
00:14:30.600 no one's seriously talking about
00:14:32.160 treating addicts who are addicted to drugs
00:14:35.080 as criminals,
00:14:36.300 as some kind of hardened criminal.
00:14:37.340 But it's about whether we as a society say
00:14:41.460 being addicted to drugs
00:14:44.720 to the point where you are unable
00:14:46.180 to look after yourself,
00:14:47.280 let alone anybody else,
00:14:48.800 let alone being a productive member of society,
00:14:50.940 is something that should be socially acceptable.
00:14:55.460 That's not to say that we need to punish people.
00:14:57.820 It actually says the opposite,
00:14:58.840 that we need to help them
00:14:59.660 and get them out of there.
00:15:00.320 But it's about what are we willing to accept?
00:15:02.520 What are we willing to tolerate?
00:15:03.600 And so they try to create this false binary
00:15:07.660 because I think it's useful for them politically.
00:15:10.360 But it's,
00:15:11.500 I mean, no one's having that debate anymore.
00:15:13.080 It's not the 1990s.
00:15:15.400 And so I think,
00:15:17.880 and I think to your point about
00:15:20.020 it's gotten so much worse.
00:15:23.420 I think that,
00:15:24.900 you know,
00:15:27.020 when you're in a situation
00:15:27.940 where you're using certain substances
00:15:29.380 that have the power to wreak
00:15:31.320 so much social and economic chaos
00:15:35.000 on a city,
00:15:37.100 on a society,
00:15:37.700 on a province,
00:15:38.260 on a country,
00:15:39.340 I mean,
00:15:40.380 they just can't,
00:15:41.240 they can't,
00:15:42.100 they can't just be this free-for-all
00:15:43.400 because the natural question ends up
00:15:45.180 who's dealing with the consequences,
00:15:46.580 who's paying for all the police bills,
00:15:47.920 who's paying for the ambulance bills,
00:15:49.300 who's paying for the social welfare bills,
00:15:51.960 and all the other ills,
00:15:54.020 who's paying for the criminal justice system,
00:15:58.080 who's looking after the widow of someone
00:16:01.640 whose husband was brutally stabbed
00:16:04.540 in broad daylight
00:16:05.220 by someone who was going through drug psychosis
00:16:07.440 triggered by crystal meth.
00:16:09.040 So there's all these massive externalities,
00:16:11.360 I think,
00:16:12.080 that are being driven by the addictions crisis.
00:16:14.620 And to ignore that,
00:16:16.080 well, you can't ignore it,
00:16:16.900 and you get what British Columbia has turned into
00:16:19.020 and what much of Canada has turned into
00:16:20.360 over the past 20 years.
00:16:22.120 Yeah, and it does seem like
00:16:24.520 there has been a bit of regret,
00:16:27.500 maybe is the right word,
00:16:29.140 on some people that have been a part
00:16:31.360 of pushing this evolution in policy.
00:16:33.740 I mean, one example you interview
00:16:35.620 is a physician from my city of London, Ontario,
00:16:38.820 Sharon Koivu,
00:16:39.640 who has, it seems like,
00:16:41.300 gone perhaps not as far as some people,
00:16:43.220 but she's pulled back a little bit.
00:16:46.200 Yeah, and the mayor of Nanaimo as well,
00:16:48.260 who was an NDP MLA for many years.
00:16:50.320 Because I think the,
00:16:53.300 obviously we want to be compassionate.
00:16:55.080 The idea of harm reduction,
00:16:57.780 which actually was born under the AIDS epidemic,
00:17:01.260 was, you know,
00:17:02.540 to try to keep people alive
00:17:04.240 and decrease harm in society to individuals
00:17:08.260 while we're trying to get them help.
00:17:09.880 The problem is the harm reduction,
00:17:12.240 the harm reduction policies
00:17:14.800 that have been implemented
00:17:15.640 have been escalated to such a point
00:17:17.100 where it's quite obvious to me
00:17:19.120 they're actually creating more harm.
00:17:21.180 So, for example, with the safe supply,
00:17:23.380 which to me, by the way,
00:17:24.280 is a complete oxymoron
00:17:26.120 and is born out of this fallacy
00:17:27.460 that there's some kind of poison drug crisis
00:17:30.180 when in reality,
00:17:31.300 the drugs are the poison.
00:17:33.000 I mean, fentanyl,
00:17:33.820 fentanyl is not being poisoned.
00:17:35.200 Fentanyl is a poison.
00:17:36.920 And, you know,
00:17:38.100 me or you could take,
00:17:39.500 you know, pure fentanyl
00:17:41.240 out of a pharmacy
00:17:42.780 and be dead pretty quickly.
00:17:44.760 So, the safe supply program,
00:17:47.860 though, that they're flooding the market
00:17:49.300 with these drugs.
00:17:50.420 But these drugs are then being diverted
00:17:52.100 and being resold on the black market
00:17:54.420 and traded for fentanyl
00:17:55.700 and other things
00:17:56.220 that the addicts actually want.
00:17:57.260 And then these hydromorphone pills
00:17:58.960 are now being resold
00:18:00.580 on college campuses,
00:18:02.560 on university campuses,
00:18:03.720 at high schools,
00:18:05.080 to young kids
00:18:06.120 and starting and creating
00:18:07.380 the next generation of addicts,
00:18:09.120 creating more harm down the road.
00:18:11.960 A perfect example of this,
00:18:13.240 we talked to an addictions counsellor,
00:18:15.100 Andrew in,
00:18:17.380 well, it was anonymous,
00:18:18.280 so I'll just say a city
00:18:18.880 in British Columbia.
00:18:20.320 And she said two years ago,
00:18:22.780 about 90% of the people,
00:18:24.980 95% of the people
00:18:26.140 that came in
00:18:26.720 were addicted to fentanyl,
00:18:27.880 the patients
00:18:28.380 that were walking
00:18:29.180 into the addictions clinic
00:18:30.140 who needed help
00:18:31.020 and were trying
00:18:31.520 to get off the addiction.
