2: The Opioid Crisis Debates in the Canadian House of Commons

This chapter seeks to understand what discourses are associated with the opioid crisis in the Canadian House of Commons and how they have changed over time. The initial argument is that these debates provide an understanding of what is important to each political party concerning the opioid crisis. The authors show that criminalizing drug use has been important to some parties in these debates especially the Conservative Party, while the New Democratic Party (NDP) mostly frames it as a social and public health emergency. By analyzing debates using a mixed-method approach, the authors offer an understanding of how the major issues like new solutions, public safety, treatments, overdose death, and systemic racism have evolved and discussed by different parties and, in some cases, the discussion becomes polarized.