Canada’s nightmarish opioid crisis has renewed calls for involuntary drug treatment. Does the government have a right to force users to get help?
Daniel Vigo is British Columbia’s first scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs and concurrent disorders. He has a big job. B.C. is at the epicentre of the country’s drug addiction crisis. Several thousand people in the province overdose and die each year. To address the crisis, Vigo has proposed that B.C. dip its toe in a new and highly controversial form of therapy: mandatory drug treatment. Some people think forcing people into rehab is an overdue experiment, while others see it as an unconscionable civil rights violation. |
Following Vigo’s plan, B.C. has created a handful of involuntary treatment facilities for people in custody who have concurrent addiction and mental-health problems. The first 10 beds opened this April at the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre, a high-security remand centre for men detained while awaiting trial.
Another group is opening soon at the Alouette Correctional Centre in the Vancouver suburb of Maple Ridge. In a deep-dive longform feature for Maclean’s, Anthony Milton explores how all this might work and why it has attracted so much attention. “It’s an experiment that will be watched closely across the nation,” he says. Visit macleans.ca for more coverage of everything that matters in Canada, and subscribe to the magazine here. —Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief, Maclean’s |
Len Saunders has worked in immigration law for 25 years and has never seen this level of border enforcement. In this Q&A, he discusses why Canadians are right to be nervous about heading south and how to reduce the risk of detention when crossing. “The pendulum has swung too far,” he says, “and until it swings back, we all need to be a little more cautious.” |
Vadym Hrytsiuk was a home builder in Ukraine, then Israel. In Calgary, he started over cleaning construction sites; in a new country, he knew he had to prove himself. “I hear people blame immigrants for the housing crisis, which doesn’t make sense to me,” he writes in this essay for Maclean’s. “I’d invite anyone who criticizes immigration to come visit our job sites and meet the people pouring concrete, raising walls and wiring electricity.” |
For her debut novel, Toronto-born Grace Flahive transports readers to a Florida retirement home. The twist: it’s 2067, and the state is underwater from constant flooding. Palm Meridian follows long-time resident Hannah Cardin on the eve of her medically assisted death—though not before an epic end-of-life party filled with people from her past, including her lost love Sophie, whom she hasn’t seen in 40 years. The novel is set over one day and a lifetime in flashbacks, as secrets force Hannah to rethink life and impending death. Publishers fought for the tear-jerker in a three-way auction, and rights were swiftly snapped up for an upcoming TV adaptation. —Rosemary Counter |
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