00:18:33.500 The rest was a remainder
00:18:34.500 of some benzos
00:18:36.020 or Oxycontin still
00:18:38.080 or things like that.
00:18:39.740 So, in the last six months,
00:18:40.920 50% of the people
00:18:42.340 that have walked
00:18:42.780 through that door
00:18:43.360 are addicted to hydromorphone,
00:18:46.540 which is the drug
00:18:47.420 that the government
00:18:48.040 is handing out.
00:18:49.300 So, we are literally creating
00:18:50.640 the next generation of addicts.
00:18:53.240 And to me,
00:18:53.760 that's not harm reduction,
00:18:54.840 that's harm creation.
00:18:55.980 And clearly,
00:18:56.940 the policy hasn't been working.
00:18:58.700 And I think the problem
00:18:59.460 is a lot of these politicians
00:19:00.960 have become so wedded
00:19:02.620 to this,
00:19:03.500 they've staked their reputation
00:19:04.700 on this idea,
00:19:05.440 they're going to be
00:19:05.840 very reluctant
00:19:06.480 to walk it back,
00:19:07.800 unfortunately.
00:19:08.300 In the political realm,
00:19:11.060 is this strictly
00:19:12.060 a left-right issue?
00:19:13.700 Because it certainly
00:19:14.560 looks like one,
00:19:15.700 whereas the people
00:19:16.460 that are standing up
00:19:17.940 and saying Canada is dying
00:19:19.480 are people that are
00:19:20.920 on the right,
00:19:21.680 and then you get people
00:19:22.340 like Justin Trudeau
00:19:23.360 who say it's offensive
00:19:24.620 to say that Canada is broken
00:19:26.060 and we can't acknowledge
00:19:27.220 there's a problem.
00:19:28.060 But I'm wondering
00:19:28.700 if when you delve down
00:19:30.120 to the local level
00:19:31.060 or even the provincial level,
00:19:32.320 if you see a little bit
00:19:33.140 more nuance
00:19:33.700 on both sides of this.
00:19:34.860 I mean,
00:19:38.880 I think,
00:19:39.640 well,
00:19:40.080 of our political leadership
00:19:42.060 right now,
00:19:42.820 it certainly seems
00:19:43.560 to be a left-right issue,
00:19:44.520 but I think among Canadians
00:19:45.460 it is decidedly
00:19:46.520 not a left-right issue.
00:19:47.680 I mean,
00:19:48.460 you know,
00:19:49.860 I'm pretty openly
00:19:50.820 conservative,
00:19:53.360 but...
00:19:53.760 And I should say,
00:19:54.520 Pierre Paulievre
00:19:55.020 gave this film
00:19:56.080 quite an endorsement
00:19:57.720 on Twitter.
00:19:58.320 We have the tweet up there.
00:19:59.700 So the leader
00:20:00.080 of the Conservatives
00:20:00.740 obviously sees
00:20:02.140 what you're saying here
00:20:03.200 and agrees with it.
00:20:03.980 But yeah,
00:20:04.700 so you're saying
00:20:05.320 on the local level
00:20:06.240 that isn't just a left-right.
00:20:08.580 Yeah,
00:20:08.900 like I,
00:20:09.320 for example,
00:20:10.280 with Vancouver's dying
00:20:11.180 and this documentary as well,
00:20:12.480 so many people
00:20:13.160 reach out to me
00:20:13.800 who said,
00:20:14.220 you know,
00:20:14.340 I actually don't agree
00:20:14.960 with you on almost anything,
00:20:16.440 but I agree with you
00:20:17.680 100% on what's going on
00:20:19.060 in Vancouver
00:20:19.860 or insert my home city here
00:20:21.960 that this isn't right.
00:20:24.100 This clearly hasn't been working
00:20:25.120 because to me,
00:20:26.120 the reason why
00:20:26.740 it's not a left-right issue
00:20:28.060 among the public
00:20:28.680 is because
00:20:29.240 the results are happening
00:20:30.880 in front of our eyes.
00:20:31.700 Like we've run the experiment
00:20:32.700 for the past 20 years.
00:20:33.780 If this is success,
00:20:34.700 I don't know what failure
00:20:35.580 looks like.
00:20:36.760 And I would also point out,
00:20:38.260 I'm traveling right now
00:20:39.200 filming the next documentary
00:20:40.280 in Europe
00:20:41.040 and I mean,
00:20:42.500 this is not,
00:20:43.700 this handing out
00:20:44.720 of free drugs
00:20:45.480 is not something
00:20:46.820 that people on the left
00:20:47.680 or the right
00:20:48.300 in the vast majority,
00:20:49.760 if not all of these countries,
00:20:50.800 would think
00:20:51.280 is a reasonable approach
00:20:52.680 or a smart idea.
00:20:53.560 I mean,
00:20:53.720 just the insanity
00:20:54.540 of this,
00:20:55.060 Andrew.
00:20:55.220 I mean,
00:20:55.960 the government
00:20:56.680 of British Columbia
00:20:57.560 is currently suing
00:20:59.580 Purdue Pharmaceuticals
00:21:01.720 for marketing Oxycontin
00:21:04.220 as safe
00:21:04.940 when it wasn't,
00:21:06.240 as non-addictive
00:21:07.240 when it wasn't,
00:21:08.340 and then flooding
00:21:09.180 the market,
00:21:09.920 flooding the streets
00:21:10.600 with this drug
00:21:11.300 which ended up
00:21:12.280 getting millions of people
00:21:14.200 addicted in North America
00:21:15.260 and leading to the deaths
00:21:16.120 of over 100,000 people.
00:21:18.160 Now,
00:21:18.500 what the British Columbian
00:21:19.500 government is doing
00:21:20.380 in conjunction
00:21:21.040 with Trudeau
00:21:22.420 is handing out
00:21:23.580 en masse opioids
00:21:25.680 that are even more powerful
00:21:26.980 than Oxycontin
00:21:27.780 and marketing them
00:21:28.520 as safe supply
00:21:29.340 and watching them
00:21:30.000 as they flood
00:21:30.500 into the streets
00:21:31.080 and get a whole new generation.
