The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - August 19, 2026


Bill C-231： A Path Towards Addiction Recovery


Episode Stats


Length

20 minutes

Words per minute

145.72

Word count

3,060

Sentence count

172


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm
00:00:07.360 your host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Cawortha Lakes, with new content
00:00:10.900 for you every single Tuesday, 1.30pm Eastern Time, even throughout the summer. So please
00:00:16.100 don't forget to like, comment, subscribe and share this program. Tell your friends too
00:00:19.740 to download it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play and Spotify. On today's
00:00:24.380 show, we are talking about the Youth Criminal Justice Act and so much more, otherwise known
00:00:29.580 as the Friends of David or Bill C-231.
00:00:33.460 To talk about this is Luc Berthold, the Member of Parliament for
00:00:37.440 Mégantic, L'Arable, La Bonnière. Bonjour, Luc.
00:00:41.300 Bonjour, Jamie. Thanks for coming to the show.
00:00:43.140 Thanks for having me. Amazing province of Quebec, representative right here in the studio
00:00:47.280 to talk about your bill. Thank you so much.
00:00:50.320 It's an opportunity for me to have the occasion
00:00:53.480 to share with Canadians, English Canadians, because
00:00:57.480 Because I have already talked a lot about my bill in French, but thank you for letting
00:01:02.160 me have this opportunity.
00:01:06.200 I think it's a great opportunity to talk about dependence, to talk about drug abuse, to talk
00:01:11.000 about all the damage that the drugs could cause to a child if we just close our eyes
00:01:21.240 when we see something happen, something bad happen to them.
00:01:24.140 Well, first of all, your English is way better than mine.
00:01:26.960 So, you're great.
00:01:28.980 Absolutely.
00:01:29.980 100%.
00:01:30.620 So, this bill.
00:01:32.440 Now, it's a private member's bill, not a government bill.
00:01:34.380 Private member's bill, an opportunity for members of all parties, not just the opposition,
00:01:38.220 to put forward an item that is very important to them.
00:01:41.520 And this bill is important to you.
00:01:43.660 So, tell us what your bill, how it got to the point it is now, how it was created, and
00:01:48.560 what it's about, and where it is kind of in the parliamentary cycle.
00:01:53.960 Okay.
00:01:54.540 So, there's a lot to see.
00:01:55.600 Yeah, there's a lot there.
00:01:56.380 Yeah, yeah.
00:01:56.960 So Bill C-231, the bills of David's friends, is a bill to give the opportunity to our justice system to treat the youth instead of punishing them.
00:02:16.220 We already have something like that in the criminal justice system, but that wasn't a possibility before.
00:02:24.420 The judges were able to send the youth in front of them for drug use or any offense relative to drug to kind of community works or something like that, but not to a treatment.
00:02:42.120 And I wanted to highlight the facts that behind the drug abuse, behind the criminal act that a young person can do, there's something maybe, not all the time, but a lot of time there's other things behind this, mental health issue, social issues.
00:03:08.040 So if we are letting the circle of addiction and the drug consumption just go and go and go, when it's too late, it's very, very difficult to bring back this young person to the normal life.
00:03:25.320 some some some people will will or will have used the drugs or something
00:03:36.720 marijuana it's legal now cocaine during their high school but after that they
00:03:44.640 can go to their normal life they stop it and I know some of them some of them
00:03:50.520 or some of my friends who have a really great career
00:03:55.580 after that because it was kind of the young time for them.
00:04:01.460 But some will not.
00:04:04.040 And actually, in our justice system,
00:04:08.020 the problem is the police officer,
00:04:12.020 they will not arrest a young person.
00:04:14.660 They will try to just say, hey, stop it.
00:04:17.060 They will seize the drug and will say, don't do it again.
00:04:20.520 instead of referring him or her in front of a judge
00:04:25.060 to face the reality of what they did.
00:04:29.440 And I wanted to correct that
00:04:32.220 because it's not true that only a small kind of caution
00:04:38.960 like that will change their life or his life
00:04:43.440 because they have to face a wall sometimes
00:04:46.280 to just realize that they're on the wrong way.
00:04:50.520 And unfortunately, when they saw that it's so easy to go through a police arrest,
00:04:57.980 so they were, oh, okay, I'm good.
00:05:00.140 I can continue.
00:05:01.600 So my bill will give the opportunity to the judge to defer the sentence
00:05:06.960 after the young person will have a treatment.
00:05:11.920 They will go to a treatment center for not just for drug abuse,
00:05:15.300 but maybe some mental health or any other reason that could have lead them to drug consumption.
