BC Conservative Candidate Compared People Living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to Stray Animals

A candidate for the Conservative Party of British Columbia compared people who use drugs to stray animals who are lost on the streets during a town hall held at a far-right event space last month.

Elenore Sturko, a former BC United MLA who switched teams and joined the far-right BC Conservatives earlier this year, shared a story at an August 18 event about a person she met at a single-room occupancy (SRO) building in downtown Vancouver.

In a video recorded at the town hall event at Vancouver’s “Freedom House,” a far-right community event space run by a pair of local anti-vaccine activists, Sturko claims the presence of an SRO created “street disorder and security” issues for local businesses, claiming it cost one business thousands of dollars.

Sturko recalled speaking with one man in a wheelchair who had “pipes and all sorts of drugs” who was a resident in a Vancouver SRO near the Granville Entertainment District.

“I just said, do you think that you’re getting all the services that you need? And his answer was, ‘I’m treated right now worse than an animal,’” Sturko said.

“And I think about that a lot when I’m driving down the street and go some place, you know, we have to go through the Hastings area — or pretty much any town has an area like this now — and I think to myself sometimes if these were dogs and cats or pets, the SPCA would come and they would take the animals into care, adopt them out, find them loving homes.”

“Sarah McLachlan would have a song,” Sturko added, before attempting to sing the chorus of McLachlan’s 1997 song Angel. “All that would happen.”

Neither Sturko nor the BC Conservatives did not respond to a request for comment from PressProgress about Sturko’s remarks.

The organizers behind Freedom House, Rick Thomas and Maria Bose, boast that they have been “part of the Freedom Movement from day one,” organizing a number of events since 2020 related to the anti-mask and anti-vaccine movement, protesting SOGI-123, hosting an event with far-right influencer Chris Sky and more.

Sturko would go on to describe the BC Conservative’s plan for involuntary care for those with substance use disorders, which drug policy experts have described as doing “more harm than good.”

“People will say to me involuntary care is cruel because you’re taking away someone’s civil liberty, but when I was on the street and I saw people Who were trapped like literally trapped — I’ve seen terrible things,” Sturko said. “We want to be able to intervene in limited circumstances in a way that actually helps a person who may not even because of their addiction or because of a treatment of illness understand how sick they are.”

Studies, including one in the International Journal on Drug Policy have shown that involuntary treatment does not suggest improved outcomes and in some instances can cause potential harms.

Freedom House is set to host a “Defeat the NDP” rally at the Showboat Theatre on September 29.

The rally poster includes the BC Conservative logo, but the BC Conservative Party would not clarify if the event was formally sanctioned by the party.