00:21:32.060 They're doing the exact same thing
00:21:33.440 that Purdue did
00:21:34.100 but worse
00:21:34.940 and they're suing Purdue for it
00:21:36.800 so I don't know
00:21:37.140 if they're going to sue
00:21:37.700 themselves next.
00:21:38.980 It's sad though
00:21:40.560 because there's obviously
00:21:41.300 a very real human cost
00:21:43.000 to this
00:21:43.360 and there's going to be
00:21:45.340 unfortunately
00:21:45.760 a lot more dead Canadians
00:21:48.640 as a result
00:21:49.680 of what the government
00:21:50.280 is doing.
00:21:51.380 Since you brought up Europe
00:21:52.880 I have to ask about that.
00:21:54.720 I mean,
00:21:54.960 is Canada
00:21:55.880 an outlier in this
00:21:57.980 or is Canada
00:21:58.640 following a model
00:21:59.700 that we see
00:22:00.420 somewhere else
00:22:01.220 in the world?
00:22:03.080 Canada is a
00:22:04.340 Canada is at the
00:22:05.960 vanguard of insanity
00:22:06.980 right now
00:22:07.480 when it comes
00:22:08.000 specifically
00:22:08.660 to the distribution
00:22:10.120 of opioids
00:22:10.980 and handing out
00:22:11.580 free drugs.
00:22:12.720 I mean,
00:22:13.540 the Oxycontin crisis
00:22:15.540 which I thought
00:22:16.820 everyone on the left
00:22:17.920 and right
00:22:18.340 kind of unanimously
00:22:19.220 agreed
00:22:19.900 Purdue was wrong
00:22:22.280 and it was a disaster
00:22:23.440 and we shouldn't have
00:22:24.540 handed out opioids
00:22:25.320 as freely
00:22:26.440 as we did
00:22:26.940 and it created
00:22:27.360 a huge generation
00:22:28.440 of addicts
00:22:29.060 and many of them
00:22:29.960 overdosed and died.
00:22:30.960 I thought that was
00:22:31.660 a consensus.
00:22:32.780 In Europe
00:22:33.260 they never had
00:22:33.820 the same problem
00:22:34.460 because they were
00:22:35.000 much more restrictive
00:22:36.200 with prescription drugs
00:22:39.360 than we are over here.
00:22:40.800 There's much less drug use
00:22:41.860 in general
00:22:42.340 in Europe
00:22:42.780 than there is
00:22:44.040 in North America
00:22:45.460 so I thought
00:22:46.800 we had learned
00:22:47.280 that lesson.
00:22:47.960 So they have
00:22:48.540 different
00:22:49.080 you know
00:22:50.520 there's harm reduction
00:22:51.640 there's certain
00:22:52.560 there's much
00:22:52.980 less of it over there
00:22:53.980 but there are
00:22:54.300 safe injection sites
00:22:55.240 and things like that
00:22:56.300 but the most insidious
00:22:58.120 part I think
00:22:58.700 about of what's
00:22:59.620 happening in Canada
00:23:00.280 right now
00:23:00.840 is this so-called
00:23:02.440 safe supply
00:23:03.160 is the distribution
00:23:04.020 of free drugs
00:23:04.740 and as far as
00:23:06.360 I can tell
00:23:06.820 or my research
00:23:07.400 has shown
00:23:08.520 that is not
00:23:09.480 happening anywhere.
00:23:10.300 We are
00:23:10.620 I mean
00:23:11.140 Canada's at the
00:23:12.320 forefront of that
00:23:13.500 and Vancouver
00:23:14.340 is leading the parade
00:23:16.100 so it's
00:23:16.620 it's
00:23:17.040 it's
00:23:18.540 certainly
00:23:19.080 I mean
00:23:19.460 we were just
00:23:19.900 we had lunch
00:23:20.540 with somebody
00:23:20.980 in Sweden
00:23:21.660 the other day
00:23:22.120 and they couldn't
00:23:22.540 even believe
00:23:23.200 the story
00:23:23.940 that we were
00:23:24.380 telling them
00:23:24.800 about what's
00:23:25.200 going on
00:23:25.640 in British Columbia
00:23:27.540 and I should
00:23:28.040 point out
00:23:28.400 by the way
00:23:28.720 the activists
00:23:29.260 that are pushing
00:23:29.780 these policies
00:23:30.480 don't want it
00:23:31.420 to stop
00:23:31.840 at you know
00:23:33.280 hydromorphone
00:23:34.080 and these powerful
00:23:35.420 opioids
00:23:35.760 they actually
00:23:36.240 want a safe
00:23:36.940 supply of fentanyl
00:23:39.040 a safe supply
00:23:40.320 of crack
00:23:40.960 a safe supply
00:23:41.780 of crystal meth
00:23:42.500 that is
00:23:43.320 that is where
00:23:44.040 they want to go
00:23:44.760 that is their
00:23:45.740 that is their
00:23:46.460 finish line
00:23:47.100 so hopefully
00:23:49.320 people start
00:23:50.080 waking up
00:23:50.480 to some of
00:23:51.140 these facts
00:23:51.580 one of the
00:23:53.540 things that has
00:23:54.260 always struck
00:23:55.380 me as quite
00:23:56.340 concerning
00:23:56.980 whenever I hear
00:23:57.640 stories about
00:23:58.280 how these
00:23:58.560 programs work
00:23:59.360 is that the
00:23:59.880 safeguards
00:24:01.220 really don't
00:24:02.540 exist to
00:24:03.440 prevent these
00:24:04.240 drugs from
00:24:04.880 going somewhere
00:24:06.240 other than to
00:24:07.000 the person
00:24:07.560 to whom
00:24:08.080 they're dispensed
00:24:08.600 so even if
00:24:09.580 we get on
00:24:10.020 board
00:24:10.320 with the idea
00:24:10.820 that yes
00:24:11.320 a person
00:24:11.800 with addiction
00:24:12.240 who comes
00:24:12.720 in who
00:24:13.520 needs you
00:24:14.280 know safe
00:24:14.680 supply we
00:24:15.240 can give
00:24:15.540 them a drug
00:24:15.920 and that
00:24:16.120 so even if
00:24:17.000 we accept
00:24:17.420 that there's
00:24:18.360 no guarantee
00:24:19.000 that won't
00:24:19.560 end up getting
00:24:20.320 sold to
00:24:21.660 someone else
00:24:22.600 so it must
