Mr. Speaker, it is an honour to table an e-petition that was sponsored by John and Jennifer Hedican who lost their son Ryan to fentanyl poisoning. This petition is e-1586 and it was signed by 3,210 people.
The petitioners are calling on the Government of Canada to declare the current opioid overdose and fentanyl poisoning crisis a national public health emergency under the Emergencies Act in order to manage and resource it with the aim to reduce and eliminate preventable deaths.
The petitioners are calling on the government to reform current drug policy to decriminalize personal possession and to create, with urgency and immediacy, a system to provide safe, unadulterated access to substances so that people who use substances experimentally, recreationally or chronically are not at imminent risk of overdose due to a contaminated source. We know that over 4,000 Canadians died in 2017, and over 2,800 in 2016 due to preventable opioid overdose resulting from fentanyl-poisoned sources.
The petitioners are calling on the government to act on this petition.