FEDS APPEAL INSITE COURT RULING

Safe Injection Supporters Continue Lobbying Efforts

The federal government has made good on its promise to file an appeal
over a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that allows the city's supervised
injection site to remain open indefinitely.

Two notices of appeal filed in the B.C. Court of Appeal registry
don't lay out the grounds for the government's court action but the
message is clear: the federal government isn't happy with the court
ruling. Insite, on East Hastings in the Downtown Eastside, is a
scientific research project approved under the former Liberal
government. It was supposed to close Monday.

Insite opened in September 2003 as a three-year experiment. The
Conservative government extended the operating licence twice. The
current operating agreement was to expire June 30, but a successful
court challenge by PHS Community Services Society and the Vancouver
Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) will keep the facility's doors open.

The Attorney General of Canada filed the notices of appeal in court
June 3 against VANDU and the PHS, which operates Insite in
conjunction with Vancouver Coastal Health. The grounds for appeal
won't be known until a document called a factum is prepared by the government.

Meanwhile, federal Health Minister Tony Clement continues to
criticize the B.C. Supreme Court ruling that granted drug users a
permanent constitutional exemption from prosecution under the
country's drug laws.

In a May 29 speech to Parliament's health committee, Clement
emphasized the need for treatment over injection sites. If the $3
million per year used to operate Insite were spent on treatment beds,
he said, 1,200 female sex workers could be helped. "There is a
notorious lack of treatment beds in the Downtown Eastside and while I
would quickly assert that people at Insite have the best of
intentions, I think the site itself represents a failure of public
policy, indeed, of ethical judgment," Clement said.

Supporters of Insite point to the various peer-reviewed studies that
show the facility is reducing the spread of disease, directing users
to treatment and preventing overdoses.

Mayor Sam Sullivan and Premier Gordon Campbell are on record as
supporting an extension of Insite's operating agreement with the
federal government.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Pitfield has given the government
until June 30, 2009 to amend the country's drug laws to allow for
medical use of drugs if tied to a health care initiative.

Monique Pongracic-Speier, a lawyer who represented the PHS and two
drug addicts in the case against the government, said sections of the
drug laws involving possession and trafficking need to be re-written
before Pitfield's June 2009 deadline.

Pongracic-Speier said the federal government's appeal doesn't
supersede Pitfield's ruling. His ruling stands in force unless and
until it is overturned by a higher court, she added.

"So it's not a question of the site going out of business, so to
speak, by June 30, 2009, but rather the law has to accommodate the
existence of this site," she said.

Nathan Allen, the coordinator for Insite for Community Safety and
assistant bank manager at the PHS-operated Pigeon Park Savings, said
advocates for Insite will continue to lobby the federal government,
despite Pitfield's ruling.

"We're confident that the appeal won't be successful but it causes
further uncertainty around the site, so we're going to pressure the
federal government to do the right thing and keep Insite open," he
said, noting there are public forums on harm reduction planned next
month in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.