00:24:23.740 be from what
00:24:24.840 you told me
00:24:25.420 what's in the
00:24:25.840 documentary and
00:24:26.520 what I've read
00:24:26.900 elsewhere that
00:24:27.560 that you've got
00:24:28.600 dealers that are
00:24:29.520 just deliberately
00:24:30.220 abusing this
00:24:31.260 process that are
00:24:32.220 just going through
00:24:33.160 and doing this
00:24:34.000 and I'm wondering
00:24:34.940 just how that
00:24:35.720 works is it that
00:24:36.480 you can just go
00:24:37.120 in anonymously
00:24:37.940 and there's no
00:24:38.480 sort of record
00:24:39.100 or tracking
00:24:39.760 of who the
00:24:40.720 patients are
00:24:41.380 in these
00:24:41.640 programs
00:24:42.120 so how the
00:24:44.440 program works
00:24:45.100 and what you
00:24:45.460 said is
00:24:45.880 it's very
00:24:47.140 common sense
00:24:47.820 Andrew and
00:24:48.320 there are other
00:24:48.840 countries that
00:24:49.440 have harm
00:24:51.160 reduction for
00:24:51.820 people that
00:24:52.440 they think
00:24:53.020 are just
00:24:54.300 either incapable
00:24:56.600 for getting
00:24:57.040 into treatment
00:24:57.500 which is a
00:24:57.940 controversial
00:24:58.440 kind of thing
00:25:00.040 to say
00:25:00.440 or not ready
00:25:01.620 or whatever
00:25:02.040 but all of
00:25:02.760 those countries
00:25:03.780 have safe
00:25:04.740 supply programs
00:25:05.560 where the drugs
00:25:06.140 have to be
00:25:06.660 witnessed
00:25:07.100 right there
00:25:07.700 by the
00:25:08.100 pharmacist
00:25:08.580 not walked
00:25:09.180 out with a
00:25:09.780 with a pill
00:25:10.480 bottle where it
00:25:11.020 can easily be
00:25:11.460 resold on a
00:25:12.100 black market
00:25:12.660 which is
00:25:13.020 yeah and again
00:25:13.520 stories of just
00:25:14.100 labels being
00:25:14.780 ripped off and
00:25:15.540 just like thrown
00:25:16.120 into the ditch
00:25:16.680 basically
00:25:17.140 yes it's the
00:25:17.860 pinnacle of
00:25:18.320 insanity
00:25:19.200 the people
00:25:20.480 walk out
00:25:20.960 I mean the
00:25:21.340 pharmacist just
00:25:21.980 says they
00:25:22.400 see people
00:25:23.320 walk out of
00:25:23.840 the pharmacy
00:25:24.360 hand the pill
00:25:25.320 bottles off to
00:25:26.080 somebody waiting
00:25:27.120 in a black
00:25:27.820 sedan gets a
00:25:28.760 pile of cash
00:25:29.560 for it and
00:25:29.980 walks away
00:25:30.480 and we talked
00:25:31.620 to the 16
00:25:32.780 year old girl
00:25:33.160 in high school
00:25:33.620 that says these
00:25:34.140 drugs are just
00:25:34.720 they take the
00:25:35.860 label off the
00:25:37.260 pill bottle
00:25:37.700 repackage the
00:25:38.640 pills in dime
00:25:39.580 bags or whatever
00:25:40.320 or sometimes
00:25:41.040 they're actually
00:25:41.400 used as a
00:25:41.880 precursor in
00:25:43.320 fentanyl
00:25:43.840 manufacturing which
00:25:45.080 is a whole
00:25:45.340 other side of
00:25:46.920 the story
00:25:47.360 but yeah
00:25:49.300 it's so the
00:25:50.820 process of how
00:25:51.540 it works
00:25:51.920 so it's
00:25:54.280 different for
00:25:54.760 each doctor
00:25:55.400 but basically
00:25:56.120 you walk into
00:25:56.920 one of these
00:25:57.500 clinics that's
00:25:58.140 being funded
00:25:58.620 by Health
00:25:59.580 Canada
00:26:00.000 and you say
00:26:01.360 I'm a
00:26:02.160 fentanyl
00:26:03.040 addict
00:26:03.420 I'm addicted
00:26:04.560 to fentanyl
00:26:05.220 and I need
00:26:05.820 my safe
00:26:06.660 supply
00:26:07.080 and some
00:26:09.160 of them
00:26:09.380 require initial
00:26:10.180 tests to say
00:26:11.300 that you have
00:26:11.640 fentanyl in your
00:26:12.160 system none of
00:26:12.880 them that I
00:26:13.700 know of require
00:26:14.320 ongoing tests
00:26:15.180 at all and
00:26:16.520 in fact the
00:26:18.000 pharmacist was
00:26:18.640 saying that a
00:26:19.460 lot of the
00:26:19.820 addicts in this
00:26:20.600 particular city
00:26:21.300 were getting
00:26:21.700 almost entitled
00:26:23.820 to it they
00:26:24.360 would say I
00:26:24.800 want where's my
00:26:25.620 safe supply and
00:26:26.720 it is a daily
00:26:27.520 dispensary so
00:26:28.260 you show up
00:26:28.720 every day to
00:26:30.340 get your
00:26:30.920 dispense of
00:26:32.200 hydromorphone
00:26:33.340 and most of
00:26:35.420 the addicts
00:26:36.020 either sell
00:26:37.280 all of it
00:26:37.840 or trade all
00:26:38.640 of it to get
00:26:39.260 the fentanyl
00:26:39.780 they actually
00:26:40.160 want some
00:26:40.640 of them might
00:26:40.920 take a couple
00:26:41.400 pills sell
00:26:41.980 the rest get
00:26:42.900 the fentanyl
00:26:43.440 that they
00:26:43.680 actually want
00:26:44.260 and when they
00:26:45.160 do use the
00:26:45.760 drug they're
00:26:47.000 not using it
00:26:47.520 as prescribed
00:26:48.060 they'll dissolve
00:26:49.840 it and inject
00:26:50.640 it which creates
00:26:51.260 all sorts of
00:26:51.720 other issues
00:26:52.260 and spinal
00:26:52.820 damage and all
00:26:53.540 sorts of other
00:26:54.040 possible things
00:26:55.220 so the program
00:26:56.420 is just leaving
00:26:57.160 a trail of
00:26:58.680 pain and tears
00:27:00.260 it's not helping
00:27:00.960 anyone it's
00:27:02.060 just enabling
00:27:02.700 this destructive
00:27:04.300 behavior and
