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Justice Catherine Murray of the British Columbia Supreme Court certainly thinks a lot of herself.

In a decision released this week, Justice Murray essentially installed herself as a one-woman Parliament based on her expertise in criminal justice policy, drug policy, social policy and health policy.

Her decision, which must be appealed and overturned by a more sensible court, guts Canada’s drug laws and invites absolute chaos on the misguided notion of compassion and harm reduction.

Murray declared that Section 5(2) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act is invalid. This is the section that states that “No person shall, for the purpose of trafficking, possess a substance” and then details a long list of drugs such as opium, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and more.

The case before Justice Murray was a Charter challenge to the conviction of the Vancouver duo of Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx, founders of a group called the Drug Users Liberation Front.

This duo sourced heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine and then distributed it, claiming it was to provide a safer supply. They did this through what they called the Drug Users Liberation Front (DULF) Compassion Club.

If you can’t tell by the name of the group they founded, Kalicum and Nyx are activists who don’t believe Canada’s drug laws should exist. In her decision, Justice Murray decided to listen to a bunch of activists masquerading as academics and health experts who also oppose Canada’s drug laws and want freedom to reign for meth, fentanyl and crack users.

Activists in robes

This is why Murray was able to write in her decision that, “A non-medicalized safer supply program is urgently needed to save lives.”

The judge, who is not a medical expert, not an addictions expert and definitely not an elected policymaker, stated this as fact, not opinion.

She then also stated as fact that “The DULF Compassion Club reduced the harms associated with the toxic drug crisis and did not negatively impact the community or public safety.”

That’s a bold statement that neither Justice Murray nor any of the “experts” she relied on can claim with any certainty. They can claim it as opinion, but not fact.

At the time Kalicum and Nyx were arrested for possession for the purpose of trafficking, British Columbia was in the middle of a horrific experiment. The Trudeau government had unleashed what they called “safer supply” into the province under the false notion that giving people medical-grade opioids would help reduce addiction and overdose deaths.

In January 2023, the province also worked with the Trudeau government to decriminalize all personal use of opioids, cocaine and meth.

The results were catastrophic, so bad, in fact, that the NDP government of David Eby asked Trudeau to ban drugs again in the spring of 2024.

The experiment failed

All of the drug liberalization policies supported by the likes of Kalicum, Nyx and their activist academic and health expert friends only added to the death and misery.

In 2023, British Columbia’s Coroners Service reported 2,591 drug overdose deaths , or 47 deaths for every 100,000 people. That same year, Ontario, with a population three times the size of British Columbia, saw 2,694 drug overdose deaths, or 17 per 100,000.

Since moving away from supporting programs like safer supply and safe consumption sites, and embracing treatment and recovery in 2024, Ontario has seen a 43% drop in overdose deaths, according to the provincial coroner.

British Columbia has, after walking away from the disastrous policies of 2023, seen a decline of about 29%.

None of these declines are based on embracing the failed activist policy choices that Justice Murray wants to enforce on the country with her court ruling.

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Courts don’t make policy

And let’s be clear, this is what Justice Murray has made: a policy choice. She has decided that she prefers so-called “harm reduction”, a program that has been tried and failed, and she’s using the language of the Constitution to impose her will.

There is no Charter right to deal illicit drugs, though organized crime would like there to be.

If Justice Murray feels this is the right policy choice for Canada, she should resign her seat on the bench and run for office, telling Canadian voters this is what she supports.

In our democratic system, judges make decisions based on the law; they don’t make policy choices and then constitutionalize them.

Even if she doesn’t resign and run for office, Justice Murray should think about stepping down when this decision is inevitably overturned.