00:05:24.220 So this is the main goal of the bill, is to provide this opportunity for the young people to be arrested and face the justice system,
00:05:36.340 maybe the attorney, maybe the judge, maybe the police officer could just act because the bill was changed in committee.
00:05:45.300 And the police officer have the opportunity of saying, you can go to a treatment center or I can arrest you.
00:05:52.820 So that could be the difference for some.
00:05:57.420 If we can save only one child, it will be a success because we need to talk about it.
00:06:07.800 We need to say when bad things happen.
00:06:11.280 And unfortunately, there's not a lot of people who are happy to talk about their own experience as parents, as a grandfather, grandmother, about what's happening to their children or grandchildren.
00:06:26.280 So, me and my wife, we have decided to talk about it.
00:06:32.280 So, we've lost our son.
00:06:35.280 David committed suicide in 2025 after drug addiction,
00:06:42.280 after he refused to receive treatment.
00:06:48.280 He was kind of a strong guy.
00:06:51.280 One guy, he said, oh, I'm able to save myself by myself.
00:06:57.920 And unfortunately, that was not true.
00:07:00.680 But as parents, when he was young, if we have known what to do,
00:07:07.320 maybe we could have done something.
00:07:08.920 Or if a police officer has intervened, maybe that could have changed his life.
00:07:17.080 because the police intervened only after his majority.
00:07:23.880 So that changed his life for part time,
00:07:26.420 but it was kind of already too late.
00:07:29.680 So that's why I want to change the law.
00:07:32.960 I want to make it happen for the friends of David,
00:07:37.500 not his real friends.
00:07:39.640 All those young people who are struggling with addiction,
00:07:44.640 with addiction drug consumption uh mental health tissue and they are turning to the drugs just to
00:07:52.960 help themselves they need treatment they they really need it and they need the system to be able
00:07:59.120 to to understand that that's very moving luke thanks for sharing that i can only imagine how
00:08:05.040 difficult that was for you but yeah it's still difficult uh and uh me and my wife we have we
00:08:11.040 have decided to do this because I was lucky unfortunately it's sad to say that but I was
00:08:16.880 lucky when we draw the the MPs for the who can table a private manager private member's bill
00:08:27.060 I was number 30 so in the first allotment so I was able to do something right now and I
00:08:35.420 I was asking myself, what can I do?
00:08:39.500 And I talked to my wife,
00:08:40.800 we should do something about the children
00:08:43.280 and the treatment that,
00:08:46.340 first, the first draw of the bill
00:08:50.380 with the Library of Parliament,
00:08:54.100 all those, they are wonderful, fantastic person to help.
00:08:58.900 So we've decided to focus on the youth.
00:09:02.100 And the treatment is kind of, you have an option.
00:09:05.420 You go to a treatment, I defer my sentence after that.
00:09:08.800 If you're doing well, the judge will have the opportunity
00:09:11.360 both sides to decide what will happen with the judge.
00:09:13.860 But we will never know the result of that.
00:09:15.980 Why?
00:09:16.820 Because it's confidential.
00:09:19.240 You know, all the sentences and for you people,
00:09:23.420 they are confidential.
00:09:24.260 We cannot talk about the yarn.
00:09:25.420 We can just have statistics and we don't have a lot.
00:09:29.740 But we're planning, my wife and I and my daughter,
00:09:33.420 my daughters, two daughters, to talk about it and to tour Canada just to explain, and
00:09:40.040 after that, to ask for services.
00:09:41.840 That's one thing this government isn't doing.
00:09:43.280 Let's go up cut one.
00:09:44.460 It's focusing on the treatment part, and the government has failed on that.
00:09:47.880 It has no problem handing out drugs like in BC, this failed experiment, and what you're
00:09:52.680 seeing in most urban centres, even in rural centres too.
00:09:55.420 The small towns are seeing that issue with addictions and mental health, and this government
00:09:59.560 seems to have been doing little to nothing.
00:10:01.580 It was our side that's pushing it along, right?
00:10:03.580 The hotline for suicide hotline, that was Todd Doherty and many others that are pushing.
00:10:08.880 And you now with the mental health and trying to get people treated.
00:10:12.160 Let's hear our friend and colleague, Jamil Giovanni from Bovendale, Ontario, kind of lend his support to what you're talking about.
00:10:18.940 Play, cut one.
00:10:19.860 Far too many young men across Canada are battling addiction, and the federal government must help.
00:10:25.960 That's why my incredible conservative colleague, MP Luke Berthold, announced a new bill that would allow youth courts to provide drug treatment programs to adolescent offenders.
