A crime is a crime, no matter how small or insignificant, or how much a government wants to pretend it is not. That is how law and order work. Once we start picking and choosing which laws matter, we open the door to chaos, and chaos is exactly what we are seeing across this country.
This is not about politics. This is about common sense. If a law exists, it must be enforced. Otherwise, what is the point? The moment we decide certain crimes are not actually crimes, we invite lawlessness. And that is exactly what has happened with drug possession laws in Canada. The federal government has decided that small amounts of drugs are not worth prosecuting. But guess what? Those small amounts add up. They feed addiction. They fuel organized crime. They destroy lives.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has had enough. She is giving Ottawa a choice: either get serious about fighting drug-related crime or get out of the way and let provinces do it themselves. And she is right.
Smith and her attorney general, Mickey Amery, wrote to federal Justice Minister Arif Virani, demanding an end to soft-on-crime policies. They called out the Trudeau government’s 2020 directive, which told Crown prosecutors to divert drug cases away from criminal courts, and Bill C-5, which eliminated mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug crimes. These policies have only made the drug crisis worse.
Crime rates have soared in cities across the country. Open drug use is common. Violent crime is rising. Repeat offenders get out on bail the same day they are arrested. Meanwhile, businesses are being vandalized, families are scared to walk downtown, and our health care system is overwhelmed with drug-related emergencies.
Alberta wants to take action, and it should be allowed to. Other provinces should follow suit. If Ottawa will not enforce drug laws, then the provinces should take over drug-related prosecutions. After all, it is the provinces that pay the price for crime—through policing, health care, and social services. It is provincial taxpayers who are covering the costs of cleaning up the mess Ottawa created.
And let’s be clear—treatment should not be optional. A mandatory treatment program should be the punishment for those caught with small amounts of drugs. Drug addiction is a disease, but enabling it is not compassion. Letting people rot on the streets is not kindness. Treatment should not be a choice—it should be the law. If someone is caught with drugs, they go to treatment, period. No revolving door, no excuses, no “harm reduction” that just means more harm.
We know what happens when the law is ignored. We have seen it in American cities where progressive policies have turned once-great places into wastelands of crime and drugs. San Francisco decriminalized small amounts of drugs. Now, the city is overrun with addicts. Businesses are leaving. Residents are afraid. The same thing happened in Portland and Seattle. Crime went up, law enforcement was hamstrung, and now city leaders are scrambling to reverse course.
Look at the states that take crime seriously—Texas, Florida, Tennessee. They have lower crime rates than soft-on-crime states like California and Oregon. Why? Because criminals know they will be punished. There is no “catch and release” justice system in Texas. If you commit a crime, you face real consequences. And that deterrent works.
Canada needs to wake up. We are at a breaking point. Crime is out of control. Society is deteriorating because we are told that enforcing the law is somehow unfair. The left wants us to feel guilty when someone breaks the law, as if it is society’s fault. As if criminals should not take responsibility for their own actions. Enough. We need accountability. We need consequences. We need order.
And order must come before everything else. A society without order is a society in ruins. Without law enforcement, there is no freedom—only fear. Without real consequences, there is no justice—only victims.
The federal government refuses to lead. It refuses to protect Canadians from crime. That means provinces must step up. If Alberta wants to prosecute drug crimes, it should be allowed to. If Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario want tougher laws, they should be able to enforce them. If you do not like those laws, do not break them. If you think jail is unfair, do not commit a crime. If you want to live in a lawless society, move somewhere else.
The fact is, the chaos has already begun. We see it every day. The government refuses to take responsibility. It refuses to admit that its policies have failed. Instead, it blames history. It blames the past. It blames everything and everyone—except the criminals committing the crimes. That has to stop.
We need to turn things around. We need a justice system that actually delivers justice. We need laws that mean something. We need to end the revolving door that lets criminals walk free before their victims even file a police report. We need consequences that actually deter crime.
Danielle Smith is showing leadership. Now, other provinces must do the same. Ottawa will not fight the war on drugs. So let the provinces do it. Because the alternative is more crime, more chaos, and more destruction.
A crime is a crime is a crime. And it is time we started acting like it.