Rob Shaw: Minister prioritizes pride over proof as B.C. ends drug decriminalization |
Of all the ways to describe B.C.’s messy, unpopular and divisive experiment with decriminalizing hard drugs, there’s one word you’d never expect a New Democrat cabinet minister to use: proud.
And yet, inexplicably, that’s the phrase Health Minister Josie Osborne used Wednesday as she pulled the plug on the decriminalization pilot program following three tumultuous years.
“I would say there's probably never a perfect time or a perfect set of conditions to undertake a pilot like this,” Osborne told media.
“But I'm proud of the fact that we did try.”
Proud of a program the government had to effectively reverse before it even reached the halfway point?
Proud of an experiment police say worsened street disorder and municipalities say made their streets less safe?
Proud of a policy the premier himself now calls wrong?
If that’s what makes the minister proud, you shudder to think what an actual failure looks like.
What’s most striking about Osborne’s defence is not so much that the pilot project fell short, but that three years in, government can’t explain what success would have looked like, let alone whether it occurred.
Osborne gave every impression Wednesday that the BC NDP was only ending its........