Any hopes of reopening supervised drug intake in Sudbury likely took another blow when Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he would close some recently opened in Canada.
Poilievre also said last week that if conservatives were to shape the next federal government, they would provide “a single taxpayer dollar” to those sites, calling them “drug dens. “
He made the comments at a stopover at a park near the new Benoit Labre House in southwest Montreal. Poilievre said he would close all places near schools, playgrounds and “any other place where they put the public at risk. “
“Radical bureaucrats don’t have to open those drug dens wherever they want,” he said.
Maison Benoît Labre, a resource that offers variety to the homeless and includes the first supervised drug inhalation site in Montreal, is located next to an elementary school and a related playground, near the Atwater Market. Its location has been criticized online. due to possible interactions between addicts and children.
The first supervised injection in Canada opened in Vancouver more than 20 years ago.
ÀSudbury, a center known as Spot, operated for more than a year thanks to a $1 million investment from the City of Greater Sudbury.
The Spot, controlled through the ACCESS Network, has been waiting for provincial investments for more than two years. However, the province has frozen all of these programs pending a review of the safety of supervised medication intake sites.
The city’s investment for The Spot ran out at the end of 2023 and city councilors refused to provide more money to continue the project. Donations made it possible to carry out the operation in January and February, but the ACCESS Network decided to end the operation.
The sites are intended to prevent overdoses by allowing others to carry their medications under the supervision of trained staff. They also provide access to white goods to reduce rates of HIV and other diseases, and provide referrals for others seeking treatment options.
Health Canada says more than 40,000 people have died from poisonous drugs since 2016, when the company began tracking those numbers. In 2023, British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario led the country in the number of deaths. Most of the dead were men.
Sudbury has one of the highest rates of overdose deaths in Ontario.
A final Supreme Court ruling in 2011 on the Vancouver facility would deprive users of their rights under the Charter.
Poilievre said this landmark ruling means that supervised drug sites can operate anywhere without restriction.
Rather, he believes that “reasonable restrictions” can be imposed to prevent them from opening “in positions that endanger the network or where there is opposition from the network. ”
In an exchange with a reporter, Poilievre referred to the sites as “drug businesses” that worry residents.
“Flamboyant politicians, liberals, new democrats, and their supporters in the media should give the impression that there is a constitutional legal responsibility that we allow those drug dens anywhere they need to be. That’s true,” he said.
The federal government licenses the sites by granting an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Poilievre warned that the same law gives the government the force to shut down sites it had already authorized.
“That’s what I’m going to do,” he said.
He did not provide further details when asked about the main points on how it would proceed.
His comments are due to his strong position in opinion polls, which recommend that if a federal election were called now, Poilievre and the Conservatives would easily shape the next government.
The previous Conservative government passed the Respect for Communities Act following the Supreme Court’s ruling, which requires supervised admission sites to meet a set of 26 criteria before opening.
This included monitoring crime rates and offering medical testing, as well as providing letters from provincial health ministers, local police and other stakeholders.
The law was criticized by opposition parties and fitness teams, who claimed it blocked the opening of sites, paralyzed the application procedure and created unnecessary obstacles.
After being elected in 2015, the Liberals passed their own law allowing services to open more easily, raising the need to better respond to the overdose crisis.
Health Canada reported Friday that there are 38 monitored intake sites across the country and 8 applications pending.
Under existing criteria, an organization wishing to open a site will have to provide data such as the population it hopes to serve, the number of overdoses in the area, and the protective measures it would take.
The application must also accompany a summary of community consultation efforts, although it is not mandatory to accompany a letter of opinion from a provincial Minister of Health.
The Maison Benoît Labre in Montreal, where Poilievre spoke Friday, is among those awaiting federal approval. It obtained the approval of transitory nature from the province. This is a housing allowance that adds apartments for other people who are homeless and living with substance abuse or intellectual fitness issues.
Jane Philpott, a former liberal health minister who pushed for the government’s amendments to the law, rejects Poilievre’s characterization.
“These are not ‘drug dens’, they are fitness centres,” Philpott, now dean of fitness sciences at Queen’s University, told X.
A spokesman for Immigration Minister Marc Miller, who represents the district where the Montreal site is located, said in a statement that the minister was aware there were considerations about opening the site. But the minister’s office accused Poilievre of seeking to instill concern and failing to address parental considerations.
They said those sites save lives, but “it’s vital that they are managed in the right way. “
Gord Johns, the NDP’s critic in Parliament on the issue, said closing them would only inspire other people to take drugs elsewhere.
“This is an absolute crisis in the bathrooms of small businesses, in our parks, in our schoolyards, in the alleys, in the backyards of other people in the community. “
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Ya’ara Saks’ workplace said in a statement that applying more restrictions at federally approved sites may simply cause more harm, noting that staff at intake sites supervised has reversed approximately 55,000 overdoses since 2017.
The federal government also provides core investments to the sites, he adds. Instead, send cash to express organizations that offer other damage repair services.
Speaking at a press convention in British Columbia, NDP Premier David Eby said he hoped to show that removing such sites “would be a real mistake. “
“Both in terms of the quality of life of the community at large, but also in terms of our efforts to keep other people alive. “
Since taking over as leader in 2022, Poilievre has attacked the Liberals for pushing what he sees as useless anti-drug policies that don’t offer treatment functions for people. He has also championed an anti-crime agenda.
The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police told the Canadian Press last month that evidence showed supervised intake sites reduced fatal overdoses, connected users to help centers and led to “reductions in injections. ” in public “.
“However, (the association) also recognizes that there is a threat of degradation of neighborhoods in the spaces they contain or near places of monitored consumption,” it reads.
“This, in turn, can lead to situations of social exigency that can have an effect on policing in the region,” the organization stated, adding that it believes local adequacy and police governance are worth worrying about in the approval process. .
sud. editorial@sunmedia. ca
X: @SudburyStar
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