The News Rundown

B.C. investigating ‘significant’ prescribed opioid diversion

A leaked memo from the BC Ministry of Health has confirmed what we have known for years now - the safe supply has been undermined by its own system, and prescribed hard drugs are likely to not even end up being used by the people they're subscribed to.
A “significant portion” of opioids prescribed in British Columbia are being diverted, and prescribed alternatives are being trafficked provincially, nationally and internationally, according to the memo, provided to police and released by the BC Conservatives. The Ministry of Health has also been conducting an investigation into an alleged scheme involving “incentives” paid by dozens of pharmacies to patients, doctors and housing providers.
B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne, who said the investigative unit was made up of former RCMP officers, confirmed the internal briefing’s authenticity on Wednesday and told reporters in a virtual meeting that it was “disappointing” it was leaked and the investigation potentially compromised.
On opioid diversion Osborne says: “I want to acknowledge that we know that this is happening. These allegations are here. There’s absolutely no denial of it. There’s no diminishing of it, and there should be no acceptance of it. That’s why we’re taking the actions that we are.”
Elenore Sturko, a Conservative MLA and critic of the solicitor general and public safety, said in a statement that Premier David Eby, his ministers, and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry had long “denied and downplayed” the issue of diversion of so-called safe supply drugs. She said there was now “no doubt that the NDP government is responsible for fuelling addiction, deaths, enriching organized crime, and facilitating international drug trafficking.”
Two years ago, Sturko brought the issue to the floor of the legislature, only to be told by New Democrats that she was fear mongering, stigmatizing and shaming the vulnerable addicted. At the same time, media outlets began reporting discarded government prescription packaging for dilaudid pills outside pharmacies, with concerned neighbours sounding alarm bells about open drug dealing of government pills. Numerous reporters went out and easily bought packaged dilaudid on the street, reporting it on the nightly TV news. An addictions medicine doctor went public with concerns.
Then in 2024, local police detachments across B.C. began reporting safe supply showing up in drug seizures, alongside cash, weapons and other drug paraphernalia. Tens of thousands of safe supply drugs, including hydromorphone pills, were recovered in drug dens amidst raids by police in Nanaimo, Campbell River, Prince George and Kelowna.
Sturko has called for a public inquiry into safe supply and said: "There are indications here that this is a program that is exploiting the most vulnerable people in our province by enabling a system whereby people with severe addictions are being used for profit by some bad actors in pharmacies, housing and health care. And frankly, it's disgusting."
The memo shows that from 2022 to 2024, approximately 22.4 million milligram doses of opioids — primarily hydromorphone and oxycodone — were prescribed to about 5,000 clients in B.C. That's roughly 1500 doses per year per patient, or around 5 per day on average.
Dr. Caroline Ferris, an addictions physician with more than a decade of experience in Surrey and Victoria says it's worrying that the system got out of control so quickly. She believes it's a few bad apples situation, where "the few doctors who prescribe these drugs regularly who make it difficult for the rest of us", as she says. But it doesn't change the fact that it's still happening.
The document says of diversion that a “significant portion of the opioids being freely prescribed by doctors and pharmacists are not being consumed by their intended recipients.” However, pharmacists cannot prescribe opioids, the College of Pharmacists of British Columbia later clarified, while condemning the actions of any pharmacist or pharmacy owner involved in illegal activity.
Just last year, the RCMP and NDP government were both quick to say that there was no evidence of “widespread” diversion of safe-supply drugs. We know that was a bald faced lie, because Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said in a report on safe supply last July that more research was needed “to assess the degree to which diversion is occurring” but added that “anecdotes may not reflect the experience of most people who are prescribed alternatives to unregulated drugs.”
Clearly the NDP and the police were both trying to hide just how much safe supply was being diverted to other people.
What's also at stake, is just how many people are profiting off of this scheme. The document says some pharmacies are trying to maximize their dispensing fees by offering incentives. Other participants in the alleged schemes include doctors, assisted living residences and organized criminals. More than 60 pharmacies were identified in the document, which Osborne tried to downplay, saying that there are over 1400 pharmacies in BC. That's still a significant number.
The document says pharmacies target PharmaCare policies by seeking to maximize their dispensing fee of up to $11,000 per patient each year and that proceeds are often used to pay the incentives. It said PharmaCare’s total dispensing fees soared to roughly $350 million in 2024, almost triple that paid 20 years prior.
So to recap, two years after saying it wasn’t happening, a year after arguing there was no evidence, and nine months after promising to maybe start tracking the issue, the BC NDP government finally admitted this week that yes, a huge amount of its safe supply prescription drugs are finding their hands into criminals and fuelling an underground network of drug trafficking.
Health minister Josie Osborne was more appalled that the memo was leaked than she was that her predecessors and her own party allowed it to get this bad all while gaslighting the public about it for 2 years.
Safe supply is a topic that has been controversial in BC, but as time goes on, more people are seeing that the system that the BC NDP put in place has not reached its intended outcomes, and the fact that much of the supply is being diverted and trafficked shows that it's not a policy that should continue. Why the NDP ever thought this was an idea that could succeed baffles the mind.
Supplementals:

The Alberta government has become embroiled in another corruption scandal, this time on health contracts.
This has seemingly been par for the course with governments in Alberta for the last decade or so. Today we’ll ask, is there a difference this time and does it matter?
To begin, contrary to what eastern Canada believes, Danielle Smith is quite popular. Her own approval ratings are up 7% since last year and she’s almost 10 points ahead of Nenshi and the NDP.
Voter intention wise this translates into the UCP having a 15 point lead in the polls and those surveyed say Danielle Smith did a good job with her diplomatic efforts in the US.
So what happens at home?
The Ministry of Health fired AHS CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos just days before she was to meet with the province’s financial watchdog to discuss an investigation into purchasing contracts and deals for private surgical facilities.
Danielle Smith and the UCP received a mandate to reform healthcare. Part of that was dismantling AHS and moving to a different acute care, primary care, continuing care, and mental health model.
The lawyer of fired CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos says she was fired because she launched an internal investigation and forensic audit into those contracts.
These are the same contracts that brought useless pain medication from Turkey over and were going to set up private surgical facilities.
The allegation is she faced repeated interference from various Alberta government officials, including the premier’s former chief of staff Marshall Smith. Interference that supposedly increased the price the province was willing to pay to private suppliers.
It’s also said that Health Minister Adriana LaGrange was aware of the problems and instructed the now fired CEO to wrap up her investigation.
Since the news broke no one has seen the letter that was sent to the Globe and Mail. We are operating strictly on hearsay.
No one has gone on the record.
There is just a lot of fire being thrown back and forth.
Since news started covering this story AHS says it will stop awarding contracts to the firms in question.
Auditor General Doug Wylie will look into contract and procurement processes in a way that may extend beyond AHS and the health department.
Naheed Nenshi and the NDP are calling on Danielle Smith and the health minister to resign, this somehow has been translated into “calls for resignation grow louder” by the media despite only the NDP calling for this.
This was the state of affairs as we headed into the weekend until we got Danielle Smith’s response.
Smith has asked Auditor General Doug Wylie for an expedited review and his findings on the issue.
She has also directed her staff to ensure that any request for information is dealt with in a fully transparent and expedited way.
She has also asked for AHS’s internal review to be completed as quickly as possible so that adjustments can be made if needed.
She also states that, “As Premier, I was not involved in any wrongdoing. Any insinuation to the contrary is false, baseless and defamatory.”
The last portion of her statement though is the most interesting, it reads: “It’s no secret I have been unhappy with the level and quality of service delivered by AHS and in the inability of AHS to deliver quality and timely healthcare to Albertans. I will continue to relentlessly push forward to make improvements. Although that has required difficult decisions and major change, I do not accept the current results. There is a widespread and deep-seated resistance to change that we must overcome.”
“There is a widespread and deep-seated resistance to change that we must overcome”
Reading Smith’s statement, it insinuates that AHS itself could be at fault and raising the spectre of corruption to slow their dissolution.
Alberta Health Services is one of the largest organizations in the country and repeatedly has failed to deliver positive outcomes for patients.
Alberta Health Services smearing the government wouldn’t be new.
The Alberta NDP smearing the government wouldn’t be new.
The media jumping on a campaign to smear the government wouldn’t be new.
The difference this time though unlike Redford and Kenney is that Smith is responding and has the ability with modern media to mount an effective response. Redford didn’t respond because the PC dynasty didn’t see a problem. Kenney couldn’t because he was out of tune with the mood of Albertans.
Perhaps it’s time to look at where we’ve been and realize that maybe Alberta Health Services is the problem.
Of course there could be wrongdoing and the people of Alberta deserve an answer by getting to the bottom of the problem.
Until then there’s no reason to fan flames until we know who’s actually at fault if anyone.
Supplementals:

