OWEN'S FIGHT WORTHY OF ORDER

In all the kerfuffle over Dr. Henry Morgentaler being named a member
of the Order of Canada, it may have slipped your notice that there
were several other people on that list, too, including former
Vancouver mayor Philip Owen.

You could consider it was just an unlucky time for Owen to be given
the honour as it was buried by the storm around Morgentaler. But it
was more a case of good luck for Owen to find himself in Morgentaler's
company. Morgentaler would have been just another doctor and Owen
would have been just another mayor if they each hadn't taken up the
social causes that helped to make our country a better place.

I wouldn't put Owen on the same level as Morgentaler in terms of the
impact of his crusade. But if he didn't get passionate in his final
term as mayor and champion the city's drug strategy and the supervised
injection site, he would have been little more than a smudge on a page
of this country's history.

The debate over drug use and addiction may not have the same sizzle as
a battle over a woman's right to choose and access to safe and
affordable abortions. But what Owen championed took the wind out of
those dinosaurs promoting the destructive war on drugs.

In his lament about the award going to Morgentaler, Prime Minister
Stephen Harper said, "My preference, to be frank, would be to see the
Order of Canada be something that really unifies, that brings
Canadians together."

How dull. Good thing he's not running the selection
committee.

Consider how much better off we are because of people who choose to
challenge conventional wisdom and practice, particularly when that
practice damages people's lives. And what better people to honour.

In a review of Morgentaler's history in the weekend Globe and Mail, I
was interested to read how a presiding judge over one of Morgentaler's
many court cases recalled, "I practically told the jury to find him
guilty." Well, the jury acquitted him, as juries had twice before.

The judge concluded that "sometime laws precede public opinion;
sometimes they follow." And again, while it lacks the gravitas of the
abortion debate, and no one is likely to toss their Order of Canada
pin back on the pile as a result, Owen and Vancouver's drug policy
have crystallized a philosophical shift in the country.

Most recently that happened with the help of the courts. A few months
ago federal Health Minister Tony Clement was scrambling to gather any
bit of evidence to prove that, in spite of the mountain of peer
reviewed articles to the contrary, the supervised site was a failure.
Then he got bushwhacked.

Just before the federal permission to allow the site to operate
expired, the site's managers, the Portland Hotel Society, hauled the
federal government in front of the B.C. Supreme Court. It argued that
the federal drug laws interfered with the constitutional rights of
people seeking medical help.

The judge agreed. He ruled that Insite could continue to operate
indefinitely and without federal permission. He also gave Ottawa a
year to rewrite the particular section of the drug laws he found to be
in contravention of the constitution. Failing that he would rule the
whole law invalid.

The federal government has appealed the decision to the B.C. Court of
Appeal, and you can bet, if they lose there, it will go to the Supreme
Court of Canada.

None of this would put Harper in a mood to suggest that Owen's little
venture into harm reduction was something that "brings Canada
together." Nor, I suspect, would Harper get much pleasure from
imagining, sometime hence, the scene at Rideau Hall when Owen and
Morgentaler come together with a number of others to receive the
highest civilian honour this country offers.