We Are Not Alone

REAL Women of Canada

"Women Building a Better Society"

NGO in SPECIAL consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations

M E D I A R E L E A S E

Ottawa, Ontario January 18, 2010

Rule by Judicial Fiat

Vancouver Drug Injection Site

The liberal-minded B.C. Court of Appeal, in order to maintain the operation of the Vancouver Drug Injection site, has had to forsake common sense by describing the site as a “hospital” which provides a “health care program”. Supervising the injection of a harmful illicit drug by an addict is by no reasonable standard, “health care”. It is a recipe for disaster since its effect is to deepen the addict’s addiction, which leads to his/her inevitable, painful death.

According to the report of the Expert Advisory Committee released in April 2008, only 5% of drug addicts in the Vancouver area actually use the site, with 95% of drug injections in the area taking place outside the site. Only 3% of addicts using this site are actually referred for treatment. Treatment is the only way in which the addict can be genuinely helped.

In addition, the addict has to obtain the drugs injected on site from illegal sources, costing approximately $350,000 annually – money invariably obtained from criminal activity. Do these politically correct judges grasp these implications?

This decision by the B.C. Court has arbitrarily relaxed Canada’s drug laws by intruding on federal criminal law jurisdiction – the purpose of which is to protect society and individual addicts, not destroy them.

Canadians deserve better than the opinion of these liberal judges who choose to rule by judicial fiat, rather than by common sense and respect for Parliament.

Please contact:

Diane Watts

Researcher

(613) 236-4001

Vancouver B.C. January 18, 2009

BC Court of Appeal’s Decision on

Vancouver’s Drug Injection Site

Canada’s drug policy of prevention, treatment and enforcement is the only proven way for illicit drug use to be controlled.

However, two judges on the B.C. Court of Appeal have chosen to change this effective policy which was validly enacted by Parliament, by concluding that drug addicts supposedly “benefit” from the injection of illicit harmful drugs providing only that the injection is “supervised”. In no way can this be construed as “treatment” or “medical care” as the judges euphemistically call it, but rather this policy is a death warrant for the addict.

Under this policy upheld by the court, the addict has nowhere to go but downwards in that he/she will only require larger and ever more frequent injections of the illicit drug. It also leaves the addicts without treatment, the only genuine way to help them, because according to the report of the Expert Advisory Committee, April 2008, only 3% of addicts using the site are actually referred for treatment.

Moreover, this trendy court, by its decision, has eviscerated the federal government’s attempt to control illicit drugs in Canada. It allows the obtaining and use of illicit drugs with money inevitably obtained by the addicts’ criminal activity, and permits them to use illicit drugs with police protection. This is unacceptable.

The Drug Prevention Network of Canada strongly urges the federal government to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.