Gee’s reflections echo a growing sentiment in the op-ed pages of Canadian establishment media. For months, columnists at outlets like The Globe and Mail and The National Post have been normalizing government policies that strip people of their autonomy and force them into treatment—all under the guise of compassion.

Some of these opinion pieces come from individuals with ties to private clinics—which stand to profit from forced abstinence policies—who fail to disclose their obvious conflicts of interest.

Despite decades of evidence showing that involuntary treatment increases harm and fails to support long-term abstinence, several provincial legislatures are proposing to forcibly “treat” people for drug use.

As poverty and the toxic drug crisis become harder to ignore, these governments are using forced treatment to distract from their own failures. And columnists at our biggest newspapers are helping them.

By championing these dangerous policies, these columnists are also providing political cover to the Conservative Party’s hollow promise to “bring our loved ones home drug-free,” with far-reaching national consequences.