Pubdate: Thu, 14 Apr 2016
Source: Ottawa Sun (CN ON)
Page: 10
Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.ottawasun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.ottawasun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/329
Author: Andrew Duffy

STICKING IT TO WATSON

Ex-Vncouver Mayor Pans Ottawa Boss Over Safe-injection Sites

The politician who championed supervised
injection sites in Vancouver says Ottawa Mayor
Jim Watson should try to understand drug addicts
before rejecting a plan that would keep more of them alive.

"I just get annoyed at politicians who don't go
out into the field and talk to the participants
and find out what's really going on," former
Vancouver mayor Philip Owen told Postmedia. "You
can't always rely on reports from your staff."

Sean LeBlanc, chair of the Drug Users Advocacy
League of Ottawa, said he has invited the mayor
to his events for years. "He has attended none of them," said LeBlanc.

Watson is a longstanding opponent of the Sandy
Hill Community Health Centre's plan to open a
supervised injection site downtown. He has said
tax money is better spent on drug treatment programs.

Owen said Watson's position perpetuates the
notion that drug use is a crime rather than a
health issue. "You're not encouraging people to
use drugs by opening a supervised injection
site," he argued. "You're assisting people who need help."

Owen battled for years to bring Insite to
Vancouver as part of a comprehensive approach to
that city's drug problem. Owen, a wealthy
businessman and political moderate, was an
unlikely ally in the campaign for a safe
injection site. His eyes were opened, he said,
after he began to meet addicts like Dean Wilson,
then-president of the Vancouver Area Network of
Drug Users (VANDU). The mayor made frequent
visits to the Downtown Eastside to talk to drug
users, asking about their families, their living conditions, their drug
 habits.

He discovered drug users were people in crisis:
"They were human beings that had terrible lives
who got hooked on drugs, and now and then, had a desire to go clean."

Based on evidence from Europe, where government
sanctioned injection sites had been in place for
more than a decade, Owen came to believe they
were an important part of a more enlightened
approach to the city's drug scourge.

At the time, in the 1990s, Vancouver was facing a
rising tide of overdose deaths. A public health
emergency was declared in September 1997 as rates
of HIV and hepatitis C reached epidemic proportions in the Downtown
 Eastside.

Ultimately, Owen staked his political career on the issue.

"It was just the right thing to do," said the
83-year-old Owen. "We had to show political
leadership =85 These are citizens who have a right
to public health. And if they have a desire for
help, we should grab them by the hand and get
them to a supervised injection site to make
contact with counsellors, and start them on the right road."

Owen said he regards Insite as one of his most
important accomplishments. "It has worked - and
there's proof that it has worked," he said.

In 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada concluded as
much in deciding that the former Conservative
government's attempt to shutter Insite was unconstitutional.
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