Insite: Federal Law vs Provincial Law in Canada

There is a Canadian Supreme Court case being decided right now in Canada that pits Federal drug law against Provincial Health law.

Insite. is an injection clinic in the downtown east side of Vancouver, Canada's poorest neighborhood and one of the worst open-air drug markets anywhere north of Mexico city. It has been shown to have a significantly positive effect on the drug problem in East Van, and has several proponents on many levels of local and provincial government. But the new Conservative Majority on Ottawa says it falls under Federal drug laws, which prevent the distribution of a controlled substance.

Some interesting precedent being set here in terms of how much authority Provinces have to managed their own affairs... stay tuned

Supporters, including the British Columbia government, argue that's just one of a growing number of peer-reviewed studies that have concluded Insite curbs open drug use, reduces needle sharing, prevents overdose deaths, reduces the spread of HIV and hepatitis, and even curbs crime.

But the governing Conservatives, who have long-argued that the site actually serves to encourage addiction, counter that because the site deals with federally-controlled substances it actually falls under their purview.

winnipeg.ctv.ca...

www.torontosun.com...

The Harper government’s decision in 2008 to discontinue Insite’s exemption from federal drug laws granted by Health Canada is what led to the court battle over the facility.

Insite operator the Portland Hotel Society argued in a court challenge that enforcing federal drug laws at the safe injection facility violated section 7 of the Charter of Rights, which protects life, liberty and security of the person. They also argued that federal criminal laws shouldn’t entrench on the provincial health authority.

Two B.C. court rulings have sided with Insite, but the facility’s future now awaits the outcome of the Supreme Court case.

www.straight.com...

harper would rather have drug addicts passed out all over the city o'd. or spreading aids amongst each other that they pass on to their wives or girlfriends rather than a government run facility were they can at least be exposed to help and treatment if they want to change their lives around.

the guy is sticking his nose across the country thousands of miles away to destroy what little help heroin addicts have.

and on top of that, the federal government owes these people help because it is their fault they were exposed to it in the first place.

if they actually went out and destroyed organized crime instead of giving 6 month sentences to people convicted of multi-tonne coc aine and heroin shipments, normal citizens wouldn't have to pay with their lives for something they did in their youth 15-20 years ago, or a stupid mistake they made and regret.

that's the sign of a true leader, throwing it's most vulnerable and need of help on the street. piece of sh-t mother f-cker is to kind of words for harper.

The 'Progressive' should be dropped from Progressive Conservative; the only progress Harper seems to be dedicated to is the progressive erosion of our liberties and sovereignty. Safe injection sites eliminate the spread of blood-born viruses. I have also heard that there are addiction help services in the building as well.

The BC RCMP was going to back Insite but Ottawa told them to back down.

RCMP and the truth about safe injection sites

It would have been quite a news conference, and it very nearly happened. Last fall, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, after months of intense, private talks, agreed to face the media together to declare their agreement that research shows the “benefits” and “positive impacts” of supervised injection sites for intravenous drug users. For the RCMP, making such a statement would have been a turning point: the Mounties would have had to distance themselves from dubious studies, commissioned by the force itself, that were critical of Insite, Vancouver’s pioneering safe injection facility. And that would have been a politically awkward move for the federal police, since Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is firmly committed to shutting down Insite. But senior officers seemed ready to take that dramatic step. “I can confirm we are good to go from our end,” said Chief Superintendent Bob Harriman, a top RCMP drug enforcement officer in Vancouver, in an email he sent on Oct. 28, 2009, to Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the B.C. centre. Harriman’s email included “proposed messaging for [a] joint media release” of the RCMP and the research centre. The RCMP would acknowledge “an extensive body of Canadian and international peer-reviewed research reporting the benefits of supervised injection sites and no objective peer-reviewed studies demonstrating harms.” As well, Harriman said the RCMP would admit that “reviews” commissioned by the force, which contested the centre’s research, “did not meet conventional academic standards.” The proposed joint media release was never issued. Nor did the RCMP officers and the centre’s doctors appear together for their planned news conference. According to Montaner, two days before the scheduled event last December—after a venue had been booked at the University of British Columbia and “the banners were ready”—he received a telephone call from Deputy Commissioner Gary Bass, the most senior RCMP officer in British Columbia. “He said, ‘Julio, can’t do it,’ ” Montaner recalls. “I said, ‘What do you mean, Gary?’ He said, ‘I’m really sorry, I’ve been ordered not to go ahead with the news conference.’ ” Montaner says Bass made it clear that the order came from RCMP headquarters in Ottawa.

Safe injection

Insite, situated on the worst block of an area once home to the fastest-growing AIDS epidemic in North America, is one reason Vancouver is succeeding in lowering new AIDS infection rates while many other cities are only getting worse.

provinces can use the ' not withstanding clause ' of constitution. federal law means nothing if the premier has big enough balls.

Well... It's not like Harper was unknown to us, before the elections... But for some reason, Canadians decided to elect him... Go figure...

Anyway, if people get help, they are less likely to end up in prisons. Harper believes in prisons. It's a logical political move on his part, which is rare these days in a politician. It's just that he is bad, as in evil, despite looking nerdy.
Which should be bad in itself...

I lived in Vancouver BC when they first opened it great program gets a lot of the heroin & crack addicts off the streets So much AIDS and poverty in the area they set it up in. I used to run a non profit downtown helping the poor and delt with it all first hand. Crazy Harpers truly is an evil tool for trying to shut it down.

