RCMP Sought Out 'Critiques' of Safe-Injection Site, Group Says

VANCOUVER -- The RCMP commissioned "critiques" of Vancouver's
controversial supervised injection site in an effort to counteract
positive research findings about the facility, says a Vancouver legal
advocacy group. Internal documents obtained through
access-to-information requests show the RCMP commissioned at least
two critiques from academics at a time when a growing number of
reports from respected scientific journals pointed to benefits,
including a reduction in drug-related deaths, from the site, Pivot
Legal Society spokesman Doug King said yesterday.

Pivot will today release details of Insite-related correspondence and
ask the Auditor-General to investigate whether the RCMP paid for the
research, Mr. King said.

"We have confirmation from people who wrote the articles that they
were paid," he said. "We have documents that show the RCMP requested
the articles. The question is, did the RCMP pay for the articles -
and we'll be asking the Auditor-General to look into that."

Asked late yesterday evening why the reports were commissioned, an
RCMP spokeswoman confirmed the Mounties were involved in research,
but reserved further comment. "I can say that, yes, we were involved
in some type of research into supervised injection sites. But that's
as far as I can go," Constable Annie Linteau said.

The RCMP-commissioned critiques include a widely publicized 2007
study by Colin Mangham, the director of research for the Drug
Prevention Network of Canada. That study questioned other studies'
findings of a reduction in "public disorder" as a result of Insite.

Mr. Mangham, reached yesterday evening, said the RCMP commissioned
his report, but didn't have any control over the findings.

Highly critical of other academic reports on the issue, Mr. Mangham
said the RCMP wanted a second opinion. "I was asked to research and
provide an independent critique," he said, adding that health
officials on the public payroll "certainly couldn't have said what I said."

Pivot's allegations seem certain to heighten what has already been a
lengthy and often bitter fight over Insite, which opened in 2003 as a
pilot project.

The facility's right to exist has been challenged by the federal
Conservative government. Health Minister Tony Clement has said the
clinic's $3-million annual budget would be better spent funding
drug-treatment centres.