Ottawa to appeal safe-injection site ruling

Thursday, May 29, 2008

OTTAWA - Ottawa will appeal the B.C. Supreme Court decision earlier this week that ruled in favour of Vancouver's controversial supervised injection site, Health Minister Tony Clement said Thursday.

Appearing before the Commons health committee, Clement said scientific evidence in support of Insite isn't strong enough and supervised injection sites prolong addiction and divert dollars from treatment programs.

"For these reasons, fellow committee members, I can inform you today that I will be asking my colleague, Rob Nicholson, the minister of Justice, to appeal Judge Pitfield's decision at the earliest possible opportunity," Clement said.

The health minister had hinted Wednesday that an appeal would be forthcoming when he told the House of Commons in question period the Tories were disappointed and disagreed with the decision to keep Insite open. He said the government was exploring its options.

Pitfield's surprising decision said Canada's trafficking and possession laws were unconstitutional when applied to addicts using the facility and that it should be allowed to remain open under current drug laws for a year, even without a federal exemption from current drug laws.

That year should give the federal government time to rewrite its laws to allow for medical use of illegal drugs if they are part of a health-care program, he said.

The current exemption from federal drug laws is set to expire June 30 and the government has not yet indicated whether it will be extended.

Clement is now making it clear however, his government does not like the idea of Insite, North America's only sanctioned safe-injection site.

"In my opinion, supervised injection is not medicine - it does not heal the person addicted to drugs," he said.

The Tories' drug strategy does not include specific harm-reduction programs because they are included within the government's three-pronged approach, the health minister said.

"We see harm reduction as being represented within the other three pillars of enforcement, prevention and treatment," said Clement.

The health minister suggested that while the research indicates Insite saves one life a year, the $3 million it costs to operate could help hundreds of people if spent on other programs, such as addiction treatment centres.

Clement and a panel of witnesses were appearing before the committee today for a lengthy meeting.