Prohibition in Canada began in here in 1907 during a moral panic about immigration. The media played a key role. And there have been a dozen or more moral panics since. The main thing is they shouldn't feel orchestrated or led. They should just feel like a new emerging consensus. But they ain't
Trump doesn't bring autocracy alone. He needs acquiescent institutions. Same with moral panics. It doesn't just take Poilievre or a Postmedia columnist. It takes acquiescent institutions. It takes silence about the moral panic itself, so it seems like fickle public opinion, not politics.
There has been coverage of the 10yr anniversary of the declaration of the toxic drug public health emergency this week, but mostly it's been doctors and public health experts. Some good interviews, like Dr. Gabor Mate & Dr. Paxton Bach. But less of us. It's a taste thing. A newsroom vibe.
What seemed by middle-of-the-road Canadian standards as common sense in 2019, is now called radical. The mushy middle is a relative position. So media outlets of the political centre move right just because the whole spectrum shifts that way. Those on board may barely feel the motion.
I get called less by journalists since the moral panic against harm reduction got started a couple years back. Even the good ones stand a little further back. Plus, we can no longer get meetings with cabinet ministers. These are clearly the least important metrics of backlash, but there it is.
My book, Crackdown, is a finalist for the BC and Yukon Book Prize (Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize). There are four other finalists. We'll find out who wins in the fall. bcyukonbookprizes.com/2026/04/14/a...
Hey that's great. Sorry about your inbox
For sure. I wish we could do stories in the US. But I can't get in.
Congratulations, @avilewis.ca. I wasn't in Winnipeg this morning, but I kinda wish I was. What an amazing campaign.
As the years go by, past police operations against Indigenous people and social movements are slowly exposed. And the spying continues. If you dream of a different world, and manage to actually do something about it, they probably got a file on you. www.cbc.ca/news/indigen...
Thanks!
Today, I voted for @avilewis.ca to lead the federal NDP. I never been a member of a political party before. I joined to do this one thing. I want the NDP to be a fighting force again. If you're an @ndp.ca member, vote for Avi. If you ain't, you can still support the campaign lewisforleader.ca
So when someone asks me in bad faith,"to whom are you accountable," my answer ought to be: "not you."
Community is blurry and messy. Many people don't have formal lines of accountabilty. That don't disqualify ya. Many people practice solidarity or mutual aid or whatever as best they can. What we're creating is emergent. Using the fragile democracy of a community as a weapon is an ugly move.
When I was president of my trade union local, I was accountable to the members of local 301. These are not perfect mechanisms. We're building them.
This question usually comes as an attack - usually from someone who themselves lacks any lines of accountability to org, community or movement
"To whom are you accountable?" A question almost never put to me in good faith. But, it's nonetheless important to me. As Exec Producer of @crackdownpod.bsky.social I'm accountable to the Editorial Board. As a drug user activist I'm accountable to VANDU members & the drug user movement.
Oops. Wrong at @cbcstephenquinn.bsky.social
I get that this is some pretty low politics, but do we have to use "drug users" as an insult? I'd say "ABC hack" is probably a bigger diss. @stephenquinn.bsky.social www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
Survival never goes out of style
Speaking as one of many “heroes at the methadone clinics”, the whole waiting room cringes when that Kid Rock song comes on.
Just listened to latest episode of @garthmullins.bsky.social’s @crackdownpod.bsky.social
Hard to listen to, but recommended 👇
podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/c...
Thanks. Im in great company
🙏
🗳️To vote for Avi Lewis for leader of the federal NDP, you need to be a member. I voted for the NDP for decades. I felt frustrated by the mushy middle direction it was going. But I signed up so I could vote. Membership deadline is January 28 - this Wednesday: act.lewisforleader.ca/become-an-nd...
Retro campaign-style poster showing Garth Mullins on stage, speaking into a microphone under bright stage lights, with a large ‘Lewis’ banner behind him. A textured halftone effect gives the image a vintage look. A quote fills the lower half of the poster: ‘I’m done with politicians who accept mass death as the price of billionaire comfort. Extreme wealth concentration is a political choice and so is drug policy that criminalizes people to protect property and profit. Avi Lewis is willing to say that out loud—and to fight for redistribution, decriminalization and care instead of punishment.’ The bottom reads ‘—Garth Mullins,’ with a ‘Lewis for Leader’ logo in the corner.
I endorse @avilewis.ca for leader of the @ndp.ca because we need leaders who are willing to take the NDP back to its working class, socialist roots-who & are willing to take money and power away from the people who are hoarding both while the rest of us bury our friends.
Good suggestion. He's already heard Sabbath.
Listening to David Bowie narrate Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with my baby. He's into it. Hunky Dory next, I reckon. www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vr4...
Haha thanks
