The Harm Reduction Hoax: How Liberal and NDP Policies Are Leaving Canadian Families in the Cold
- Jason
- Dec 9
- 6 min read
By: Jason LaFace
December 9, 2025
Since 2015, I've watched how harm reduction programs, drug strategy associations, politicians and other community leaders have profited from grants given by both Provincial and Federal Governments. For me personally it hits home when you've lost most of your friends and some family members due to the neglect to take real action to combat this rising atrocity. In 2023, I decided to come back home to Alberta because of the direction Ontario has taken on this matter, also because COVID destroyed my business whereas my wife and I lost everything, savings and all. My goal is to resume where I left off in Ontario speaking up against these harmful policies taking the lives of so many Canadians.
Prior to COVID, my wife and I owned a small cafe called After Dark Cafe & Edibles, we obtained our Cannabis Educators certifications out of Colorado and California and worked with local First Nations Cannabis Stores as Metis suppliers. We teamed up with Neil Magnuson of Vancouver, BC who created the "Cannabis Substitution Project" that truly helped so many in terms of opiate addictions. Our passion derived from the lost of so many people we knew, including a few family members. In 1 weekend Sudbury was hit by 8 overdose deaths that to this day the city and groups downplay. I had a childhood friend who was going through a rough time in his life only to die in a tent city in the downtown Memorial Park. Our program took on 60 clients affected by street drugs, methadone and suboxone with the sole purpose of tapering them off these potent drugs using only high dosed Cannabis edibles, medication drops and medicated teas. Our success rate was 49 clients to this day no longer use hard drugs, are back working and some in school again. The point to our program was to prove to the Government that what they were doing was wrong. We attempted to lobby Doug Ford in Ontario but Ford's caucus is no different than dealing with Liberals.
My goal is to address these concerns, offer new solutions and lobby our government to make major changes on policy. Since 2017 I've lost over 100 people I once cared about and knew since I was 12 years old.
Concerns for Canadian Citizens
As winter bites down on Canada, the stark reality of tent cities sprawling across our urban parks isn't just a seasonal eyesore—it's a national tragedy unfolding in real time. From the frozen encampments of Sudbury, Ontario, to the rain-soaked tents of Vancouver's CRAB Park, families are watching loved ones succumb to the elements, overdoses, and despair. This isn't an act of God or bad luck; it's the direct fallout from failed progressive policies peddled by Liberal and NDP leaders. These left-leaning strongholds—dominated by federal and provincial ridings that vote red or orange, with mayors and councils cozying up to the same parties—have prioritized feel-good "harm reduction" experiments over real solutions. And the results? Devastating overdose spikes, skyrocketing homelessness, and a toxic drug supply that's claimed thousands of lives since these policies took root.
Let's cut through the spin.
In cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Sudbury—where Liberal and NDP ridings hold sway—municipal leaders often echo the federal and provincial playbooks. Toronto's council, historically progressive and tied to Liberal urban voters, has overseen a doubling of homelessness to over 15,000 since 2021. Vancouver, an NDP-Green stronghold provincially and federally Liberal, reports 5,200+ unhoused in 2025, with tent cities like CRAB Park turning into de facto war zones. Sudbury, a classic NDP-Liberal bastion in Northern Ontario, is ground zero for this mess: a city of 180,000 now grappling with persistent encampments like Energy Court, where dozens huddle against the cold. These aren't anomalies; they're symptoms of a system rigged by ideologues who favor band-aid virtue-signaling over tough, common-sense governance.
At the heart of this crisis?
Harm reduction policies straight out of Liberal and NDP bills, like the federal government's push for supervised consumption sites (SCS) and decriminalization pilots. Bill C-5 and the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy have funneled billions into these "innovations," promising to save lives. But peer-reviewed "studies" trotted out by advocates—often funded by the same governments—are a far cry from actual science. They cherry-pick data, ignoring real-world havoc. Take Alberta's independent 2019 review of SCS (updated with 2024-2025 trends): while no deaths occur on-site, opioid-related EMS calls surged 74% within 500 meters of sites, and death rates jumped 64% nearby—far outpacing surrounding areas. Crime exploded too: police calls up 18% in Calgary's vicinity, with theft, trafficking, and assaults becoming daily realities. Businesses report 71% feeling less safe, with sales plummeting and closures mounting. This isn't "evidence-based"—it's a magnet for misery, concentrating addicts and dealers without addressing root causes like addiction treatment or housing supply.
