Adam MacGillivray

I did an event in Kelowna on Saturday and there was a lot of talk about involuntary care so I wrote this last night Here's my question to every politician pushing involuntary treatment: If you genuinely want people to recover, why are you more focused on forcing them into treatment than addressing the conditions that make recovery so difficult in the first place? I'm not speaking from a textbook or a political talking point. I'm speaking from lived experience. I've lived through homelessness, poverty, trauma, mental health struggles, addiction and systems that were supposed to help but too often failed. I know firsthand that you cannot simply force someone to want a different life, and I know how difficult it is to move forward when you're struggling just to survive. You cannot force someone into stability. You have to create the conditions that make stability possible. Where are your guarantees of safe, affordable housing? Where are the meaningful employment opportunities? Where is the accessible counselling, mental health care and long-term support? Treatment doesn't erase poverty, It doesn't put a roof over someone's head, it doesn't magically create employment, heal trauma or give someone a sense of purpose. And sending someone back into the same circumstances that contributed to their struggles isn't a plan for lasting recovery, it's actually insanity. So here's my challenge to every politician advocating involuntary treatment: Before you tell the public how many people you want to force into treatment, tell us how many people you're willing to help build a future for. How many homes will you provide? How many employment opportunities will you create? What long-term support will you guarantee? And most importantly, have you actually listened to the people who have lived through what you're making policies about? Because the DATA doesn't support success from forcing people. They need dignity, they need choices, they need stability, they need hope, and they need a genuine opportunity to build a better life. Stop asking how to force people into recovery. Start asking what you're doing to make recovery possible. Are you trying to change people's lives, or just remove the visible evidence of the problems you've failed to address?