Safe Injection Sites Report: Toronto, Ottawa Would Benefit From Facilities

TORONTO - Toronto and Ottawa would benefit from having supervised drug injection facilities, but reaction to the report making that recommendation suggests the process of translating advice to reality may not be swift.

Four years in the making, the report recommended three safe injection sites for Toronto and two for Ottawa, saying injection drug use in both cities isn't focused in one area, as it is in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, home to Canada's first safe injection facility, Insite.

Asked about the recommendation, Ontario's Health Minister Deb Matthews said the province is not planning to pursue supervised injection sites at this time.

Zita Astravas, Matthews's press secretary, said in an email that the province doesn't have the power to block supervised injection sites, if a group trying to open one receives the necessary legal exemption from the federal government.

But the reality is that unless alternative funding sources can be found, provincial backing would probably be needed to get — and keep — these facilities up and running. However, if funding can be found, one expert in the field suggested it is unlikely Ontario would get in the way.

Ideology can lead to irrationality

Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a bid to close Insite was a waste of taxpayers' money in tight times

The Harper government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in its unsuccessful legal battle against Vancouver's supervised injection site, according to newly released documents.

Between 2006 and 2011, the Conservatives spent $637,158 in a bid to shut down the Downtown Eastside clinic - funds that represented nearly 25 per cent of Insite's annual $3-million operating budget.

The clinic, opened in 2003, has long been a burr on the backside of a federal government that has fiercely resisted embracing the harm-reduction philosophy of the clinic.

The federal legal bill comes courtesy of a Justice Department reply to an access-toinformation request, submitted in October by The Vancouver Sun.

The Sun's query followed a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court in favour of keeping the clinic open. In their unanimous decision, the judges ruled that not allowing the clinic to operate under an exemption from drug laws would violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Supervised injection sites: Ideology comes with big blinkers

In the ongoing struggle between ideology and evidence within the Harper government, ideology too often wins.

The entire field of criminal justice features the government’s determination to ignore evidence. Occasionally, the evidence is so incontrovertible, and the means for forcing it on the government so forceful, that the government has no choice but to adjust course and, in a few instances, to actually retreat.

So it will be with the supervised injection site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside after the Supreme Court’s unanimous support of the program’s continuation and its utter rebuff of the Harper government’s opposition to it.

The minister at the time of the government’s appeal against supervised injections at the Insite clinic was Tony Clement, now under justified assault for boondoggle spending in his constituency surrounding last year’s G8 summit in Huntsville.

Mr. Clement, as the then-minister of health, tried to justify the unjustifiable in the face of overwhelming medical and scientific evidence about the nature of drug addiction and how to cope with it. He did the same routine in mid-2010, trying to defend the Prime Minister’s decision to scrap Statistics Canada’s long-form census in the face of overwhelming opposition from every knowledgeable Canadian in the field of statistics.

Insite: the Harper government’s sweeping, narrow defeat

This morning’s unanimous Supreme Court decision on Vancouver’s Insite safe injection site is categorical, urgent and beyond appeal: the Court ordered Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq to issue an exemption “forthwith” permitting the clinic to keep operating. It took the minister barely two hours to announce she’ll comply. The defeat, for a government that has fought Insite at every turn, is clear.

It’s also pretty narrow. While dealing Stephen Harper a personal and unequivocal defeat on a file his government clearly took seriously, it reaffirms federal powers in ways that will probably come in handy down the road; it seeks to contain this decision to the single, existing facility; and (probably inadvertently, but all the same) it offers a strong political argument in favour of the Conservatives among voters who share Harper’s aversion to Insite.

The Insite case contained (at least) two different disputes: one over the federal division of powers between Ottawa and the provinces, and one over the Charter of Rights. The Charter dispute is sexier: When he sought to close Insite in 2008, was the minister of health (Tony Clement, Aglukkaq’s predecessor) endangering the “life, liberty and security of the person” guaranteed to drug injectors at Insite (and to the rest of us) under Section 7 of the Charter of Rights?

Ruling reminds Tories no one above the law

MONTREAL

The Insite ruling is the most brutal collision to date between the Supreme Court of Canada and Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.

Despite the imminent appointment of two more Harper nominees to the top court’s bench, it will likely not be the last.

On Friday, the Court ordered the federal government to grant a special exemption to allow Vancouver’s supervised drug injection clinic to operate without fear of prosecution for possessing and trafficking in hard drugs.

The ruling is the latest volley in an ongoing battle of wills between the top court and the ruling Conservatives.

That conflict pits Conservative ideology against the primacy of the rule of law and it has been escalating.

Tensions between Canada’s judicial establishment and Harper’s Conservative party have been simmering for years, predating its election to office.

‘Disappointed’ Tories to review top court’s drug-injection ruling

The federal Conservative government has yet to wave the white flag in its fight against Vancouver’s Insite drug injection site – despite a Supreme Court ruling that says its attempts to close the clinic were “grossly disproportionate” to the benefits for drug users and the community.

The Health Minister told the House of Commons on Friday that her government would be taking a look at the decision. “Although we are disappointed with the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision today, we will comply,” Leona Aglukkaq said during Question Period.

The government, she said, believes that the system should be focussed on preventing people from becoming drug addicts and has made significant investments to strengthen existing treatment efforts through its treatment action plan.

“We will be reviewing the court decision,” the minister said.

Liberal MP Joyce Murray, who represents the riding of Vancouver Quadra, demanded to know what Ms. Aglukkaq meant when she said the decision would be reviewed. “Will the government respect the Supreme Court’s decision and stop attacking Insite?” she asked.

Supreme Court OKs Insite Safe Injection Site In Unanimous Ruling

OTTAWA - The federal government will comply with a Supreme Court ruling supporting a safe-injection site for drug addicts, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said today.

"Although we are disappointed with the Supreme Court of Canada's decision today, we will comply," she told the House of Commons.

"We believe that the system should be focused on preventing people from becoming drug addicts. A key pillar of the national, anti-drug strategy is prevention and treatment for those with drug dependency."

The 9-0 decision was a rebuke of the Harper government's tough-on-crime agenda and a precedent-setting ruling on the division of federal and provincial powers.

The court ordered the Harper government to abandon its effort to close the Insite facility in Vancouver.

The justices also told the government to grant an exemption to protect Insite staff from prosecution for drug possession or trafficking charges.

Aglukkaq also said she wants to review the decision.