Facing a legal challenge over its decision to close several supervised consumption sites, the Ontario government has hired outside researchers to gather information about the sites.
Ema Popovic, a spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said the province has hired a “third party” to gather evidence about the sites’ impact, as it prepares for litigation “aimed at keeping drug injection sites open.” next to where children learn. and play.”
Last year, the Ontario government fast-tracked legislation banning these sites from being within 200 meters of schools and daycares and effectively preventing more from opening. The new law will force five supervised consumption sites in Toronto to close by the end of March.
In December, The Neighborhood Group, a Toronto social services agency, launched a legal challenge to the legislation. It maintains that the legislation violates both the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Constitution, including the right to life, liberty and security of the person.
Bill Sinclair, executive director of The Neighborhood Group, said investigators approached staff at the agency’s child care center last week.
Sinclair said two people came to the daycare and asked about the impact of the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site the agency operates. The site is one of five in Toronto that will close in March because it is located near the agency’s child care centre.
“I don’t know if they didn’t know we’re the same organization or if they were just following their mandate, which is to ask everyone,” he said.
The individuals left business cards saying they worked for an investigative services firm and were hired by an attorney, Sinclair said.
Community anxious as word spreads: Reverend
Sinclair said she heard from other community members who were also approached by researchers and asked questions about how they feel about supervised consumption sites.
“It was a little shocking and disturbing that this happened,” he said.
In a news release, the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society says it has also heard concerns from frontline workers, residents and local businesses in the city about private investigators entering buildings where supervised consumption sites are located and They question staff members.
Ontario’s shift in approach to the drug overdose crisis has ignited a fierce debate between those who see supervised consumption sites as critical spaces that save lives every day and others who say they have made the neighborhoods where they are located unsafe. .
The Rev. Canon Maggie Helwig of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields Church, located near the Kensington Market overdose prevention site, said none of the investigators personally approached her or saw them speaking to people near her. his church. .
But word has spread about private investigators in the area, which is making community members quite anxious, he said.
“Obviously, for people who use this site, this just increases their anxiety, their sense of stigma, their sense that they’re being blamed for whatever problems there may be in the neighborhood,” he said.
The Ontario government has already commissioned two reviews of the sites following the 2023 murder of a Toronto woman, who was hit by a stray bullet in a shooting near one of the sites in Leslieville. None of the consumer sites found in the reviews should close
Sinclair said the bylaw challenge is scheduled to be heard in court in March of this year, before the sites are supposed to close.
