Listen "The politics of the toxic drug crisis"
Episode Synopsis
Since 2016, the toxic drug crisis has taken more than 50 thousand Canadian lives.The Conservative party has promised $200-million a year to fund addictions recovery care for 50,000 people, according to the party's platform. Leader Pierre Poilievre has also vowed to “defund drug dens” – imposing strict new rules for overdose prevention sites and supervised consumption sites.Liberal leader Mark Carney has said that his party would review the effectiveness of such sites, while the federal NDP supports them.So given all of that…who’s left fighting the toxic drug crisis? How did harm reduction programs become so politically unviable? And what does that mean for drug users?Front Burner senior producer Elaine Chau brings us this documentary from Vancouver – ground zero of an overdose crisis that’s now wreaked havoc across the country.Make sure to watch our election night livestream on Monday, April 28 starting at 8pm Eastern. You can find it here on the CBC News YouTube channel and on the CBC News TikTok.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
More episodes of the podcast Front Burner
Poilievre tries to turn the page
13/11/2025
The former PM and the pop star
12/11/2025
Is Pierre Poilievre’s leadership in trouble?
10/11/2025
How Orwell’s words became our reality
07/11/2025
A big Mamdani win, a big Dem identity crisis
06/11/2025
Carney’s budget: generational or generic?
05/11/2025
What’s fuelling the war in Sudan?
04/11/2025
Mark Carney’s high-stakes first budget
03/11/2025
ZARZA We are Zarza, the prestigious firm behind major projects in information technology.