00:10:38.980 We need to get these boys the help they need before their problems get even worse.
00:10:44.940 If you agree with MP Berthold, sign our petition now at Restore the North.
00:10:50.580 Let's stand together for the future of our country.
00:10:53.240 He called you the incredible looper told. I get that. You are pretty incredible. You're incredible also for coming on the show, and I do appreciate that.
00:11:02.220 I just want to add, not just boys, boys and girls.
00:11:06.700 Well, that's what I was going to say. Jamil has a focus on men's mental health.
00:11:10.380 But we also have people in our caucus who have come forward, like Kelly DeRitter from Kitchener, Ontario, who was very brave a few months ago when she stood up in the House and openly talked about the fact that one day she is sleeping on a park bench and now she's the Member of Parliament for the riding in which that park resides.
00:11:33.500 not resides but is placed in. So the incredible transformation if you focus on that compassionate
00:11:40.140 part which is the treatment and recovery. And the bill of Kelly and mine are kind of the same.
00:11:47.020 They have the same goal for different, for the young, the youth for in my side and for all the
00:11:53.980 adults for Kelly. And I was surprised when we table the bill I received a lot of comments about
00:12:01.100 a conservative bill you're talking about treatment instead of punishing a young person i said yes
00:12:08.780 this is this is the first thing to do we need to be able to provide help when it's needed and
00:12:17.420 don't allow repeat criminals in the streets yeah for sure but what if we act before they are
00:12:26.460 beginning to be a criminal acting like a criminal because they need money to buy drugs because this
00:12:31.580 is a circle of the of this bad things happening so this is why i put it and kelly and i i think
00:12:41.340 we we have the only goal is to to provide a chance of course for those who didn't have for a lot of
00:12:50.460 reason and you know there's a lot of treatment center in canada but they are expensive but more
00:12:58.300 of them are private treatment sectors so the public sector is kind of nowhere to be found
00:13:04.700 or if you want a place there you need to wait the waiting time list is really really long and
00:13:13.180 And those months could make a difference.
00:13:17.940 When my son was, he did try to commit suicide before,
00:13:26.360 two weeks before.
00:13:27.760 And we had to call the police
00:13:30.520 and to just stop it from doing that.
00:13:36.900 He was kind of in crisis.
00:13:39.140 So he went to the hospital, received treatment
00:13:44.300 because during that crisis, he hurt himself badly.
00:13:50.540 So at the hospital, we've been told that
00:13:55.700 when we talk with the medical unit,
00:13:57.860 we have to treat his bleeding and his arm
00:14:01.980 before treating what is in it for.
00:14:06.980 Okay, so I said, okay.
00:14:08.980 So after that, they spent maybe four or five days
00:14:14.380 treating his arm because it was really bad hurt.
00:14:18.020 And after that, he's been in the hospital two days
00:14:21.880 to treat his mental health issue, only two days.
00:14:25.480 And he was released.
00:14:26.900 And two weeks after he committed suicide
00:14:29.580 because he asked for being in a treatment center.
00:14:32.540 He asked for, but unfortunately there was no place
00:14:36.020 And they just, I felt that they just think
00:14:40.720 it was just an addiction problem, not a mental health issue.
00:14:44.860 And he said, you just have to have a drug treatment.
00:14:51.300 And it was far more than that.
00:14:54.400 And this has to change.
00:14:59.280 Well, that's another thing that's frustrating.
00:15:00.580 There's a lot of things that frustrate me.
00:15:01.880 But in particular, when, and we have a few graphics here,
00:15:04.940 we can just kind of throw up on the screen while we're talking here,
00:15:09.640 is that the Liberals and the NDTP to a certain point,
00:15:13.380 but more so the Liberals, keep calling Conservatives uncompassionate, right?
00:15:17.660 Conservatives are the ones trying to come up with ideas and push recovery, push prevention.
00:15:23.580 Exactly.
00:15:24.120 Right? Is compassion what we see in downtown Vancouver?
00:15:27.520 I would argue no.
00:15:29.340 The people struggling with addictions, bent in half, you know, in the middle of downtown courts,
00:15:34.940 That's not compassion.
00:15:36.600 Letting people keep circling in this vicious cycle of addiction, that's not compassionate.
00:15:44.140 Watching our young people, young adults even, all the way, just struggle out there and just left on their own other than to get free drugs.
00:15:54.040 That's not compassion at all.
00:15:57.000 We need to start addressing this.
00:15:59.180 Yes, prevention, as you're talking about.
00:16:01.140 If we can get people into recovery centers before bad things happen, that's a win.