20,000 Indian students didn't show up to class after arriving in Canada. What happened to them?

A new report shows that nearly 20,000 Indian students have failed to enrol at their designated colleges and universities after arriving in Canada, raising even more significant concerns about immigration fraud and the misuse of the student visa system. What's worse, the Canadian government has no idea where they are. Even worse, 30,000 students not from India have also gone unaccounted for.
Some students who genuinely wished to study but were unable to secure admission to well-known universities, accepted offers from lesser known colleges. Upon arrival, they discovered that the institution was either fake, or lacked capacity. Many of them are now working part time jobs across Canada and are now trying to game the immigration system to stay in Canada permanently. Meanwhile, some students are suspected of using Canada as a gateway to cross into the U.S. illegally.
Fake colleges in Canada, often referred to as “diploma mills,” operate by exploiting loopholes in the education system and using deceptive tactics to attract students.
These institutions typically lack accreditation from recognized accrediting bodies, which is crucial for ensuring the quality and legitimacy of educational programs. They often use misleading advertising, claiming accreditation or recognition that does not exist. This can include false claims about job prospects and post-graduation outcomes.
Indian authorities are also investigating potential links between Canadian colleges and illegal migration networks in India. India’s Enforcement Directorate has conducted multi-city searches across India, including Mumbai, Nagpur, Gandhinagar, and Vadodara, to gather evidence related to human trafficking and money laundering.
These searches have uncovered incriminating documents and digital devices, as well as frozen bank deposits, indicating potential collusion between Canadian colleges and Indian entities.
It's clear the immigration system has been broken for some time. A case surfaced this week where an Indian national who was refused permanent residency because of believed links to Indian disinformation campaigns and fake news reports, will get another shot at obtaining the status.
The man, identified only as A.S in a recent Federal Court decision, is brothers with the CEO of a company known as Aglaya. Justice Paul Favel wrote in a Jan. 31 decision out of Ottawa that: “Aglaya is involved in the sale and production of surveillance and hacking tools for information warfare and signal intelligence. The (visa) officer noted Aglaya appears to be a subsidiary or affiliate of the Srivastava Group, sharing the same physical (New Delhi) address.”
The Srivastava group has been linked to disinformation campaigns in India that according to Favel aim to "discredit nations in conflict with India; misuse NGOs and think tanks accredited by the United Nations; misappropriate the names of European Union politicians; and to create fake media outlets that publish and amplify content used to attack those deemed contrary to India’s interests"
And still, the judge said the visa officer's decision to deny the Indian man's case was "based on speculation and an absence of credible evidence" and he is now able to reapply for permanent residency.
Meanwhile, even though Justin Trudeau's Liberal government said they were planning to reduce immigration targets, including international students, Canada set a new record in 2024 by admitting 483,395 new permanent residents, almost meeting the official annual immigration target of 485,000. In fact, it's actually the only year since 2020 that they haven't exceeded their targets. Since the beginning of 2021 Canada has admitted over 1.8M new permanent residents.
The news this week is not surprising, but still disheartening. The fact that the government has lost track of tens of thousands of fake students, and that the government is still hellbent on bringing in half a million permanent residents per year, as well as immigration cases still being held with a low barrier to entry, it's all a reason to change the system. Recent talk of change should no longer suffice from the Trudeau government when they've had years and many patterns to their behaviour.
Supplementals:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/students-missing-in-canada-fake-varsities-visa-misuse-key-reasons/articleshow/117959065.cms

