The new Ontario Law on supervised consumption sites does not prohibit them completely and those considered too close to schools and day houses are free to relocate further, government lawyers argued in court on Tuesday.
That is contrary to numerous public comments of the Minister of Health Sylvia Jones, who has said that consumer sites will not be opened after the closures of 10 sites located 200 meters from a school or nursery.
The neighborhood group, which directs the Kensington market overdose prevention site in the center of Toronto, launched a demand in December along with two people who use the space. They argue that the new law violates both the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Constitution, including the right to life, freedom and security of the person.
Supervised closing consumption sites violates that right to force people who use them to resort to the consumption of drugs unhealthy and insecure, which entails a greater risk of overdose death and increases the risk of criminal prosecution, argues the challenge.
He also argues that the legislation goes against the division of powers between Ottawa and the provinces, since only the federal government can make criminal law and try to suppress what he considers a “socially undesirable practice.”
Justice asks lawyers to address contradiction
The province is moving to a abstinence -based treatment model. Ten consumption sites will stop operating before April 1, when the new rules come in effect for prohibiting them within 200 meters of schools and nurseries under the community’s care and recovery law.
“The purpose of the law is not to close the supervised consumption sites or prohibit them, it is only to regulate their location,” Zachary Green, a lawyer of the province, said on Tuesday.
On August 20, 2024, the Minister of Health announced the fundamental change of the province of its focus on the mortal opioid crisis.
“There will be no more safe injection sites in the province of Ontario under our government,” Jones said at that time.
The Minister of Health, Sylvia Jones, says that Ontario will prohibit supervised consumption sites within 200 meters of schools and child care centers. He also announced $ 378 million for new homeless treatment centers and addiction recovery (Hart).
The legislation says that municipalities and local meetings cannot request a safe consumer site without the approval of the provincial Minister of Health.
The judge of the Superior Court of Ontario, John Callaghan, asked the lawyers of the province to address the contradiction between the legislation and comments of the Minister of Health.
The government lawyer, Andrea Bolieiro, said that the Supreme Court of Canada has argued that speeches and statements by political figures “should not receive as evidence.”
The judge seemed skeptical.
“I always thought that when the minister speaks, he is advising the Parliament of the Government’s opinion of why promulgation is entering into force,” said Callaghan.
Green said that safe consumption sites may need to think about different ways of offering services.
“We say that if that is an inconvenience for them, they have more adaptable ways to offer these services,” said the lawyer, pointing out a mobile consumption site in Sudbury, ontarium, which operates from a trailer.
The province says new law on public safety
The province argues that the new legislation is necessary to protect the public, particularly children, from the disorder that explodes near the consumer sites.
“Is there sufficient evidence in this case that can support the legislature that concludes that there is a reasonable apprehension of damage that supervised the consumer sites located within 200 meters of schools or nurseries?” Green said.
The answer is yes, he argued.
He said that the case of the province includes several people living near some sites and have witnessed drug offers, outdoor drug use, violence and scattered needles. The province also has similar problems, as well as expert testimony, including that of a criminologist who said that supervised consumption sites act as a magnet for drug traffickers.
As the future of supervised Ontario consumer sites goes to the courts, Metro Morning David Common host spoke with a researcher about whether the facilities really lead to an increase in crime.
The province hired private researchers to observe the community impact of 11 supervised consumption sites around the province, including the Kensington market overdose site, before the case.
A affidavit signed by a private investigator that the Government hired and presented by the province’s lawyer says that the investigators observed cases of public poisoning, physical altercations, drug use, drug agreements and paraphernalia of drugs discarded outside the sites.
Applicants seek a court order that would discourage the closures of the site of April 1 until the court may decide the case. Ultimately, they want the law to collapse.
The province said the application should be dismissed.
The comments of the lawyers ‘confuse’, says the director of SCS
The possibility of relocation of the safe consumer site was the news of several site operators in court on Tuesday and said they took Jones in their words, even in their follow -up treatment with the Ministry of Health.
Out of the Court, Angela Robertson, director of the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Center, said the comments of the government’s lawyers were “confused and confused.”
However, Green’s comments gave him hope.
“Now I can go home to my community health center and see if there is a way in which we can plan to relocate outside the 200 meter radius to continue providing consumption support services. She said.
“I think a trailer is a great idea in the light of what we face, because what we were facing is an extinction.”
The abstinence -based approach of the province will invest $ 529 million in a plan that also includes 540 highly solidarity housing units.
Nine consumer sites will become centers for the recovery treatment of homeless people and addiction, or Hart centers as the province calls them, to go with 18 new centers in Ontario.