00:27:05.180 most destructively
00:27:07.240 it's creating
00:27:07.860 this next
00:27:08.720 generation of
00:27:09.420 addicts by
00:27:09.900 fueling the
00:27:11.160 exact opioid
00:27:11.860 crisis we were
00:27:12.520 trying to move
00:27:13.520 away from
00:27:14.100 this is an
00:27:15.680 unpleasant question
00:27:16.640 to ask but I
00:27:17.340 have to ask it
00:27:18.060 anyway when you
00:27:18.840 describe these
00:27:20.160 pills making
00:27:20.860 their way from
00:27:21.500 the government
00:27:21.960 so-called safe
00:27:22.900 supply programs
00:27:24.300 to high schools
00:27:25.940 in you know
00:27:26.840 Kelowna or
00:27:27.580 Nanaimo or
00:27:28.180 whatever would
00:27:29.420 the government
00:27:30.240 call that a
00:27:31.540 win because it
00:27:32.580 means that it's
00:27:33.360 you know clean
00:27:34.060 government drugs
00:27:35.020 that are being
00:27:35.480 distributed and
00:27:36.180 not the you
00:27:37.140 know dirty
00:27:37.580 unsafe street
00:27:38.420 drugs would
00:27:38.840 they actually
00:27:39.300 say that's a
00:27:40.920 benefit in the
00:27:42.080 system even if
00:27:42.720 it's indirect
00:27:43.320 well what the
00:27:45.840 probably the most
00:27:46.700 disturbing thing
00:27:47.360 we found out
00:27:48.100 was this
00:27:49.400 pharmacist
00:27:50.780 told us that
00:27:52.740 when she sees
00:27:53.480 people walk in
00:27:54.420 she dispenses the
00:27:55.380 drugs they walk
00:27:56.080 out of the
00:27:56.380 pharmacy and
00:27:57.320 sell the drugs
00:27:58.040 literally in the
00:27:58.740 parking lot of
00:27:59.440 the pharmacy in
00:28:00.300 direct view of
00:28:01.680 where she's
00:28:02.060 standing I mean
00:28:02.800 this isn't this
00:28:03.420 isn't an
00:28:04.380 undercover operation
00:28:05.740 here it's in
00:28:07.880 plain sight she
00:28:09.040 will contact the
00:28:10.460 doctor who wrote
00:28:11.120 the prescription she
00:28:12.320 said there are
00:28:13.040 doctors who say
00:28:15.100 you know this
00:28:15.500 prescription is
00:28:16.040 clearly not being
00:28:16.740 used as intended
00:28:17.640 and will cancel
00:28:18.440 the prescription
00:28:19.260 but there are
00:28:21.420 other doctors that
00:28:22.520 she has contacted
00:28:23.320 and I saw the
00:28:23.940 text messages where
00:28:25.340 she says you know
00:28:26.480 so-and-so is not
00:28:27.600 using their
00:28:28.420 prescription they
00:28:29.080 are walking out
00:28:29.560 of the pharmacy
00:28:30.020 and reselling the
00:28:30.840 drug and the
00:28:32.060 doctor has said
00:28:32.960 well that's okay
00:28:34.300 at least somebody
00:28:35.380 somewhere is
00:28:36.540 getting a safe
00:28:37.200 supply and to
00:28:39.320 me that is that
00:28:40.080 is medical
00:28:40.460 malpractice for
00:28:41.480 what for one
00:28:42.040 thing I mean I
00:28:42.600 don't know how
00:28:42.900 that's not an
00:28:43.360 accessory to drug
00:28:44.620 trafficking at that
00:28:45.460 point but it's
00:28:47.200 so to your point
00:28:49.360 and there's been
00:28:50.120 actually also the
00:28:51.840 one of these kind
00:28:52.780 of left-wing
00:28:53.460 groups who's very
00:28:55.200 pro-harm
00:28:55.640 reduction
00:28:56.060 recognizes that
00:28:57.760 diversion is
00:28:58.440 happening which
00:28:59.000 is what this is
00:28:59.580 called and
00:29:00.740 believes that they
00:29:01.580 need to come up
00:29:02.160 with a new word
00:29:03.300 for it so they
00:29:03.940 can market it more
00:29:05.220 effectively to the
00:29:05.980 general population
00:29:06.840 to talk about the
00:29:07.840 virtues of as you
00:29:09.980 literally just pointed
00:29:10.840 out the safe
00:29:12.320 government supply of
00:29:14.360 opioids displacing the
00:29:16.360 the black market
00:29:17.240 supply so you know
00:29:20.220 I don't know who's
00:29:21.220 who's in favor of
00:29:21.960 that policy and
00:29:22.660 who's just who's
00:29:23.500 just oblivious to
00:29:24.320 it there's I mean
00:29:25.180 it's a fine line
00:29:25.920 between gross
00:29:26.980 incompetence and
00:29:27.800 maliciousness obviously
00:29:28.760 so it's sometimes
00:29:30.560 the results look the
00:29:31.480 same so I'm sure
00:29:32.200 there's a little bit
00:29:32.700 of both in this
00:29:35.200 and there's what's
00:29:35.960 been going so wrong
00:29:36.740 here lately
00:29:37.200 yeah and I've said
00:29:38.580 on my show in the
00:29:39.300 past this is
00:29:40.020 probably one of the
00:29:41.560 biggest issues
00:29:42.700 certainly that I can
00:29:43.640 recall where there
00:29:44.440 was such a divide
00:29:45.540 between what real
00:29:47.260 people think and
00:29:48.740 what real people
00:29:49.520 experience and what
00:29:50.600 the political elite
00:29:52.280 academic class are
00:29:54.020 trying to tell
00:29:54.860 people and I think
00:29:55.740 probably more than
00:29:56.420 any other issue I
00:29:57.380 mean you see some
00:29:57.980 other ones like you
00:29:59.100 know I think
00:29:59.400 transgender stuff you
00:30:00.500 know I think there's
00:30:00.980 a bit of a mismatch
00:30:01.780 between how ordinary
00:30:02.620 people approach it and
00:30:03.640 how politicians
00:30:04.760 approach it but
00:30:05.360 certainly on this one
00:30:06.280 because the people
