PROTEST MAKES QUICK POINT

'Safe Injection Site Saves Lives'

Hundreds of protesters briefly shut down one of the city's busiest
intersections yesterday in an appeal to Prime Minister Stephen Harper
to allow Canada's only supervised safe-injection site to stay open.

The activists were bussed to Yonge and Bloor Sts. from the AIDS 2006
conference at the Metro Convention Centre for the 1 p.m. rally, which
only lasted a few minutes because organizers didn't want to hijack
their message by overly annoying downtown drivers, they said.

Chanting "Dignity and respect for drug users!" and holding banners
that read "100s Will Die If Safe-Injection Site Closes," they blocked
the intersection for about three minutes.

Exemption to End

Protesters are concerned the Insite injection site in Vancouver will
be shut down after its exemption from federal drug laws ends on Sept.
12.

They called on the federal government to prolong the exemption, which
protects against police raids.

The injection site in Vancouver's drug-infested downtown east-side
allows drug users -- who shoot up heroin, crack cocaine or crystal
meth -- to get high under the watch of medical staff.

Protesters yesterday held up 336 banners, organizers said, alluding to
the number of people who overdosed -- and lived -- at the injection
site in an 18-month period.

"While they have had overdoses, which aren't good, at least there are
nurses on site, which kept (the users) alive," said Christopher
Livingstone, one of the organizers of the rally. "If those 336 people
had overdosed in the alleys, they'd be dead. Nobody gets a chance to
get clean when they're dead."

More Drug Use

Livingstone acknowledged the criticisms that safe-injection sites
serve to encourage drug use.

"We're keeping people alive. Encouraging people to do drugs isn't what
we do," said Livingstone, 34, a former crack user who is now executive
director of the Vancouver-based Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society.

Livingstone said Insite has medical staff to refer drug users to
treatment and detox, while reducing the spread of HIV and hepatitis C
by providing free, clean needles.

"If we didn't have this, the drug use would happen behind closed
doors," said protester Alex Sherstobitoff, 47. "It's better to have it
somewhere where people can actually access health services."

Here in the city, council approved the Toronto Drug Strategy in
December 2005, which recommended a study be done to determine whether
or not Toronto needs a supervised injection site.

The study hasn't yet begun because funding hasn't been secured for it.
Public health officials are in the process of drawing up a funding
proposal.