Firing Line

Trudeau and Sheinbaum Took Different Routes to a Tariff Deal

On January 20th when Donald Trump became President we were told that tariffs would arrive on February 4th. They didn’t. Why they didn’t though is the bigger story.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also secured a reprieve on tariffs for her country but went about it in a different way than the Trudeau administration.
Canada’s approach involved a ton of bluster from both the government, media, and Canadian talking heads. Bluster that for our part hurt us more than helped us.
Conversely Sheinbaum instead chose to focus on partnership in her talks with the Trump administration instead of immediate retaliation.
In Canada many believed the US media that Trump would not win re-election. Conversely in Mexico Sheinbaum had been planning for Trump’s return since the summer and immediately after the US election she promised to “establish communication and good relations.”
Canada instead decided to be the world force standing up to Donald Trump.
Of course you wouldn’t know this unless you went to other news sources. The New York Times as per usual does a better job describing events in Canada than our own domestic media does.
For that purpose we’ve linked as the primary source on this story a New York Times piece.
We have a 30-day reprieve from tariffs and in the meantime we will execute our $1.3b border plan, added an extra $200m to combat fentanyl trafficking, designate the Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, work together with the US on tackling organized crime, and we will appoint a fentanyl czar, one of the things Danielle Smith initially suggested.
Donald Trump’s reasoning for tariffs varies based on whoever you talk to. The most hair on fire Canadian media believe it’s an attempt to annex Canada. Others believe it’s about the border or arctic sovereignty.
The reality though is that the Trump administration sees tariffs as a way to achieve strategic objectives.
With the US dollar being the reserve currency of the world and the US GDP being one of the largest, accounting for 25% of global GDP among 193 sovereign countries, this allows for the US to use its economic power rather than military power to achieve strategic objectives.
This will in some cases result in a restructuring of the global economic system that we’ve seen as standard since World War 2.
Stephen Miran, who has been nominated to chair Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers argues that the US dollar has benefited from overvalued which led to a hollowing out of American manufacturing and chronic deficits but currency markets didn’t adapt by re-adjusting the value of the US dollar since it’s the world’s reserve currency.
With this the US will likely create a stronger boundary between friend, foe, and neutral trading partner with only those friends able to freely access the US market.
Those outside the favourable zone will be subject to tariffs and not be able to access the US consumer.
This has the benefit of forcing countries into more favourable positions and with the over-valuation of the US dollar if true that creates room at home for tariffs.
In response to this reprieve Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives have rebranded to Canada First with an ask to retaliate dollar for dollar if tariffs come, put all tariff revenue into affected workers and businesses, cut taxes to stimulate investment in Canada, repeal the anti-resource law Bill C-69 and green light LNG plans, pipelines, mines, factories, and port expansions, bring in true free trade between Canada provinces, and rebuild our military.
Make no mistake, the Conservatives are the originators of today’s Canada First movement despite what the government may say.
Pierre Poilievre ended his statement by saying, “We will protect our economy, defend our sovereignty, bring home production and paycheques and never back down. We will put Canada First—now and always.”
Economist Jack Mintz in the National Post wrote that while in the short term we can retaliate, it will only be effective if other countries join due to the size of the American GDP.
A 40% global tariff would reduce world GDP by 3% with economies like Canada that are small and open seeing a reduction of 4.2% with the US only losing 1% of its GDP. What do we do instead?
He said the most important strategy is to wake up the Canadian economy. His policy ideas are similar to what Poilievre and the Conservatives have suggested.