00:30:07.080 that I you know have
00:30:07.960 on my Facebook feed
00:30:09.120 for example that are
00:30:09.980 not necessarily
00:30:10.980 political or
00:30:11.700 conservative that are
00:30:12.660 downtown business
00:30:13.620 owners that are you
00:30:15.300 know either shutting
00:30:15.900 down their businesses
00:30:16.700 or just every day
00:30:17.900 posting hey if anyone
00:30:19.300 recognizes this person
00:30:20.500 they broke in and
00:30:21.260 stole a couple of
00:30:21.880 laptops you know a
00:30:22.980 friend of mine who
00:30:23.560 owns a climbing gym in
00:30:25.260 Brantford Ontario had
00:30:26.540 you know a break in at
00:30:28.260 his place and again you
00:30:29.520 don't know if it's
00:30:30.020 drug related for sure
00:30:31.000 but I think the link
00:30:31.840 between drug and crime
00:30:32.840 is pretty pretty
00:30:34.460 ironclad at this point
00:30:35.680 and and again this is
00:30:36.700 not to your point
00:30:37.840 earlier a political
00:30:38.680 experience or this you
00:30:40.660 know ideological debate
00:30:41.680 for a lot of people
00:30:42.480 it's uh hey I cannot
00:30:44.080 live my life I can't
00:30:45.360 safely walk around I
00:30:46.540 can't keep my business
00:30:47.480 functioning because of
00:30:48.940 this problem
00:30:49.640 yeah no I I think
00:30:53.240 that's that's um I
00:30:55.680 mean I think more and
00:30:56.380 more people are waking
00:30:57.240 up to what's to what's
00:30:58.740 happening you mentioned
00:30:59.400 the business owners the
00:31:00.320 connection between crime
00:31:01.480 uh and drugs which I
00:31:03.060 think is is completely
00:31:05.600 I mean I think it's a
00:31:06.360 direct line uh I mean
00:31:07.900 we talked to we talked
00:31:08.780 to addicts in recovery
00:31:09.600 who said you know their
00:31:10.320 drug habit was cost
00:31:11.640 them 200 300 dollars a
00:31:13.800 day and you know they
00:31:15.680 had to go out and make
00:31:18.020 make that money committing
00:31:19.300 crime stealing goods or
00:31:20.440 whatever the case may be
00:31:21.500 um to be able to fuel
00:31:23.260 their addiction so I
00:31:24.120 think it's it's it's
00:31:25.020 one's fueling the other
00:31:25.800 for sure so moving beyond
00:31:28.820 the you know Canada is
00:31:30.520 dying angle to the how
00:31:31.800 do we get Canada living
00:31:33.100 again what do you take
00:31:35.340 out of this as a
00:31:36.620 filmmaker for the
00:31:37.740 the prescriptions pardon
00:31:38.940 the pun to fix this
00:31:40.880 well the back third of the
00:31:44.820 documentary we looked a
00:31:46.040 lot at solutions so um you
00:31:48.920 know drawing from best
00:31:49.840 practices around the world
00:31:51.120 in places like Portugal
00:31:52.300 Alberta has really been
00:31:54.420 pushing forward on a
00:31:55.380 completely different
00:31:56.500 approach it's called a
00:31:57.380 recovery oriented system
00:31:58.740 of care that places hope
00:32:00.580 and treatment at the
00:32:02.400 center of their policy as
00:32:03.940 opposed to destigmatization
00:32:06.160 decriminalization and
00:32:08.260 handing out free drugs
00:32:09.420 they're building 10 new
00:32:10.660 treatment facilities we
00:32:12.200 toured one in Red Deer
00:32:13.280 that's probably open now
00:32:15.180 or I think opening next
00:32:16.040 month and um I think
00:32:19.280 what they're doing is
00:32:20.040 is they're basically
00:32:20.800 saying you know it is a
00:32:22.500 message of hope it's
00:32:23.260 seeing people languishing
00:32:24.540 on the side of the
00:32:25.860 streets and not saying
00:32:27.680 you know I think this is
00:32:29.240 the best that you can do
00:32:30.700 I think this is your lot
00:32:32.000 in life uh we'll try to
00:32:33.560 ease your suffering and
00:32:34.400 actually saying no um
00:32:36.580 treatment is available
00:32:37.920 recovery is possible and
00:32:39.240 as a government uh we're
00:32:40.540 going to help you get
00:32:41.160 better and we're going to
00:32:42.320 help to return you to
00:32:44.480 being productive tax
00:32:45.560 paying members of society
00:32:46.780 once again and I think
00:32:48.540 um you know I think
00:32:49.400 Alberta's still in the
00:32:50.060 early phases of rolling
00:32:51.300 that plan out but um you
00:32:53.480 know that the problem in
00:32:54.180 so much of this country is
00:32:55.540 it's easier to get your
00:32:56.500 next fix than it is to get
00:32:57.760 into treatment in British
00:32:58.740 Columbia uh that is
00:33:00.200 especially true and um
00:33:02.360 what Alberta's doing is is
00:33:03.980 is going in the opposite
00:33:04.820 direction making it harder
00:33:05.960 easier uh to get high and
00:33:07.900 easier to get into
00:33:08.760 treatment and easier to
00:33:09.680 get clean and I think
00:33:11.040 that's uh that's the that's
00:33:12.480 the general approach
00:33:13.220 there's also there's all
00:33:14.080 sorts of micro policies
00:33:15.140 that that um I think can
00:33:17.580 can comprise that I think
00:33:19.680 a little bit of harm
00:33:20.360 reduction isn't isn't a
00:33:21.460 bad thing um but uh you
00:33:24.680 know this this being okay
00:33:26.260 as a society with going
00:33:28.160 around as they've done in
