Tories blasted for skipping study

Wildfires at home prevented MP from attending three-city probe of drug crisis

- RAISA PATEL

The Liberals and New Democrats are slamming the federal Conservatives for failing to show up for most of a cross-country study of Canada’s toxic drug crisis, an issue leader Pierre Poilievre has heavily politicized in recent weeks.

MPs from all major political parties embarked on a weeklong, three-province, multi-city tour last week as part of the House of Commons health committee’s study into the overdose crisis that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Canadians over the past eight years.

But while MPs from the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois attended each leg of the trip — aside from the sole Bloc MP who arrived a day late due to a cancelled flight — Conservative MPs were absent from three of the tour’s four stops.

“I mean, it just shows they’re not serious. They don’t want to listen to the people,” said Gord Johns, the NDP’s mental health and harm reduction critic.