I see there is a lot of anti-Harper sentiment. What I find interesting about this case is the different precedents attempting to be set. Harper's Conservative Party just won their first 'Majority'. Is he flexing his new power? What does the Canadian Federal Gov't stand to gain from saying they have jurisdiction over Insite? Is it to fall in line with their larger own version of the prison industrial complex as some have suggested? Is it just politics? Is Ottawa trying to control the provinces even more?

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


Seeing how Harper wants to centralize his government, that means he wants to hold more power in his hands than allowed. He already did it, even borrowing some tricks from Bush and pass things when in the middle of the night when they know there will be no oppositions...

Harper is on a big power trip. Heck, he even holds his own against the Bilderberger of which he is a member... What do you think HE thinks of us "low-lives"?...

reply to post by NowanKenubi


So, in your view, does the NDP represent a strong opposition to this notion of a strong Canadian Federal government in Ottawa? I honestly know so little about the NDP's policies.

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


LOL No! I think the cards have been played so well that we are STUCK with the Conservatives for a while, a long while...

I don't think the NDP has any idea of its own program. Just search for Ruth Ellen Brosseau.
She was in Las Vegas during the elections, there are accusations of forgery concerning signatures that supported her candidacy, on the web site of the NDP, there were claims of study she never made ( which was removed quickly after it was found out ) and, best of all she was shocked to win as she only signed "for fun"... She really wasn't expecting it!
If she's part of the "New Blood" of the Canadian politics circle, well... eesh! But her election is to be blamed on the voters who didn't take the time to think about what they were going to unleash...

The NDP is a true opposition to Harper's politics, they represent opposing philosophies unlike the Liberals, who weren't left enough since the Liberals represented the middle class.

In the coming months, the NDP will outgrow this infitile period....then we'll see the # hit the fan as our politics becomes more secular like the Americans.

I am afraid of what is in store for us Canadians as we head into an uncertain conservative future...

Goodbye medical marijuana, hello newly built jail cells.
Goodbye safe injection sites, hello AIDS and addiction.
Goodbye natural "eastern" medicine, hello Big Pharma.
Goodbye freedom, hello tyranny....

Is anyone who replied here a taxpayer???? Like holy hell this is the governments fault, because they aren't keeping the drug dealers off the streets. Who are you David Eby... For everyone person arrested at the street level dealing drugs, there is 4 more lined up to reap the profits of welfare wednesday, and a break your car window anyday payday. These people are the filth and vermin of our society so weak in personal will they have let there lives become this way.

Why should we always pity and rush to the aid of those who made obvious unwise decisions, why should I as a taxpayer fund needles for some junky when we wont pay for diabetes patients to have free ones as well, why should I pay a nurse to prevent ones own stupidity. Why should we continue to harbour these idiots own transgressions. Do any of you live here in BC have you seen the circus that is created by appeasing the needs of a few. The zombie land that is present on a daily basis. But hey keep em alive let these useless junkies continue to rob,and attack regular citizens, deficate any damn well place they please, and stand in the way of revitalizing Vancouver. Why should we the residents of this city be held hostage by a group of squatters, why should they take claim to some of the most beautifull land in the lowermainland, just because all the "social services" are located there. This isn't there home they gave up that dream with the dose in the vein.

The only reason we have insite still around is because of the "MONEY", the non profits make tons because of the junkys off the government, a constant stream of income from the taxpayer to fund all sorts of iniatives with no return. A boondoggle of taxpayer funds for welfare, needles, SRO's, there incarceration, treatment at hospitals, methedone, plenty of pyschiatrists, to peer into the depths of drug induced coma. If there wasen't money keeping these people alive they would have been dead a long time ago. Show me statistics that this is helping change peoples lives, not just prolonging them. Cause in my personal opinion and as reported, all its doing is reducing overdose deaths form happening out side, and prolonging the inevitable for most of these washouts who use the services.

I for one hope that we show tough love. No more Insite, no more SRO's in million dollar condos for vagrants looking for a handout, no more free needles and drugs for junkies, no more bleeding hearts spending mine and the other hardworking British Columbians money keeping alive a body, that the mind and will let die long ago...

SaneThinking

reply to post by SaneThinking


Yes, thank you for some 'tough on crime' rhetoric. Every thread needs it. Of course, it ignores that Insite works and actually directly addresses the problems you are decrying. I agree it's not necessarily accurate for others to blame the government for not getting drugs off the street, although it IS worth asking how all that top-quality heroin arrives in Vancouver. Did you know the Vancouver ports weren't even policed until last year? Sure, sure, street level drug dealers are bad. But as you point out, they are a dime a dozen. s long as that heroin is coming in to the province, there will be low level dealers.

As far as 'your tax dollars', Insite works. Why would you want the Federal Government dictating Provincial health policy? Where is the line between Federal and Provincial control?

Originally posted by Cheerfulnihilist
The NDP is a true opposition to Harper's politics, they represent opposing philosophies unlike the Liberals, who weren't left enough since the Liberals represented the middle class.

In the coming months, the NDP will outgrow this infitile period....then we'll see the # hit the fan as our politics becomes more secular like the Americans.

How so? Where do they stand on this issue?

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


As a socialist style party, i'd wager they champion the humanist cause and give money to these clinics. Medicare, as the world knows it, is a Canadian idea created by the progenitor of the NDP party. To not accept the challenge would be odd for them.

reply to post by Cheerfulnihilist


you 'would wager'? That's not exactly a solid endorsement of potential NDP policy.