00:33:29.660 British Columbia buying up
00:33:31.260 all the hotels warehousing
00:33:33.040 addicts in these hotels
00:33:34.140 and then throwing in bags
00:33:35.720 of government provided
00:33:36.600 drugs is uh I don't think
00:33:38.740 a solution that anybody
00:33:39.680 thinks uh or anybody who's
00:33:41.420 thinking critically is uh
00:33:43.240 is is a is a formula for
00:33:45.300 long-term success I mean
00:33:46.300 everyone you know knows
00:33:47.540 people that have struggled
00:33:48.300 with different substances
00:33:49.080 maybe alcohol for example
00:33:50.420 um I I've never known
00:33:52.380 someone that thinks
00:33:53.020 somebody they have a
00:33:54.600 friend or family member
00:33:55.380 struggling with alcohol
00:33:56.500 and the solution is to
00:33:57.520 supply them with free
00:33:58.700 alcohol is is is an
00:34:01.340 insane way of looking at
00:34:02.740 that problem and um I
00:34:05.800 think that uh it's no
00:34:07.200 different uh with drugs
00:34:08.320 except the the the
00:34:09.640 consequences are are even
00:34:11.200 more extreme uh just
00:34:13.660 outside of the content of
00:34:15.420 the documentary I know you
00:34:16.600 had a bizarre issue last
00:34:18.400 week with your trailer and
00:34:19.820 YouTube uh going where I
00:34:21.780 know you were uh this
00:34:22.600 thing was making its way
00:34:23.500 around and then you you
00:34:24.640 posted a chart which we
00:34:25.840 have up on the screen
00:34:26.640 there where you know the
00:34:28.020 view is just completely
00:34:29.320 flat line and YouTube's
00:34:30.820 like oh nothing to see
00:34:31.840 here but uh you're less
00:34:33.740 confident in their
00:34:34.760 approach on this
00:34:35.700 yeah well it's funny uh a
00:34:40.100 bunch of these kind of uh
00:34:41.980 lefty Twitter uh Twitter
00:34:44.460 heads were were saying it
00:34:45.640 was uh I was pushing some
00:34:46.720 kind of conspiracy I mean
00:34:47.640 Twitter uh YouTube
00:34:48.840 messaged me and said that
00:34:49.860 they were doing it so it
00:34:50.660 wasn't it wasn't a
00:34:51.360 conspiracy so what they did
00:34:53.120 uh is first they
00:34:54.120 demonetized uh the trailer
00:34:55.760 which exploded I think it
00:34:56.960 had like 40,000 views in
00:34:58.780 the first two hours and
00:35:00.160 then they slapped a age
00:35:01.980 restriction on it which
00:35:03.520 basically forced anybody
00:35:04.980 who wanted to watch it to
00:35:07.040 create a YouTube account
00:35:08.580 um or sign and then sign
00:35:11.040 into said YouTube account
00:35:12.320 and then confirm that
00:35:13.520 they were over the age of
00:35:14.240 18 and it also for all
00:35:16.880 intents and purposes
00:35:17.600 stopped the distribution of
00:35:19.940 the trailer uh at all
00:35:21.800 through YouTube's
00:35:22.440 algorithm um so that was
00:35:25.980 quite frustrating to deal
00:35:27.320 with they actually ended up
00:35:28.680 removing the age
00:35:29.380 restriction after about
00:35:30.280 four or five days uh of me
00:35:32.300 badgering them but um they
00:35:34.240 then when we released the
00:35:35.240 main documentary demonetized
00:35:37.140 that uh which is obviously
00:35:38.900 something as as a filmmaker
00:35:40.320 and documentary producer uh
00:35:42.700 very frustrating um so the
00:35:45.240 distribution seems to be
00:35:46.200 doing well it's got about
00:35:47.040 500,000 views in the first
00:35:48.520 week on YouTube alone but um
00:35:51.060 yeah very frustrating with the
00:35:52.840 demonetization of that and
00:35:54.220 and uh and the essentially
00:35:56.500 the block of the trailer for
00:35:57.800 the first four or five days
00:35:58.920 now did they did they
00:36:00.520 re-monetize the documentary on
00:36:02.140 YouTube because I thought I
00:36:02.960 saw an ad when I was
00:36:03.960 watching it uh again this
00:36:05.440 morning well right now it's
00:36:08.080 the old unless they're just
00:36:09.140 making money and you don't get
00:36:10.160 any of it yeah yeah they say
00:36:12.540 it's limited or no ads um so
00:36:15.220 uh hopefully I get one cent of
00:36:17.640 whatever you were uh yeah for
00:36:19.560 to watch for I'll uh I'll
00:36:21.040 keep hitting refresh on it
00:36:22.200 just in case we'll uh got to
00:36:23.580 get you back from Europe so
00:36:24.740 we'll uh make sure to add some
00:36:26.120 more views there uh the
00:36:27.480 documentary is fantastic and I
00:36:29.820 think very timely certainly
00:36:30.940 with uh some of the promises
00:36:32.220 we had from Danielle Smith
00:36:33.300 during the election uh some of
00:36:35.020 the things Pierre Polyev's
00:36:36.300 been talking about it is
00:36:37.320 Canada is Dying uh put
00:36:39.200 together by Aaron Gunn who
00:36:40.720 always is a wealth and a trove
00:36:43.220 of fabulous content so you
00:36:44.480 should follow him on YouTube
00:36:45.980 Facebook and anywhere else
00:36:47.420 Aaron great job on this and
00:36:48.740 thanks so much for coming on
00:36:49.840 today thank you for having
00:36:51.820 me Andrew it's it's my
00:36:52.840 pleasure and uh just gonna
00:36:54.680 keep getting the word out as
00:36:55.580 best I can that was Aaron
00:36:57.980 Gunn and the documentary
