OTTAWA ON B.C.'S TURF, COURT TOLD

VANCOUVER -- The federal government has thrown its weight around on
provincial turf when it comes to Vancouver's supervised injection
site, a lawyer for the province said yesterday in court.
"Co-operative federalism means from time to time, we get to play in
one another's sand box - and in this case, the federal government
gets to play in ours," Craig Jones, representing the Attorney-General
of British Columbia, told a three-judge panel of the B.C. Court of Appeal.

"But they have to play nice. That's co-operative federalism."

His comments were made on the second day of what's expected to be a
three-day appeal of a 2008 ruling that allowed Insite to stay open on
constitutional grounds.

Opened in 2003, Insite is located in the Downtown Eastside and
provides a space where addicts can inject illegal drugs under medical
supervision.

The facility has operated through an exemption under section 56 of
Canada's Controlled Drug and Substances Act, which provides for
exemption if "necessary for a medical or scientific purpose or is
otherwise in the public interest."

An initial three-year exemption was granted in 2003 and extended
twice more, first until the end of 2007 and then until June 30, 2008.

With the clock ticking down on the exemption, the clinic's operator,
PHS Community Services, and went to court in a bid to keep it open.

When it comes to Insite, Mr. Jones argued, federal concerns over
illegal activity should take a back seat to provincial health
concerns, such as preventing drug overdose deaths and the spread of disease.

"The federal interest in criminal matters, when push comes to shove,
must give way to the provincial interest in the delivery of community
health services," he said.

B.C.'s Attorney-General is one of several intervenors in the appeal
of last year's ruling by Mr. Justice Ian Pitfield of B.C. Supreme Court.

In that judgment, Judge Pitfield described Insite's services as
health care. Because sections of the CDSA that relate to possession
and trafficking deny addicts access to those health services, those
sections infringe Section 7 of Canada's Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, he determined, and are therefore unconstitutional.

In the ruling, the federal government was given until June 30, 2009,
to redraft the provisions of the CDSA against possession and
trafficking to accommodate Insite's operation. In the interim, users
and staff at Insite were granted a constitutional exemption from the
effect of the CDSA, allowing Insite to operate.