CURRENT, FORMER MAYORS ASK OTTAWA TO LEAVE INSITE ALONE

'Drug Addiction Is a Health Issue, Not a Criminal Issue,' Says Philip Owen of Federal Government's Attempt to Shut Down Clinic

With the future of Insite, Vancouver's medically supervised injection
site, hanging in the balance, Mayor Gregor Robertson and five former
mayors have asked the federal government to back off its Supreme
Court of Canada challenge of the Downtown Eastside facility.

In a letter Tuesday, Robertson and his predecessors said there have
been numerous studies to show lives have been saved since Insite
opened in 2003. They argue the facility is a medical service and
worry that if the federal government insists on closing it, addicts
will return to more hazardous practices on the street.

The mayors' letter appears to be a last-ditch effort to get the
federal government to drop the case. However, Ottawa has signalled in
legal briefs that it sees the case as having wider implications for
federal and provincial relations.

The letter comes as the Conservative government asks the Supreme
Court of Canada to ignore mounds of evidence trumpeting the success
of North America's first supervised injection site for drug users,
warning that the court should avoid becoming a "super legislature" by
ruling on the wisdom of federal policy decisions.

The caution is contained in Justice Department legal arguments filed
in the Supreme Court for a hearing Thursday that will determine the
fate of the clinic. Ottawa contends that its power over criminal law
trumps British Columbia's jurisdiction over health care in deciding
whether the unique clinic should survive.

"Public safety demands that access to drugs be carefully controlled,"
federal lawyer Robert Frater says in a legal brief.

The B.C. government, in its written submission, counters that the
case boils down to "which level of government has the final say on
the local delivery of vital health care services within a
provincially authorized health care facility."

The letter of support was signed by former mayors Philip Owen, whose
Four Pillars Coalition led to the opening of Insite, Larry Campbell
(now a Liberal senator) whose administration installed Insite, former
New Democratic Party premier Mike Harcourt, Art Phillips and Sam Sullivan.

The only modern-day mayor missing on that list is Gordon Campbell,
the recently resigned Liberal premier.

Robertson's office said Campbell is out of the country and could not
be reached. But it was his government that funded the facility and
which has come to its defence in court.

"Drug addiction is a health issue, not a criminal issue, and Insite
needs to be recognized for what it is: a valuable health service that
saves lives," Owen said. "To help people who are addicted, we need a
comprehensive, health-based approach, and Insite needs to be a part of that."

The clinic, which opened under the Liberal government of Jean
Chretien, initially operated under a three-year exemption from Health
Canada, so that staff and clients were shielded from criminal
charges. The Stephen Harper government declined in 2008 to extend the
exemption but two groups, the Portland Hotel Society, a community
organization that helps house homeless drug addicts, and the
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users launched a court challenge.

In 2008, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled that shutting a health care
facility that saves lives and curtails the spread of infectious
disease violates the Charter of Rights' guarantees of life, liberty
and security of the person. The ruling was upheld by the B.C. Court
of Appeal in January 2010, which decided the federal government does
not have the power to shut the clinic down because it falls under
provincial jurisdiction over health care.

"At issue in the appeal is nothing less than the ability of the
province to respond to an epidemic, and the rights of injection drug
users to try to survive it," Joseph Arvay, a lawyer for the Portland
Hotel Society, says in written legal arguments to the Supreme Court.

He says that the federal government's broad claim that criminal law
should prevail "has the potential to exert a stranglehold on the
provincial health care power, and imperil the rights -and lives -of
some of Vancouver's most disenfranchised residents."

There are also 11 interveners in the case, including the province of Quebec.

"The wide range of political perspectives supporting Insite
demonstrates how crucial Insite has become, particularly for the
health of some of our most vulnerable citizens," Robertson said.