Crime
RCMP arrest four in major drug investigation
From Red Deer RCMP
Red Deer RCMP seize drugs, guns and cash in major multi-agency bust
Red Deer RCMP, along with other police agencies, arrested four people and laid 17 charges following a multi-agency investigation, which led to a series of drug seizures in Red Deer, Calgary, Rocky Mountain House and Carstairs.
Red Deer RCMP began their investigation into drug trafficking activity in Red Deer in March, 2019, and that investigation quickly led to ties with drug trafficking activity in surrounding communities. The Red Deer RCMP General Investigation Section unit collaborated with Calgary Police Service, Rocky Mountain RCMP and Didsbury RCMP to execute a series of coordinated search warrants on June 7, 2019.
As a result of those search warrants, the following were seized by police:
In Red Deer:
· 306 g cocaine
· 10 fentanyl pills
· $17,270 Canadian currency
In Calgary:
· 825 fentanyl pills
· 75 Oxy pills (counterfeit)
· 1.465 kg cannabis
· 609 g cocaine
· 19 g fentanyl powder
· 521 g of methamphetamine
· 254 grams of MDMA
· 1.78 kg of suspected phenacetin (Super Buff)
· Rifle
· Shotgun
· $48,800 Canadian currency
In Rocky Mountain House:
· $4,070 Canadian currency
In Carstairs:
· $4,100 Canadian currency
· 104 g cannabis
· 26 g fentanyl
· 32 g methamphetamine
· 16 g crack
· 16 g heroin
· Rifle
· Shotgun
“This is a significant drugs seizure for Red Deer and Central Alberta,” said Superintendent Gerald Grobmeier, Officer in Charge of the Red Deer RCMP. “This seizure was the direct result of a coordinated effort across partner agencies, which demonstrates the effectiveness of shared intelligence between police agencies. We’re all working toward the same goals of crime reduction, and we see many of the same repeat offenders crossing jurisdictions, so it’s imperative that we work smarter than the criminals.”
As a result of the coordinated efforts of this investigation, four individuals were arrested and 17 charges were laid:
Robert Leslie Amency (45) of Calgary has been charged with:
· Possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking (x5)
· Possession of cannabis for the purpose of selling
· Possession of stolen property over $5000
· Unauthorized possession of a prohibited weapon (2)
Robert Amency remains in custody after a judicial hearing and will appear in Red Deer Provincial Court on July 4, 2019.
Michelle Florence Geeregat (32) of Sylvan Lake has been charged with:
· Possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking
· Possession of stolen property under $5,000
Michelle Geeregat was released from custody after a judicial hearing and will appear in Red Deer Provincial Court on June 27, 2019.
Andy Lau (21) of Calgary has been charged with:
· Possession of a controlled substance
· Possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking
· Possession of stolen property over $5000
· Trafficking of a controlled substance
Andy Lau was released from custody after a judicial hearing and will appear in Red Deer Provincial Court on June 27, 2019.
David Arthur Callan (61) of Rocky Mountain House is facing two charges, including:
· Trafficking of a controlled substance
· Possession of stolen property under $5,000
David Callan was released from custody after a judicial hearing and appeared in Rocky Mountain House Provincial Court on June 19, 2019.
Addictions
British Columbia to re-criminalize hard drug use in public after massive policy failure
From LifeSiteNews
British Columbia premier David Eby announced that his province plans to re-criminalize hard drug use in public spaces after its decriminalization last year led to widespread social disorder.
British Columbia is asking the Trudeau government to roll back its drug decriminalization program after increased violence and continued overdoses.
On April 26, New Democratic Party (NDP) premier of British Columbia David Eby announced that he is working with Prime Minster Justin Trudeau’s federal government to re-criminalize drug use in public spaces, including inside hospitals, on transit, and in parks. British Columbia, under permission from the Trudeau government, had decriminalized such behavior in 2023.
“Keeping people safe is our highest priority,” Eby explained in a press release. “While we are caring and compassionate for those struggling with addiction, we do not accept street disorder that makes communities feel unsafe.”
“We’re taking action to make sure police have the tools they need to ensure safe and comfortable communities for everyone as we expand treatment options so people can stay alive and get better,” he continued.
Under the new regulations, police would be given the power to prevent drug use in all public places, including hospitals, restaurants, transit, parks and beaches.
However, drug use would remain legal at “a private residence or place where someone is legally sheltering, or at overdose prevention sites and drug checking locations.”
Eby’s concerns over drug use were echoed by Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth who said, “Our communities are facing big challenges. People are dying from deadly street drugs, and we see the issues with public use and disorder on our streets.”
“As we continue to go after the gangs and organized criminals who are making and trafficking toxic drugs, we’re taking action now to make it illegal to use drugs in public spaces, and to expand access to treatment to help people who need it most,” he promised.
Beginning in early 2023, Trudeau’s federal policy, in effect, decriminalized hard drugs on a trial-run basis in British Columbia.
Under the policy, the federal government began allowing people within the province to possess up to 2.5 grams of hard drugs without criminal penalty, but selling drugs remained a crime.
