Poilievre calls supervised consumption sites 'drug dens,' vows to ...

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre on Friday referred to supervised consumption sites as “drug dens” and vowed to shut down some of these sites if elected prime minister — a proposal British Columbia’s premier called “a real mistake.”

Poilievre also said a Conservative government would pull federal funding for such operations.

“We will close safe injection sites next to schools, playgrounds, anywhere else they endanger the public,” Poilievre told reporters at a news conference.

He held the event at a playground in southwest Montreal — near a transitional housing project that also includes a supervised consumption site — that has been a source of controversy in the community.

“We will defund them. There will not be a single taxpayer dollar from the Poilievre government going to drug dens. Every single penny will go to treatment and recovery service, to bring our loved ones home drug-free,” Poilievre said.

The Conservative leader criticized the riding’s Liberal MP, Marc Miller, of “doing nothing” to address public safety concerns.

Poilievre has recently held several events in Montreal as the party tries to make inroads in the city, particularly in the Liberal stronghold of Mount-Royal held by Anthony Housefather.

The first supervised consumption site opened in Vancouver two decades ago, and according to Health Canada, there are currently 39 across the country. Health authorities across the country also operate temporary overdose prevention sites that don’t have the same support services as supervised consumption sites.

B.C. Premier David Eby defended supervised consumption sites when asked about Poilievre’s comments Friday, telling reporters in Burnaby that closing them would also lead to more open and unsafe drug use.

“These sites are one of the mechanisms of connecting people with the system into treatment,” he said. “It also keeps people alive, and it keeps them from using drugs in the doorways of businesses, and parks and streets.

“I am hopeful that I can make the case to any administration that closing these sites would be a real mistake.”

Poilievre has attacked Eby’s NDP government and the federal Liberals for launching a three-year pilot project in B.C. last year that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of hard drugs. The province partially rolled back the program in the spring to crack down on a rise in public drug use.

Eby and his government were also forced this week to disavow a report by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, a critic of drug prohibition policies, that proposed making “safe-supply” alternatives to opioids and other street drugs available without a prescription. The Conservatives have sought to tie the report to Eby and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, despite Henry’s independence from government.

Addiction researchers have said a multi-pronged approach that includes safe consumption sites, decriminalization, regulated drug supplies and treatment is the best way to solve the overdose crisis and combat the use of deadly opiates like fentanyl. Researchers and advocates have also connected the rise of public drug use with the ever-growing housing and homelessness crises.

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Health Canada says the goal of supervised consumption sites is to prevent overdose deaths and the spread of infections like HIV and hepatitis C, and to provide medical care and mental health support.

A 2011 Supreme Court ruling said shutting down the first operation in Vancouver would violate Charter rights.

But Poilievre said that does mean the sites can operate anywhere without “reasonable restrictions.”

The Conservative leader also pledged to make it harder to open supervised consumption sites, which must receive an exemption from the federal government under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to operate.

“We have the power under section 56.1 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to reject these drug dens and shut them down where they endanger the public and that’s what I’m going to do,” Poilievre said.

Since 2016, there have been more than 44,000 opioid-related deaths in Canada.

Garth Mullins, with the advocacy group Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, says the potential closure of these sites will only lead to more fatal overdoses.

“I’m an expert because I’ve lived it. I shot heroin before there were safe injection sites and sometimes I would do it in public, so that if I overdosed, if I fell down, that maybe someone would call 911,” said Mullins.

In his view, Poilievre should be looking at opening more supervised consumption sites, rather than threatening to scale them back. He also accused Poilievre of having no real plan.

“That’s a nice dream, the dream of a drug-free world, but it’s also very naïve. They don’t have any answers for the toxic drug crisis. They don’t have any solution for the thousands of dead,” said Mullins.

— with files from The Canadian Press