Pubdate: Wed, 25 Mar 2015
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2015 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Andrea Woo
Page: S1

BILL C-2 COULD PUT SUPERVISED CONSUMPTION SITES IN PERIL, ADVOCATES SAY

The House of Commons has passed a bill that critics say will impede
the operations of supervised consumption sites such as Vancouver's
Insite and will endanger severely addicted Canadians.

Bill C-2, the Respect for Communities Act, consists of a host of new
regulations that will make it much more difficult for a community
service provider to open one of the harm-reduction sites. The new
legislation will also complicate the process by which existing sites
have to apply annually for an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act to operate.

The bill passed its third reading in the House on Monday, by a vote of
143-108, and had its first reading in the Senate on Tuesday.

Adrienne Smith, a health and drug policy lawyer with Vancouver's Pivot
Legal Society, said the bill's guiding principle is that the
exemptions that allow supervised consumption sites to operate will be
granted only in exceptional circumstances.

This is in contrast to a 2011 Supreme Court of Canada ruling in which
the court found that supervised injection sites have been proven to
save lives and that the health minister's failure to provide an
exemption was in violation of drug users' constitutional rights to
life and security of the person.

"The Supreme Court of Canada said the minister has discretion, but
that discretion must be operated in accordance with the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms," Ms. Smith said. The court, at that time, ordered
the Harper government to stop interfering.

Under Bill C-2, facilities that wish to run a supervised consumption
site must meet a lengthy list of requirements, including: a letter
from the head of the local police force; statistics and other
information on crime, public nuisance and inappropriately discarded
drug paraphernalia in the vicinity of the site; and a report on
consultations with "a broad range of community groups."

Background checks will also be required for those in charge at the
facility, along with key staff members.

The Canadian Nurses Association says it is "disappointed" that the
bill was passed in the House and "concerned" by the Conservative
government's "tough-on-crime position."

"A government truly committed to public health and safety would
enhance access to prevention and treatment services instead of
building more barriers," the association, which represents 135,000
registered nurses, said in a statement.

A statement to parliamentarians opposing the bill includes the names
of about 120 signatories, including the Canadian AIDS Society,
Vancouver Coastal Health and Toronto Public Health.

Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose has been clear in her opposition
to harm reduction measures, saying she instead favours "harm
elimination." Eve Adams, parliamentary secretary to the Minister of
Health, has defended the legislation by emphasizing the importance of
thorough consultation with communities and other stakeholders before
such a site can open.

But Ms. Smith says the additional requirements are so onerous that
even a compassionate health minister could be unable to grant an exemption.

"What this bill does is prevent a minister from being able to exercise
their discretion in accordance with the Charter," she said. "It
forecloses potential in lots of places and it makes existing centres
face really unreasonable barriers to their continued operation."

Anna Marie D'Angelo, a spokeswoman for Vancouver Coastal Health, which
funds and operates Insite, noted that there have been more than 1.8
million injections done under the supervision of nurses at the facility.

"There have been no overdose deaths at Insite despite more than 1,500
overdose interventions, some of which have included full respiratory
arrest," she said.

A study published in The Lancet in 2011 found that fatal overdose
deaths within 500 metres of Insite decreased by 35 per cent in the
first few years of the facility's opening. In comparison, overdose
deaths decreased by only 9 per cent in the rest of Vancouver.
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