00:16:07.720 That's compassionate.
00:16:09.120 If you're dealing with addiction and you're on the street, there should be a place for you to go to hopefully get.
00:16:16.060 That's compassion.
00:16:17.680 This is not compassion with the governments.
00:16:19.800 So I just automatically, every time I hear the liberals say we're not compassionate, I just dismiss it because nothing what they're doing is compassionate.
00:16:27.900 Nothing.
00:16:28.120 this is why i i need i needed to to tell my story yeah uh kelly this is why she needed to tell her
00:16:35.700 story her own story because um i think we we received the support of the government the
00:16:41.960 liberals support my bill uh i think they support the bill of kelly too because we have been shown
00:16:48.460 that we've shown that compassion compassionate approach but a real approach i i don't i don't say
00:16:56.880 that every adolescent who's been arrested
00:17:03.720 will go into death.
00:17:05.940 They have to face justice.
00:17:07.320 They have to face what they did.
00:17:09.760 But I think the younger they are,
00:17:12.980 the more chance we have to save them
00:17:14.500 before it's too late.
00:17:16.860 So, and I'm not telling anybody here
00:17:22.040 that if you have committed a drug possession offense,
00:17:26.880 that you should just wash your hands and say,
00:17:29.920 okay, goodbye, no, no, be arrested.
00:17:32.680 Give the police the chance to arrest you
00:17:34.440 because now the police officer,
00:17:35.840 they don't want to do all the job,
00:17:37.580 all the bureaucratic paperwork, yeah, thank you,
00:17:42.820 paperwork to just fill it
00:17:45.540 and bring the young person in front of a judge
00:17:50.380 have to testify, so it's too difficult.
00:17:54.100 They just say, no, no, we're not going in.
00:17:56.620 But if we are giving them a goal,
00:18:00.540 if you arrest them, we will try to save it.
00:18:03.880 That will probably save lives.
00:18:05.780 So that's why it's both sides.
00:18:09.380 It's a compassionate approach with a,
00:18:14.440 I say, a justice and legal view, okay?
00:18:18.020 We are there to help you first,
00:18:20.200 but you need to help yourself too.
00:18:22.380 Luke, I really appreciate and envious of the courage,
00:18:25.540 not only for yourself, but your wife, your daughters, of sharing your story very openly
00:18:29.860 and willing to go across Canada to try to spread this message, to get people aware of what we're
00:18:35.640 trying to do as an opposition and hopefully change some lives down the road. That is very brave.
00:18:41.960 My hat goes off to you and your family. Well done. And of course, sorry for your loss.
00:18:46.960 We're, yeah, the guests here, we're running out of time, but the guests always get the last word
00:18:52.460 though. You've been very, very brave sharing your story. The floor is yours to close.
00:18:59.200 Thank you. Thank you, Jimmy. I just want to say that there's always a door open.
00:19:05.920 Sometimes it's really difficult to find it. It's not that there's no option. The options are
00:19:12.780 difficult. The money is not there everywhere. And we must treat mental health issue as the same
00:19:21.860 level as just I don't know how to say that but a real hurt when when people
00:19:28.860 have been hurt physically so that's that will be helpful if we can make it kind
00:19:34.740 of a goal for a generation we are there to support we're there to to help but we
00:19:40.640 will have a lot of work to do to make it happen so thank you so much for all
00:19:44.240 those who supported the bill the bill will go through in the next step in the
00:19:49.620 fall and I'm pretty sure that the Senate and all the members will support it and thank you for
00:19:59.140 thank you all for doing it and thank you for having me today again.
00:20:02.660 Luke, anytime, thank you so much. Luke Berthold, Member of Parliament for
00:20:06.660 Mégantique, l'Arabe, l'Aubinaire. Merci beaucoup, Luke. Thank you very much for your time as well.
00:20:12.500 Please like, comment, subscribe and share this program. Definitely a message that is affecting
00:20:18.100 Canadians no matter where you go so if you know someone who's hurting there are phone numbers out
00:20:24.580 there there are helplines there are community organizations willing to help please reach out
00:20:29.380 please try to save that person who's struggling and also know that help is coming with Luke's work
00:20:35.300 Kelly DeRitter Todd Doherty with the suicide line we are trying to to stop this cycle of addiction
00:20:41.380 and and save lives down the road and that of course is compassion so tell your friends to
00:20:46.580 To download this program on CastBox, Google Play, Spotify, you name it, it is out there.
00:20:52.040 We have new content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time.
00:20:55.500 Until next week, remember, low taxes, less government, more freedom.
00:20:59.460 That's the blueprint.