FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 6, 2024 — CHILLIWACK, BC:
A state of emergency has been declared in the Port Hardy area by the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw Nations after 11 of their members have died in two months from the use of hard drugs and alcohol.
“This tragic news confirms how absolutely deadly and heart-sickening this issue is for British Columbians — especially in Indigenous communities,” says BC Conservative Candidate for Chilliwack Cultus Lake, Á'a:líya (A’Aliya) Warbus.
“While I acknowledge that there are complex issues at play here, including challenges with RCMP on reserves,” says Warbus, “it is nonetheless clear evidence of the drug-fueled genocide of Indigenous people that is happening under this BC NDP government.”
“At the Federal and Provincial levels, we need a co-ordinated approach to end so-called “safe supply” and crack down on the criminal cartels that are bringing fentanyl into BC. That’s hard to do when we have a Liberal Prime Minister and an NDP Premier who are soft-on-crime and support the myth of so-called “safe supply”,” says Warbus.
“And where is the Province on this?,” adds Warbus.
“Clearly, Premier David Eby is in cahoots with Trudeau. This NDP government got Federal permission to push its own “safe supply” of deadly drugs, and is soft on gangs that push street drugs like fentanyl. Now we have more deaths than before,” says Warbus.
“In the 1980’s poor and predominantly Black communities in the U.S., were devastated by crack cocaine. Forty years later, poor and predominantly Indigenous communities in Canada are being treated as expendable, in the same way,” Warbus admonishes.
“We need to focus on prevention, rehabilitation, and creating hope for people, instead of giving up on them. These same politicians who push “safe-supply” would never let their own children stay addicted to a “safe supply” of hard drugs that cause permanent brain damage — they would get them into rehabilitation,” says Warbus.
“The NDP’s approach is gutting our communities, and it has to stop. As our elders have stated to me, “How can we plan our future, when our young people are dying before us?”, Warbus concludes.
For further information please contact:
Angelo Isidorou, Co-Executive Director, Conservative Party of British Columbia. [email protected]
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