Bill 48 hurts those who need help the most

Fort Garry

Bill 48: The Protective Detention and Care of Intoxicated Persons Act has now passed. I was the only MLA to vote against it.

The Kinew government is trying to sell this bill as compassion, as “treatment” for people struggling with substance and mental health issues. But anyone who reads the law or listens to the people most affected knows the truth. Bill 48 isn’t about treatment; it’s about jail.

Under this law, a non-violent Manitoban in the throes of addiction or a mental health crisis, someone who has committed no crime, can be arrested by police, stripped down to one layer of clothing, have their shoes, belt and personal property taken away and be denied the right to call a lawyer. They will be locked in a windowless, solitary confinement cell for up to 72 hours, sleeping on a thin mattress on a concrete floor, with the lights kept on 24 hours a day. They will not be allowed to shower or change their clothes. They will eat their meals just feet away from a toilet, on camera, with no privacy at all.

People who have lived through similar conditions describe them in one word: humiliating.

Psychiatric doctors have warned that forcing people into withdrawal like this is dangerous and increases the risk of overdose after release. Front-line organizations have told us that meth users are overwhelmingly non-violent, yet this government insists on portraying them as machete-wielding threats who must be controlled. Women’s organizations have testified that this law will disproportionately harm vulnerable women who use drugs to stay awake and safe when shelters are not safe options. Others have raised grave concerns about how it will be used against Indigenous, racialized, poor and homeless Manitobans.

Instead of listening, the government pushed Bill 48 through. There is no guaranteed treatment in this law. There is no right to see a judge. There is no way to challenge a wrongful detention or to sue when your rights have been abused.

At the same time, the Kinew government has chronically underfunded real mental health supports. Rapid Access to Addictions Medicine (RAAM) clinics are turning people away. The Health Sciences Centre’s mental health crisis centre is dangerously understaffed and struggling to keep up with the number of Manitobans who are seeking help. Rather than invest in those services, the government chose to pour money into a new detention centre in Point Douglas, a neighbourhood that was never properly consulted and is already carrying more than its share of Manitoba’s social burdens.

Bill 48 will traumatize people who are already suffering. It will criminalize mental health and addiction. And it will cost lives.

Manitoba deserves a government that treats addictions as a health issue, not a branding opportunity or a jail-building exercise. I will keep fighting for a system that offers care, dignity and real treatment, not concrete walls, bright lights and solitary confinement.