While British Columbia has not yet indicated it plans to re-criminalize possession, its decision to clamp down on public drug use presents a major departure from its previous tactics of continually liberalizing its attitude toward narcotic use.
Since being implemented, the province’s drug policy has been widely criticized, especially after it was found that the province broke three different drug-related overdose records in the first month the new law was in effect.
The effects of decriminalizing hard drugs in various parts of Canada has been exposed in Aaron Gunn’s recent documentary, Canada is Dying, and in U.K. Telegraph journalist Steven Edginton’s mini-documentary, Canada’s Woke Nightmare: A Warning to the West.
Gunn says he documents the “general societal chaos and explosion of drug use in every major Canadian city.”
“Overdose deaths are up 1,000 percent in the last 10 years,” he said in his film, adding that “[e]very day in Vancouver four people are randomly attacked.”
Addictions
Why can’t we just say no?
From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
Drug use and violence have become common place in hospitals. Drug-addicted patients openly smoke meth and fentanyl, and inject heroin. Dealers traffic illicit drugs. Nurses are harassed, forced to work amidst the toxic fumes from drugs and can’t confiscate weapons. In short, according to one nurse, “We’ve absolutely lost control.”
“Defining deviancy down” is a cultural philosophy that emerged in the United States during the 1990s.
It refers to society’s tendency to adjust its standards of deviancy “down,” so that behaviours which were once unacceptable become acceptable. Over time, this newly- acceptable behaviour can even become society’s norm.
Of course, the converse must also be true — society looks down on those who label social behaviours “wrong,” deeming them moralistic, judgemental or simply out of touch with the realities of modern life.
Thirty years later, this philosophy is entrenched in British Columbia politics and policies. The province has become a society that cannot say “no” to harmful or wrong behaviours related to drug use. It doesn’t matter if you view drug use as a medical issue, a law-and-order issue, or both – we have lost the ability to simply say “no” to harmful or wrong behaviour.
That much has become abundantly clear over the past two weeks as evidence mounts that BC’s experiment with decriminalization and safe supply of hard drugs is only making things worse.
A recently-leaked memo from BC’s Northern Health Authority shows the deleterious impact these measures have had on BC’s hospitals.
The memo instructs staff at the region’s hospitals to tolerate and not intervene with illegal drug use by patients. Apparently, staff should not be taking away any drugs or personal items like a knife or other weapons under four inches long. Staff cannot restrict visitors even if they are openly bringing illicit drugs into the hospital and conducting their drug transactions in the hallways.
The public was quite rightly outraged at the news and BC’s Health Minister Adrian Dix quickly attempted to contain the mess by saying that the memo was outdated and poorly worded.
But his facile excuses were quickly exposed by publication of the very clearly worded memo and by nurses from across the province who came forward to tell their stories of what is really happening in our hospitals.
The President of the BC Nurses Union, Adriane Gear, said the issue was “widespread” and “of significant magnitude.” She commented that the problems in hospitals spiked once the province decriminalized drugs. In a telling quote, she said, “Before there would be behaviours that just wouldn’t be tolerated, whereas now, because of decriminalization, it is being tolerated.”
Other nurses said the problem wasn’t limited to the Northern Health Authority. They came forward (both anonymously and openly) to say that drug use and violence have become common place in hospitals. Drug-addicted patients openly smoke meth and fentanyl, and inject heroin. Dealers traffic illicit drugs. Nurses are harassed, forced to work amidst the toxic fumes from drugs and can’t confiscate weapons. In short, according to one nurse, “We’ve absolutely lost control.”
People think that drug policies have no impact on those outside of drug circles – but what about those who have to share a room with a drug-smoking patient?
No wonder healthcare workers are demoralized and leaving in droves. Maybe it isn’t just related to the chaos of Covid.
The shibboleth of decriminalization faced further damage when Fiona Wilson, the deputy chief of Vancouver’s Police Department, testified before a federal Parliamentary committee to say that the policy has been a failure. There have been more negative impacts than positive, and no decreases in overdose deaths or the overdose rate. (If such data emerged from any other healthcare experiment, it would immediately be shut down).
Wison also confirmed that safe supply drugs are being re-directed to illegal markets and now account for 50% of safe supply drugs that are seized. Her words echoed those of BC’s nurses when she told the committee that the police, “have absolutely no authority to address the problem of drug use.”
Once Premier David Eby and Health Minister Adrian Dix stopped denying that drug use was occurring in hospitals, they continued their laissez-faire approach to illegal drugs with a plan to create “safe consumption sites” at hospitals. When that lacked public appeal, Mr. Dix said the province would establish a task force to study the issue.
What exactly needs to be studied?
The NDP government appears to be uninformed, at best, and dishonest, at worst. It has backed itself into a corner and is now taking frantic and even ludicrous steps to legitimize its experimental policy of decriminalization. The realities that show it is not working and is creating harm towards others and toward institutions that should be a haven for healing.
How quickly we have become a society that lacks the moral will – and the moral credibility – to just to say “no.”
Susan Martinuk is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health-care Crisis.
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