Advocates have been making their case in court this week against impending closure as a result of a law passed by the Ford government late last year.
Advocates have been making their case in court this week against impending closure as a result of a law passed by the Ford government late last year.
The judge hearing arguments over whether or not supervised drug consumption sites in Ontario must close has granted an injunction allowing locations to remain open for 30 days after he reaches his decision.
Advocates have been making their case in court this week against impending closure as a result of a law passed by the Ford government late last year.
The Neighbourhood Group, which runs a supervised consumption site in downtown Toronto, launched the lawsuit in December.
It has argued that a law Ontario passed at the end of last year to close supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of schools and daycares violates the rights to life, liberty and security of a person.
The group is looking to have the law struck down on those grounds, saying closure will force people to take untested drugs in unsafe locations and will lead to more overdoses and deaths.
The government’s lawyers have argued the sites are free to relocate under the technical terms of the law, something the Minster of Health has said she will not allow them to do.
The province also said closing the sites near children is necessary to protect them from disorder or violence.
As well as asking the court to strike down the law, the advocates were seeking to delay closure being forced upon them under the law, which stipulated the 10 sites near daycares must close on or before March 31.
On Friday, Superior Court Justice John Callaghan granted that injunction.
He said the sites slated for closure could remain open beyond that date. He said they will be allowed to operate until he comes to a decision.
Even if that decision is that they must close, they will be granted another 30 days from his ruling.
“The injunction will only last until a decision is rendered, with an additional 30 days to allow the Applicants to seek a further injunction at the appellate level if necessary,” he wrote in his decision.
The ruling does not necessarily mean the advocates will win the ultimate judgment but offers a short-term reprieve.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said it would continue with its plans to transition nine of the 10 locations slated for closure into intensive addiction hubs.
Those hubs, which the government has said are a more effective approach than allowing supervised drug consumption, do not allow people to inject drugs.
As a result, the government suggested the sites that had agreed to transition would close anyway on April 1 and be replaced with addiction treatment hubs.
“Our priority is to protect children and families from violent crime and dangerous public drug use occurring at drug injection sites located near schools and daycares,” they said in a statement sent to Global News.
“The transition of the nine drug injection sites to Homelessness, Addiction and Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs will proceed as planned on April 1st. Provincial funding for HART Hubs cannot be used for drug injection services and will be contingent on the organization not seeking to continue those services.”
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