Poilievre promises to sue big pharma for $44 billion over opioid crisis

Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre promised Tuesday to sue the big pharma companies for $44 billion if he becomes prime minister. The Official Opposition leader says that’s what big pharma owes Canadians for facilitating an opioid epidemic that stretches across Canada and the United States. 

Poilievre says that’s what the pharmaceutical companies owe Canadians in health care costs resulting from addiction and “misery.” The Conservative leader also pledged to become a plaintiff in a current class action suit against big pharma that British Columbia has filed that is seeking $4 billion in damages.

A Conservative government would seek “a separate federal lawsuit to go after non-health costs, like border security, prisons, Indigenous programming, etc.”

“A total of roughly $44-45 billion is what big pharma owes federal taxpayers and we're going to put that money towards recovery and treatment,” Poilievre said.

The B.C. class action suit is aimed at recovering costs that “resulted from wrongful conduct of opioid manufacturers, distributors, and their consultants,” according to the province that named Purdue Canada – maker of OxyContin – as just one of 40 companies targeted in the suit.

Poilievre said Tuesday that the B.C. legal action does not go far enough and a Conservative government would extend it much further. 

“The people who profited from this misery should be the ones to pay the bill,” he said, at a news conference at the Last Door, a Vancouver treatment center for drug and alcohol addiction.

“These powerful multinationals knew exactly what they were doing, but they kept doing it anyway to profit themselves and their wealthy executives,” he also said.

“Trudeau has done nothing to hold these powerful pharmaceutical companies … accountable. A Poilievre government will hold them accountable. 

Poilievre also blamed the “NDP-Liberal approach” to drug addiction “has failed” because providing supervised injection sites where addicts can freely shoot up heroin has only led to the highest numbers of overdoses in the province’s history. He said the overdose rate in B.C. has doubled since 2016. He called tor federal defunding of such sites that have proliferated throughout Vancouver and other Canadian cities.

The Conservative leader cited the number of opioid-related deaths and hospitalizations in Canada, saying the “NDP-Liberal approach has failed” to solve the problem, and blamed the current government for an increase in the number of drugs and drug additions in Canada.

Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett has called Poilievre’s comments about the injection sites "irresponsible" and "misguided," and suggested it’s all “just irresponsible populist nonsense.”

Poilievre has usually suggested that funds used for injection sites should be diverted to tougher border control and keeping repeat offenders in prison but on Tuesday he changed his tact, advocating more spending on recovery and treatment programs.

“We need to get people off the streets and into treatment.”