Alberta has announced that it is closing its safe consumption sites in Calgary and Lethbridge, citing that they will be “transitioned” to different services like withdrawal beds and addiction clinics, and justified by a single study that used anonymized data to show that the closure of the site in Red Deer didn’t lead to increased overdose deaths or emergency room visits. And there’s a lot to unpack here.
One of the problems is that the province has a bunch of dodgy partnerships with providers for these supposed addiction recovery services that are privately owned, not proven to work, and who have some pretty spotty histories. Nevertheless, the ties to the government are suspicious and reek of collusion and possible corruption, as with so many things in the Danielle Smith government.
The other problem is that this single study, that stands apart from thirty years’ worth of public health research, is emboldening conservatives across the country to claim that this “proves” safe injection sites don’t work. Federal Conservatives are using this in a series of ghoulish demands for the federal government to end its authorizations for these sites, using a bunch of other straw man arguments like the fact that there are no age restrictions on safe consumption sites (because apparently minors who are addicts should just use in an alleyway). Another Conservative MP has been trying to ask gotcha questions about whether fentanyl is safe to inject, never mind that it has pharmaceutical applications (which is part of the problem). It’s stupid and dangerous, but this singular study is emboldening it, and I fear that we’re in for another round of increased overdose deaths as certain provincial governments beyond Alberta take this one study to heart.
Ukraine Dispatch
Russian drones hit two foreign-flagged civilian ships in Odesa. Ukraine has begun to evacuate children from Sloviansk as the security situation deteriorates there. Some 228 Ukrainian drone specialists have now been deployed to five countries in the Persian Gulf to counter Iranian drone attacks.
Good reads:
- Anita Anand says that any support for clearing the Strait of Hormuz needs to be guided by Canada’s legal and policy framework, and in consultation with allies.
- Canadian military members and civilians in Iraq have been pulled out by NATO given the retaliatory attacks from Iran.
- The husband and five-year-old son of an Indian woman who has an accepted refugee claim are facing deportation, as family separation appears to be policy now.
- Intelligence experts say that Canada should follow Poland’s example and ban Chinese EVs from military bases because of risks posed by their systems.
- Khelsilem lays out how successful court challenges have moved Indigenous communities from stakeholders being managed to governments negotiating.
- Shannon Proudfoot makes her own observations about the Poilievre/Rogan podcast, and its bizarre meanderings and what they signal.
- Justin Ling finds peace in losing the war on misinformation, and suggests that what we need more is an information diet rather than being inundated with it.
Odds and ends:
For National Magazine, I delve into yesterday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision on the ability for police to knock on the vehicle of a suspected drunk driver.
“The kettlebell itself looks like a Canadian flag, which Mr. Poilievre told Mr. Rogan was “a subliminal message” that he needs to visit.”Per @sproudfoot.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/opi…
— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2026-03-21T03:05:42.928Z
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