Likewise with the Conservative plan the government has also adopted most of this as their policy going forward. Cabinet ministers within the Trudeau government (who have endorsed Mark Carney) are now advocating for nothing less than Canada First embodied by free trade between provinces, suggesting that we look at new pipeline projects, suggesting that we shrink the size of government, suggesting that we increase military spending. All of these have been discussed by senior Liberal cabinet ministers in the last week.
The reality is that as soon as Donald Trump was elected, this should have been the policy plank of the government.
Are they serious? After 9 years of scandal, lies, and continually trampling resource projects and regions of the country one is right to be doubtful.
This all plays though into the tariff media cycle. The tariff media cycle began by scaring Canadians that tariffs could destroy our economy. The second part was antagonizing the Trump administration and at points right until the brink of tariffs sabotaging our negotiation efforts. The third allows the government to reap the benefits of a crisis and scared population.
This is exactly what the media is hoping for. In the last week there have been discussions from Toronto Star and CBC talking head Althia Raj (who famously played abortion gotcha with Andrew Scheer in 2019) saying that Donald Trump has thrown an obstacle into Pierre Poilievre’s path to power.
There is also now polling out that is probably in some way conflated with the Ontario election that paints Mark Carney as the best person to “deal with Trump”.
This starts with politicizing the crisis for gain and potentially betting the economy all on it.
Questions of whether or not oil should be levied with an export tax abound since in the original tariff plan oil was only supposed to be hit with a 10% tariff. Meanwhile out east the dairy industry is vowing to protect the supply management system, the dairy quota system, that artificially protects the Canadian dairy market. Will supply management be the breaking point that brings tariffs in?
One could argue that Justin Trudeau has been sabotaging negotiation efforts. From his claim after the US election that progress was stifled by Kamala Harris not being elected to just this week sharing details of his call with Trump to 200 business and union leaders. The media has been jockeying for a fight since day 1 now saying they “expect the reprieve to be short lived”. And Doug Ford in his election campaign has been the number one source of retaliation. This all culminates in sabotage.
Meanwhile Canadians have seemingly embraced Canada First and the flag in a show of nationalism. These are the same Canadians who saw the flag as a hostile nationalism symbol in the convoy protests. These are the same Canadians who stood by as freedoms were trampled in the COVID pandemic with vaccine mandates and lockdowns. The same Canadians who called Canada First a racist dog whistle.
Why? The media told them we have to stand up for our country and put Canada First. The media wields that much power.
The reality of the situation though is that as described in the New York Times, a lot of our brinkmanship could’ve been avoided if we had simply engaged in communication and relationship building without the push for retaliation by our government and media.
The bigger reality though comes when compared to our relationship with the US. The US is one of the biggest and best countries in the world. It has been said before that the best gift Americans confer is the gift of the American passport. Most Canadians find this offensive. We must ask at this point why does the media drive the wedge it does? Why are we not considering closer relationships with the United States? If not statehood, why not an economic union beyond free trade?
All ideas offensive to Canadians today who have the goal of punching the US in the eye.
Supplementals:

Quote of the Week

"There are indications here that this is a program that is exploiting the most vulnerable people in our province by enabling a system whereby people with severe addictions are being used for profit by some bad actors in pharmacies, housing and health care. And frankly, it's disgusting." - BC Conservative MLA Elenore Sturko on news of trafficking of BC’s ‘safe supply’ prescription drugs.

Word of the Week

Tariff - a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports.

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Show Data

Episode Title: Canada’s Health
Teaser: BC’s safe supply is being trafficked, Alberta wants to investigate AHS, and 50,000 international students are unaccounted for. Also, the tariff threat is being used as a political wedge by the Trudeau Liberals and mainstream media.
Production Code: WC-406-2025-02-08
Recorded Date: February 8, 2025
Release Date: February 9, 2025
Duration: 1:04:13
Edit Notes: AB story names

Podcast Summary Notes

Duration: XX:XX