Health Care

Rally to save MAP Van

June 23, 2009 Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY

FEDERAL MP LIBBY DAVIES RALLIES TO SAVE MAP VAN

Vancouver- Vancouver East MP, Libby Davies will join rally coordinators - WISH Drop-In Centre Society and the Prostitution Alternatives Counselling and Education (PACE) Society for a candle-light vigil Tuesday night, in support of the outreach MAP (Mobil Access Project) van.

“This van provides essential health and safety services for hundreds of women in the survival sex trade,” said Davies. “Closing down this successful project is unthinkable and will only hurt our community’s most vulnerable women.”

When: 9:30 p.m. Tuesday June 23, 2009

Where: Corner of East Hastings and Gore

Who: WISH Drop-In Centre Society and
PACE Society

The MAP vigil will take place from 9:30 pm to 10:00 pm at 13 intersections across the Downtown Eastside. Libby Davies will participate at the Hastings and Gore intersection.

Tags

Libby attends 2010 World AIDS Conference

June 29, 2010

Updates from Libby

Rights Here, Right Now – the 23rd International World AIDS Conference

Dear Friends,

This year’s International World AIDS Conference held in Vienna will highlight the importance of Human Rights in the effective response to HIV.

I am honoured to be participating in the Conference this year on a panel discussing the topic of Leadership and Critical HIV/AIDS Issues. I will be focusing on harm reduction and the rights of people who use drugs.

In the lead up to the International World AIDS Conference, world experts have put forward the Vienna Declaration, calling for a scientific approach to illegal drugs in the fight against HIV.

Tags

Libby in Question Period - Canada failing international committments on maternal and child health

April 30, 2010 Question Period

The Conservative government has been vocal in its decision to change Canada's internationl development policy and stop funding access to safe abortions where it is legal. Yet the same government has been silent on mother to child transmission of HIV. Libby recently raised these issues in the House of Commons.

House of Commons
HANSARD
Question Period

International Co-operation

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, on the topic of maternal health and the upcoming G8 and G20 meetings, the Conservative government has been vocal on issues where it should not have been and silent on issues where Canada needs to take a strong stand. Let us start out with what it should not have said.

Ignoring advice from the WHO to provide funding for access to safe abortion, the government decided instead to dictate its Conservative ideology to women in developing countries.

Does the government really believe it knows better than the WHO? Could it possibly be that arrogant?

Tags

Time to rethink Canada's Drug Strategy - Libby's letter to the Minister of Justice

March 25, 2009 Open Letters to Ministers & Public Officials

The Honourable Rob Nicholson
Minister of Justice
House of Commons

Dear Minister Nicholson,

I write to draw your attention to the recent study from the Urban Health Research Initiative (UHRI): Effect of Drug Law Enforcement on Drug-Related Violence: Evidence from a Scientific Reviewa comprehensive study of existing English scientific evaluations on the impact of drug law enforcement on related violence.

The study concludes that “law enforcement efforts are unlikely to reduce drug market violence,” including violence attributable to gangs. What is most disturbing is that the scientific review found that 87% of the studies show a link between drug law enforcement and increased levels of drug market violence. This is of particular concern in my riding of Vancouver East and in Vancouver in general where there has been a disturbing rise in drug related gun violence.

Tags

Libby speaking out on maternal and child health

March 23, 2010 Speeches in Parliament

HANSARD DEBATES
House of Commons
March 23, 2010

Motion on Maternal and Child Health

Libby Davies (Vancouver East NDP):
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to this motion. It is a very important debate. It is important that members of the House be able to express their strong opinions about this issue. The government's G8 maternal and child health initiative for the world's poorest regions must include the full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options, including contraception, consistent with previous governments that have stated that position, as well as all other G8 members last year in Italy. I certainly welcome this debate.

First and foremost, we have to insist that any initiative Canada takes forward must be based on scientific evidence as outlined in the motion before us today. That scientific evidence shows us that education and family planning can prevent as many as one in every three maternal deaths. That is a very significant statistic.

Tags

Libby on Bill C-475 an Act to Amend the Controlled Drug and Substances Act

March 9, 2010 Speeches in Parliament

MARCH 9, 2010
HANSARD
House of Commons

Debate on Bill C-475 an Act to Amend the Controlled Drug and Substances Act (Methamphetamines and Ecstasy)

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Bill C-475. I would like to thank the hon. member for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country for introducing the bill. It is very similar to a bill that was introduced awhile ago. I spoke to that bill and it went to committee. The fact that it is back before the House is evidence of the hon. member's serious intent to bring forward this issue. We certainly appreciate that.

I want to make a few general points about the bill as it relates to the larger issue of drug policy and what we have seen from the government. While on the one hand the bill deals very specifically with substances that are involved in the selling, production or import of amphetamines and ecstasy, as it relates to the larger issue, we have to be aware that reliance on an enforcement strategy and an approach that is focused on the Criminal Code is not going to solve the very major issues we are facing with drug addiction and substance use in our society.

Tags

Libby speaking out agains the Conservative's so-called drug policy

February 12, 2010

The Ottawa Citizen

Soft on TruthWhen you look beyond the paternalism, cynicism, genuine concern -- whatever motives drive the Harper government's punitive approach to crime -- only one question matters. Is it effective? Will closing Vancouver's safe injection site, Insite, reduce drug addiction and related crime? Will imposing six-month minimum jail sentences on anyone caught with as few as five marijuana plants inhibit pot-smoking among teenagers? Will expanding prisons reduce violence in our streets? Most legal experts, criminologists, addiction researchers and street-level health workers, along with many police chiefs and past reports from Parliamentary committees, say "no" -- as does the experience of other "tough-on-crime" jurisdictions. ...As New Democrat Libby Davies noted: "What they are doing is not based on evidence, whatsoever. It's a political stance."

Categorized