00:36:59.560 again is Canada is Dying just
00:37:01.740 on the topic of harm reduction
00:37:03.740 there was a a story earlier
00:37:05.300 this week that I I think I
00:37:06.760 recall it coming up a while
00:37:08.180 ago or I recall like people
00:37:09.800 talking about it it was uh
00:37:11.820 where Health Canada has
00:37:13.360 decreed that Canada is going
00:37:15.500 to have to start putting
00:37:16.460 warning labels that are
00:37:18.200 normally on boxes of cigarette
00:37:20.360 boxes packages packages of
00:37:22.400 cigarettes I'm not a smoker
00:37:23.320 sorry uh the the warnings are
00:37:25.180 going to have to be on the
00:37:25.980 individual cigarette so uh you
00:37:28.520 know you're going to get like
00:37:29.220 the label on the carton the
00:37:30.820 label on the pack and then when
00:37:32.740 you pull out a cigarette you're
00:37:33.840 going to get like in little like
00:37:35.220 micro print a warning on there
00:37:37.280 that like says cigarettes damage
00:37:38.720 your organs uh tobacco smoke
00:37:40.980 harms children cigarettes cause
00:37:42.820 impotence all of I'm just
00:37:43.960 reading the from the photo
00:37:45.440 there and I'm I was thinking of
00:37:47.520 this and then in conjunction
00:37:48.880 with like the mandatory calorie
00:37:50.780 count thing on menus now I'm
00:37:52.540 just imagining a point where you
00:37:54.420 know every little french fry has
00:37:56.080 to have a little like tag on it
00:37:57.600 that says this thing is causing
00:37:58.920 obesity uh you know every little
00:38:00.800 burger is going to have to have
00:38:02.160 like printed on the bun in some
00:38:03.940 way a warning label that's the way
00:38:06.240 we're heading with the uh the nanny
00:38:07.740 state now but uh but again when it
00:38:09.440 comes to drugs sure take all you
00:38:10.920 want no warning label on your
00:38:12.420 individual hydromorphone tablet
00:38:14.200 that you are then uh trading in
00:38:16.600 the parking lot of the pharmacy
00:38:18.180 uh we are going to end things on
00:38:20.320 a bit of a lighter note because
00:38:22.060 we've of course done the heavy
00:38:23.480 world of drug policy for much of
00:38:25.580 the last uh 36 minutes or so uh it
00:38:28.700 is time for fake news friday
00:38:31.360 yes fake news friday navigating
00:38:41.520 through the deluge of deception the
00:38:44.620 whirlpools of wackiness trying to
00:38:47.140 make sense of it all as only we can
00:38:49.860 or at least as only we strive to here
00:38:51.900 at true north and I decided we do a
00:38:54.160 little Alberta politics themed fake
00:38:55.940 news friday this week a roundup of
00:38:58.000 some of the really upsetting and
00:39:01.040 depressing and by that I mean
00:39:02.900 completely hilarious tweets from
00:39:04.740 people trying to reckon with
00:39:06.100 Danielle Smith's victory on Monday
00:39:08.260 night Dale Thompson writes I'll say
00:39:10.340 this about Alberta I'll never step
00:39:12.720 foot in their province again until
00:39:14.360 they boot out the UCP and all other
00:39:16.700 fringe far-right groups too maybe it's
00:39:19.620 not fair to punish the good
00:39:20.980 Albertans for this but FFS which is
00:39:23.580 like for bleep's sake I now lump
00:39:25.840 Alberta in with Florida that's
00:39:27.520 actually a good Alabama and Texas well
00:39:30.200 but Dale Thompson I'm sure the
00:39:31.560 people of Alberta are so sad that
00:39:33.900 you'll never be gracing them with
00:39:35.320 your presence Amanda Hugh writes hug
00:39:38.160 your loved ones check in with your
00:39:39.900 friends in your community it's okay to
00:39:41.700 take space to grieve what has
00:39:43.740 happened then look out then look for
00:39:46.080 the folks with whom we can foster and
00:39:47.740 build solidarity we've got our work cut
00:39:50.540 out for us I responded to ask her if
00:39:53.540 she was okay I said are you okay because
00:39:55.840 I was genuinely she seemed to be
00:39:57.400 struggling and then she blocked me on
00:39:58.840 Twitter so I don't know if she's okay
00:40:00.480 or not and Jonathan Cluett writes
00:40:02.800 crushing news to wake up to in Alberta
00:40:05.120 as an OBGYN I'm worried for my
00:40:07.640 patients as a gay man I'm scared for my
00:40:10.660 queer community this isn't the Canada
00:40:12.520 I thought I lived in I am not convinced
00:40:17.360 I know or he knows why he's scared
00:40:20.300 Danielle Smith is one of the most like
00:40:21.800 socially liberal people you will talk to
00:40:24.820 and if you listen to her show you'll
00:40:26.380 know that she loves gay people she has
00:40:28.220 no issue whatsoever but he lives in
00:40:30.220 fear for him and his queer community so
00:40:32.680 a lot of people having trouble grappling
00:40:34.860 with the results of the election but you
00:40:37.300 know what tough luck Danielle Smith
00:40:39.360 won that does it for us hope you have
00:40:41.460 a great weekend we'll be back next week
00:40:43.180 with more of Canada's most irreverent
00:40:45.040 talk show here on true north thank you
00:40:47.080 god bless and good day to you all
00:40:49.040 thanks for listening to the Andrew
00:40:50.320 Lawton show support the program by
00:40:52.400 donating to true north at www.tnc.news