Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jul 2016
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Jennifer Pagliaro
Page: GT1

ONE STEP CLOSER TO SUPERVISED INJECTION SITES

Board of health unanimously approves three locations

The loudest voices advocating for supervised injection sites in
Toronto in a committee room at city hall on Monday were those who
could not be there in person.

Brooklyn McNeil, 22. Brad Chapman, 43. A loved one who collapsed in a
Tim Horton's bathroom and never made it out alive.

The stories of Toronto residents who died of overdoses on Toronto
streets were heard for hours by board of health members, told by their
friends, family and support workers at an emotional meeting that saw
an overwhelming push for what advocates say would be a lifesaving measure.

The board unanimously agreed, signalling a new approach to harm
reduction as a public health problem - one that has yet to be
implemented in Ontario.

Members backed a recommendation from outgoing chief medical officer of
health, Dr. David McKeown, to move forward with three sites proposed
within existing community health centres on Queen St. W., near Yonge
and Dundas Sts. and in Leslieville. Final approval will be sought at
council next week.

"Brooklyn McNeil was not an exception. People are dying every week,"
said John MacDonald, a harm reduction worker at Eva's Satellite
homeless shelter where McNeil - a Thunder Bay native who struggled
herself with addiction and mental health from a young age - had become
an advanced peer worker.

She died of an overdose on June 22. She would have been 23 on
Tuesday.

"She'd still be alive if there was a safe injection site. She didn't
even really have a chance to live anywhere near a full life,"
MacDonald said. "Every week we're getting emails about someone
overdosing and dying. It's going to get worse unless we have safe
injections sites. They may not save everybody, but even one life -
it's worth opening them."

McNeil had planned to speak Monday in support of supervised injection.
Instead, video of her previous speech in March asking for quick
implementation of such sites was replayed for members.

"I think Toronto and for that matter Canada has reached a tipping
point when it comes to supervised injection services," said Councillor
Joe Cressy, who chairs the Toronto Drug Strategy Implementation Panel
and has pushed for supervised injection since arriving at city hall.
"That tipping point is being demonstrated certainly here today at the
board of health where residents and business owners and renters and
homeowners are coming together to say we need this service."

"Frankly, it's too late for too many, but it is coming."

If council approves the implementation of sites, the health providers
at Queen West Central Community Health Centre at Queen St. W. and
Bathurst St., at the South Riverdale Community Health Centre at Queen
St. E. and Carlaw Ave., and at the Works city-run facility near Yonge
and Dundas Sts. will apply for federal exemption under drug laws to
run those services with the city's backing.

McKeown earlier said the soonest the sites could apply for federal
approval would be early this fall.

The sites will also be seeking provincial funding to staff the
services.

Business owners, residents and those with experience with drug use
came to the board of health Monday to advocate for supervised
injection services.

"We will always be a neighbourhood that welcomes people, not turns
them away," said Andrew Sherbin, chair of the Leslieville Business
Improvement Association.

Shamez Amlani, from the Queen St. West Business Improvement Area,
agreed. In a city "that does so many things wrong," he said, "here we
have a chance to do something very, very right."

The board also heard from the sister and mother of Brad Chapman, a
father of three and grandfather to a 6-year-old. Chapman died of an
overdose on a downtown street near one of the proposed injection sites.

"Had (supervised injection services) existed last year, my brother
Brad would still be alive today," Leigh Chapman said. "I've heard
people say that the war on drugs is a war against drug users. Brad was
most certainly in the trenches and unfortunately did not survive. But
others can and will survive if you used the strong evidence base for
SIS to inform your decision to save vulnerable people like Brad from
an unnecessary and untimely death."

And there was Cindy Reardon, who herself has struggled with addiction,
for the first time telling the story of how she lost her girlfriend
when she was just 26.

"She fell in the bathroom of a Tim Horton's and she died in my arms,"
Reardon said. "I think that had we had a safer place to go - a safer
place to use, education, contact - that my girlfriend would not have
died so needlessly."

Councillor Gord Perks, who championed safe injection and other harm
reduction strategies as the former chair for the Toronto Drug
Strategy, came to thank those who shared those stories.

"You are the best of us," he told them. "I, for one, am sorry we
haven't done more and done it sooner."

Public consultation found overwhelming support for the sites among
those surveyed, including in neighbourhoods where the sites would be
located.

Mayor John Tory is poised to back their implementation at council when
it meets starting July 12, an added boost to the board's endorsement.
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MAP posted-by: Matt