AIDS 2008 Tony Clement Talks About Insite BC

Video I shot of Tony Clement at the Canadian reception (Monday 4 August 2008) at the International AIDS Conference (3-8 August 2008) in Mexico City (more information at http://www.aids2008.org/ ). The discussion heated up about insite BC, North America's first legal supervised injection site (more information at http://www.vch.ca/sis/ ). Tony loses his cool about 2 minutes into the video worried about being youtubed. He says he believes in needle exchange but doesn't believe in people sticking needles in their arms. Hummm...so I'm not sure what he wants people to do with the new needles he's exchanging? Put them on the Christmas tree maybe? You be the judge is this video newsworthy for youtube? Full video available to media upon request at orazioisnow@hotmail.com

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  News & Politics

[somewhatlongdong]

this guy is a total asshole

[ORITV]

That's with capital "A"

[ORITV]

I didn't know youtube does live broadcasts now according with Mr. Clement.

[Kirk Tousaw]

Absurd. Letting people die does not help them. The conservative party spends 70% of the drug policy budget on policy and only 5% on treatment...yeah, he really wants to spend the money on treatment.

And, by the way, the federal government pays nothing toward insite. Nothing. Not a dime. So the "spend on treatment" strawman is just bogus.

Finally, I'm not sure how a program that has been peer-reviewed more than 20 times and found to work can be called "failed." Does prohibition work?

[lIoganstone]

you're a faggot

[helical4]

From what I understand, in most Provinces you can't force someone to go into treatment, they have to volunteer themselves. I think Alberta is the only exception. How can someone force these people into detox and rehab against their will and expect a 100% abstinence rate for the rest of their life?

[Keiranforreal]

Tony doesn't understand shit on this subject. Sadly my fellow misguided voters voted him in again. Sadly due to split votes on the NDP and Liberals we're now stuck with these clowns in a majority for 4 years. Sadly most con voters can't see through the American style attack ads. I'm not bitter because the cons have a majority. I'm bitter because the majority of Canadians didn't vote for them. Really this election wasn't a mandate for the cons. It shows how divided and broken we are

[uberscheisse]

he misspoke in a heated conversation, give him a break - even the people who were arguing with him gave him that concession. he has a bad argument, but focus on the weaknesses in his argument, not a little mistake.

[sync380]

I went to school with this guys kid

[jeadesro]

InSite, a safe injection site? fuck off! I want my money back!

[jeadesro]

You retards cannot listen. Can he send them all into detox? No, but he will not spend YOUR money on needles. He will try to spend it in prevention programs. If you cannot rescue your own friend who have been doing heroin for 15 years, it's not the government job to do so anyway or it wouldn't work anyway.

[kilkay44]

He says he"won't give up on a single person" what does that mean? What is his solution? Force them all into detox? How is someone who has been using heroin for the past 15 years just going to stop using? He doesn't believe in the evidence of Insite's benefits because he is obviously so much more intelligent than all the other countries who have now adopted this harm reduction method and WHO, BC Center for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and all the others who are fully supporting Insite! Unbelievable!

[Thomas Dowswell]

Tony Clement has huge trouble communicating !

He was seen on a youtube interview saying "I believe in needle sharing, I believe in needle sharing" Lets see if Harper will harp on Tony for his lack of communications skills !