INJECTION SITE SHOULD STAY, HIGH COURT SAYS

Ruling Big Blow to Tory Crime Plan

OTTAWA -- The Supreme Court of Canada dramatically derailed part of
the Conservative government's tough-on-crime juggernaut with a
landmark ruling Friday that firmly supports a Vancouver safe-injection
site for drug addicts.

Dour Tories did not attempt to hide their disappointment at the 9-0
decision that left the government no wiggle room, firmly rebuked the
Harper government's crime agenda and set a precedent on the division
of federal and provincial powers.

The court ordered the government to abandon its effort to close the
Vancouver facility and to grant an exemption to protect Insite staff
from prosecution for drug possession or trafficking.

"We're disappointed," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said at an event
in Quebec City. "We have a different policy. We'll take a look at the
decision but we will clearly act in respect and within the constraints
of the decision."

Harper said he would have to study the ruling further, but "obviously,
it is going to lead to some change in federal policy in order to
respect the decision."

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq told the House of Commons the
government was disappointed, but would comply.

Groups that backed Insite, including major medical organizations,
hailed the ruling as a victory for evidence-based health policy over
political ideology.

The justices agreed with Insite's supporters, who argued closing the
facility would violate the rights of addicts living in one of the
country's most squalid neighbourhoods, Vancouver's notorious Downtown
Eastside.

The ruling rejected the federal argument that the facility fosters
addiction and runs counter to its crime-fighting agenda.

The ruling arrived after the Conservative majority cut short debate on
its massive law-and-order omnibus bill, ensuring speedy passage of
nine different crime bills opposition parties had been able to block
in previous minority Parliaments.

The Tories took aim at Insite in 2008 when then-health minister Tony
Clement said the exemption for its staff should not be continued.

The court disagreed sharply.

"This limit is not in accordance with the principles of fundamental
justice," said Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, who held the pen on
this ruling.

"It is arbitrary," she wrote. "It is also grossly disproportionate:
the potential denial of health services and the correlative increased
risk of death and disease to injection drug users outweigh any benefit
that might be derived from maintaining an absolute prohibition on
possession of illegal drugs on Insite's premises."

Insite supporters said peer-reviewed studies found the facility
prevents overdose deaths, reduces the spread of HIV and hepatitis and
curbs crime and open drug use.

McLachlin made clear in the ruling the federal government has a right
to set policy, but when policy is translated into state action and law
the courts must determine their validity under the Charter of Rights
and Freedoms.

"The discretion vested in the minister of health is not absolute; as
with all exercises of discretion, the minister's decisions must
conform to the charter."

The ruling represents a significant setback for the Conservative crime
agenda and could lead to the creation of similar injection sites in
major cities.

Insite is the only facility of its kind in North America. It gives
addicts a safe location, with nurses on hand in case of problems,
where they can use clean needles and sterile water to mix and inject
the drugs they buy illegally on the street.

The political ramifications of the decision quickly resonated beyond
the borders of Vancouver's troubled Eastside.

New Democrat MP Libby Davies, whose riding includes Insite,
immediately called on the Harper government to abandon its ideological
opposition to the facility.

"I don't believe any of them ever went there, they never took the time
to really find out what Insite was about," she said.

"They always took this political, partisan, ideological position. And
I want to say to them, have you now understood and learned the
importance of what Insite is about, and how it's so much a part of our
community?"

Liberal health critic Hedy Fry, who as a cabinet minister was involved
in Insite's creation in 2003, said the ruling shows a get-tough
approach is the wrong way to deal with addiction.

"Addiction is a medical problem and requires medical and public-health
solutions," she said. "As a physician I believe that to deny proven,
life-saving assistance to those who are vulnerable simply because one
disapproves of their lifestyles is the ultimate immorality."

The victory was perhaps sweetest for Dean Wilson, a former addict from
the seedy Eastside, who was a plaintiff in the court challenge.

Wilson said he wants to work with the Harper government to get on with
the business of saving lives.

"I'm just extending an olive branch," said Wilson, who says he has
been clean for two years, after 44 years of addiction.

"I want to continue to work together to do the best medical
interventions we can. We're talking about really seriously ill people;
we're not talking about people partying."