Reversal of Bill 34 is a People’s Victory

Premier David Eby addresses the media, November 23, 2022 / Province of BC

On Oct 5, 2023, BC NDP Premier David Eby and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth announced their intent to increase police tools and discretion through Bill 34, “The Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act.

But last week, after facing community resistance, a legal injunction, a failed attempt to appeal said injunction, lots of confusion from Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West, and then barely squeaking by John “Cadaver” Rustad in an election, the BC NDP repealed the legislation entirely. The decision frees the government from a costly Charter challenge they were likely to lose in the spring.

In a joint release, the Harm Reduction Nurses Association, Canadian Drug Policy Coalition and Pivot Legal Society stated, “[t]he province has tacitly admitted that the Act would not have withstood the court’s scrutiny.”

According to the three groups, Bill 34 would “have enabled an increase in policing scope to specifically target unhoused people,” and would be “recreating and intensifying the existing harms of colonization and systemic racism.”

During the legal proceedings, Supreme Court Chief Justice Christopher Hinkson repeated what directly impacted groups have said all along: “the unregulated nature of the illegal drug supply is the predominant cause of increasing death rates in British Columbia.” This is something the Chief Coroner-led 2023 Death Review Panel and Office of the Provincial Health Officer’s 2024 special report have similarly concluded.

While the BC NDP government has since weaponized their so-called decriminalization framework to recriminalize the use of public space and outdoor drug use, Bill 34 would have expanded criminalization even further by increasing police officer discretion to arrest, displace, fine or seize belongings of people they believe consumed a substance in virtually any outdoor area. The decriminalization framework is a three-year pilot, whereas Bill 34 would have seen the permanent criminalization of suspected use.

Law enforcement budgets would have defunded community infrastructure even faster with Bill 34. Instead, Eby and Farnworth’s police power legislation – a threat to public health, overdose response, and community safety across BC – has been torn up for now.

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