Since these policies ramped up post-2017, the human toll on families has been gut-wrenching. National overdose deaths hit 8,000 annually by 2024, but in left-leaning hotspots like BC and Ontario, the crisis is personal: parents burying kids, siblings shattered by fentanyl-laced streets. BC's NDP harm reduction push—echoing federal Liberal funding—has seen stimulant deaths alone claim lives at rates 6.7 times higher for Indigenous families. Families report loved ones lured deeper into addiction, with "safe supply" programs enabling chaos rather than recovery. One grieving mother in Victoria told reporters her son's overdose came after he cycled through SCS without a pathway to rehab— a story repeated nationwide. These aren't statistics; they're stolen futures, and the "peer-reviewed" defenses? They gloss over the 64,000+ non-fatal overdoses at sites since 2017, many leading to repeat tragedies.
Now, as snow piles up, tent cities pose a lethal winter threat. In Ontario and BC, encampment deaths from fires, frostbite, and exposure have spiked: 91 frostbite amputations in Edmonton last winter alone, two tent fire fatalities there this year, and multiple tragedies in Vancouver and Toronto. Federal Housing Advocate Marie-Josée Houle calls it a "life and death crisis," with 20-25% of the unhoused—up to 60,000 nationwide—shivering in tents. Yet under Liberal-NDP influence, responses are band-aids: temporary shelters that overflow, while root fixes like zoning reform or mental health investment gather dust.
Worse still, these same leaders have twisted priorities, housing newcomers and refugees in hotels while Canadian veterans and families freeze. Since 2017, the feds have blown $1.1 billion on hotel rooms for 7,800+ asylum claimants—$205/night at peak—across 34 sites in Ontario and Quebec alone. Toronto got $669 million in IHAP funding, yet locals sleep rough as shelters hit capacity. Evictions from these hotels leave claimants homeless too, but the optics sting: why prioritize newcomers when our own are dying in the snow? It's a betrayal of the UCP's core belief: Canadians first.
And who profits from this disaster?
Not the needy, but a cabal of governments and non-profits feasting on grants. In Sudbury, millions have poured in—$8 million federal cash in 2025 alone, plus provincial HART Hub funding—yet homelessness climbed to 272 tracked cases, with 57% chronic. Non-profits like the Elizabeth Fry Society and local addiction agencies raked in funds for "services," but audits reveal the ugly truth: most goes to salaries and overhead, with pennies for direct aid. The Ontario Auditor General's 2021 value-for-money probe exposed systemic waste—coordination eats 70% of budgets, leaving clients in limbo.
It's the same story in Alberta: A Deloitte-commissioned report on the non-profit Arches, which operates supervised consumption sites, uncovered shocking misuse of provincial grants. Over $14 million in funding was co-mingled improperly, with interest earnings of about $13,000 diverted to ineligible perks like staff retreats, parties, and gift cards. Thousands more went to lavish travel, including $4,300 for a manager's conference jaunt to Portugal—complete with stays in Lisbon and Porto that lacked proper receipts or approvals. Personal expenses, like iTunes purchases and Amazon charges, were even billed to the program and later refunded. And the kicker? $1.6 million remains completely unaccounted for, buried in disarrayed records and petty cash without reconciliations. These outfits, often NDP-aligned, lobby for more "harm reduction" while problems fester: encampments grow, overdoses rise, and families foot the bill through taxes.
Calgary offers a cautionary tale too—not the conservative bastion of lore, but a city tilting NDP in municipal management. With 2025's new parties like the centrist Calgary Party and left-leaning slates gaining traction, the city's seen 6,701 encampment complaints in 2024, mirroring provincial woes despite UCP oversight. Even here, federal Liberal policies seep in, proving the rot starts at the top.
Enough. Canadians deserve leaders who put recovery, enforcement, and housing over handouts to bureaucrats. The UCP blueprint—four pillars of prevention, treatment, enforcement, and targeted harm reduction—shows the way: Alberta's SCS review demands exactly that, mandating recovery focus and accountability. Sudbury's millions squandered? Claw back the waste, audit every grant, and build real homes. Prioritize citizens over cronies. This winter, as tents become tombs, let's demand better: vote for common sense, not chaos. Our families—our future—depend on it.
Deloitte "Health Grant Expenditure" Report
Alberta pulls funding for supervised sites:
Alberta Socio-Economic Review of Supervised Consumption Sites
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