INSITE SUPPORTERS BRING BATTLE TO PARLIAMENT HILL

Protesters Angered by Federal Government's Plan to Appeal B.C. Court
Decision Keeping Vancouver Safe-Injection Site Open

OTTAWA -- Supporters of British Columbia's safe-injection site
erected 868 wooden crosses on Parliament Hill yesterday to protest
against the federal government's court bid that would see the site
shut down. Each cross represented an overdose that organizers said
had occurred in the Insite facility since it opened in 2003.

"Those are people that could have died had it not been for a nurse
intervening right away," said Nathan Allen, the co-ordinator of a
group called Insite for Community Safety. He said his group
represented Vancouver's Portland Hotel Society, which helps run
Insite, as well as church groups, labour unions, community groups,
parent groups and individual citizens.

About 100 people turned out to protest against the Conservative
government's appeal of a B.C. court decision to keep Insite open.
Most of the demonstrators were from Ottawa but a few, such as Mr.
Allen, were from British Columbia.

Protesters sang songs about Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and
politicians lauded work done at the site, where addicts can inject
their drugs under the eyes of medical staff.

Posters of children, who Mr. Allen said are now adults who use
Insite's services, were displayed on the steps in front of the Centre Block.

"The fact that Insite is continuing to be open now I think is the
result of community pressure like this," he said, "and we want to
send [Prime Minister] Stephen Harper a message that there are
supporters in Ottawa, there are supporters in every part of Canada
where addictions have affected families, have affected communities."

Indeed, a visible public-relations campaign in support of Insite has
been waged in Ottawa in recent weeks. Opponents have fought back to
defend the government's position, but their numbers have not been as strong.

Mr. Justice Ian Pitfield of the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled
that Insite's injection-drug users have the right to protection from
drug laws under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He gave the
federal government until June 30, 2009, to redraft laws against
possession and trafficking of illegal drugs to accommodate Insite's operation.

Montreal Liberal MP Bernard Patry asked federal Health Minister Tony
Clement yesterday whether his government's stubbornness would prevent
a similar centre being pondered in Montreal from seeing the light of day.

Mr. Clement responded that the government continues to disagree with
Judge Pitfield's decision.

"Yesterday, our government filed notice that we plan to appeal this
decision," he told the House of Commons. "This much is clear: People
who are addicted to drugs need our help and compassion. They need
treatment, not warehousing. Injection is not medicine. It does not
heal the addict; quite the opposite.

"This is the compassionate framework within which we will consider
any future application."