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Armed Forces bring Grey Cup to Red Deer tomorrow (Friday)

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3rd Annual Operation Tea Cup

Red Deer, AB – The Calgary Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC) is proud to announce the third annual Operation Tea Cup

WHAT:
For one day only, the Grey Cup is coming to Red Deer!

Delivered by military vehicles and escorted by members of the Canadian Armed Forces, the Grey Cup will be arriving at the Cormack Armoury and presented to Her Honour, the Honourable Lois E. Mitchell.

The Grey Cup is one of three cups donated by Lord Earl Grey to various sports organizations in recognition of athletic excellence. A second of these cups resides right here in Red Deer! Learn about the rich military history of these cups and be a part of history as these two cups are reunited by Her Honour, the Honourable Lois E. Mitchell.

In collaboration with our outstanding community partners, this multi-event day including a grey cup tour and private party raises awareness for our Canadian Forces and their deep-rooted connection to the Grey Cup. All proceeds are donated to our local Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC) to support military families throughout Central Alberta.

WHERE:
Cormack Armoury
4402 55 Street – Red Deer

WHEN:
Cup Presentations to Her Honour followed by Media: 3:15 p.m.  Friday, September 13, 2019

About the Calgary MFRC
The Calgary MFRC supports families of our Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members within our service area of Southern Alberta, including Red Deer and Lethbridge. Our CAF soldiers, veterans and their family members face unique challenges that make being in the military an occupation different from any other. At the MFRC we aim to help lessen the impact of these unique challenges, which includes frequent separations, extended deployments and risks. The MFRC is a registered charity run by a volunteer board of directors that was started in 1991 by the Department of National Defense in conjunction with the Military Family Support Program. To learn more, visit calgarymfrc.ca.

About the Red Deer Office
The MFRC works to empower and support our military families. We offer a variety of programs and services including mental health supports, social activities, workshops and training, family separation and reunification support, deployment support, children and youth programs, and referral services to help. Our families are the strength behind the uniform, and we’re here for them.

The Calgary MFRC has satellite offices in both Red Deer and Lethbridge. Each office caters to the specific needs of the forces in their areas. The Red Deer Branch is based at the Cormack Armory and serves a large part of Central Alberta.

Central Alberta is home to over 60 military families. The Canadian Forces in Red Deer consist of the Primary Reserve 78th Field Battery, which is part of the 20th Field Artillery Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, and the 2 Squadron, 41 Signal Regiment Reserve Force communications unit who provides communication information systems, strategic infrastructure services and support to 41 Canadian Brigade Group. Both units also operate out of Cormack Armory in Red Deer.

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Community

SPARC Red Deer – Caring Adult Nominations open now!

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Red Deer community let’s give a round of applause to the incredible adults shaping the future of our kids. Whether they’re a coach, neighbour, teacher, mentor, instructor, or someone special, we want to know about them!

Tell us the inspiring story of how your nominee is helping kids grow up great. We will honour the first 100 local nominees for their outstanding contributions to youth development. It’s time to highlight those who consistently go above and beyond!

To nominate, visit Events (sparcreddeer.ca)

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Addictions

‘Harm Reduction’ is killing B.C.’s addicts. There’s got to be a better way

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Susan Martinuk 

B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy

Since 2016, more than 40,000 Canadians have died from opioid drug overdoses — almost as many as died during the Second World War.
Governments, health care professionals and addiction experts all acknowledge that widespread use of opioids has created a public health crisis in Canada. Yet they agree on virtually nothing else about this crisis, including its causes, possible remedies and whether addicts should be regarded as passive victims or accountable moral agents.

Fuelled by the deadly manufactured opioid fentanyl, Canada’s national drug overdose rate stood at 19.3 people per 100,000 in 2022, a shockingly high number when compared to the European Union’s rate of just 1.8. But national statistics hide considerable geographic variation. British Columbia and Alberta together account for only a quarter of Canada’s population yet nearly half of all opioid deaths. B.C.’s 2022 death rate of 45.2/100,000 is more than double the national average, with Alberta close behind at 33.3/100,00.

In response to the drug crisis, Canada’s two western-most provinces have taken markedly divergent approaches, and in doing so have created a natural experiment with national implications.

B.C. has emphasized harm reduction, which seeks to eliminate the damaging effects of illicit drugs without actually removing them from the equation. The strategy focuses on creating access to clean drugs and includes such measures as “safe” injection sites, needle exchange programs, crack-pipe giveaways and even drug-dispensing vending machines. The approach goes so far as to distribute drugs like heroin and cocaine free of charge in the hope addicts will no longer be tempted by potentially tainted street drugs and may eventually seek help.

But safe-supply policies create many unexpected consequences. A National Post investigation found, for example, that government-supplied hydromorphone pills handed out to addicts in Vancouver are often re-sold on the street to other addicts. The sellers then use the money to purchase a street drug that provides a better high — namely, fentanyl.

Doubling down on safe supply, B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy — though for now that effort has been stymied by the courts.

According to Vancouver city councillor Brian Montague, “The stats tell us that harm reduction isn’t working.” In an interview, he calls decriminalization “a disaster” and proposes a policy shift that recognizes the connection between mental illness and addiction. The province, he says, needs “massive numbers of beds in treatment facilities that deal with both addictions and long-term mental health problems (plus) access to free counselling and housing.”

In fact, Montague’s wish is coming true — one province east, in Alberta. Since the United Conservative Party was elected in 2019, Alberta has been transforming its drug addiction policy away from harm reduction and towards publicly-funded treatment and recovery efforts.

Instead of offering safe-injection sites and free drugs, Alberta is building a network of 10 therapeutic communities across the province where patients can stay for up to a year, receiving therapy and medical treatment and developing skills that will enable them to build a life outside the drug culture. All for free. The province’s first two new recovery centres opened last year in Lethbridge and Red Deer. There are currently over 29,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province.

This treatment-based strategy is in large part the work of Marshall Smith, current chief of staff to Alberta’s premier and a former addict himself, whose life story is a testament to the importance of treatment and recovery.

The sharply contrasting policies of B.C. and Alberta allow a comparison of what works and what doesn’t. A first, tentative report card on this natural experiment was produced last year in a study from Stanford University’s network on addiction policy (SNAP). Noting “a lack of policy innovation in B.C.,” where harm reduction has become the dominant policy approach, the report argues that in fact “Alberta is currently experiencing a reduction in key addiction-related harms.” But it concludes that “Canada overall, and B.C. in particular, is not yet showing the progress that the public and those impacted by drug addiction deserve.”

The report is admittedly an early analysis of these two contrasting approaches. Most of Alberta’s recovery homes are still under construction, and B.C.’s decriminalization policy is only a year old. And since the report was published, opioid death rates have inched higher in both provinces.

Still, the early returns do seem to favour Alberta’s approach. That should be regarded as good news. Society certainly has an obligation to try to help drug users. But that duty must involve more than offering addicts free drugs. Addicted people need treatment so they can kick their potentially deadly habit and go on to live healthy, meaningful lives. Dignity comes from a life of purpose and self-control, not a government-funded fix.

Susan Martinuk is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of the 2021 book Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health Care Crisis. A longer version of this article recently appeared at C2CJournal.ca.

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