Toronto health board votes to intervene in supervised consumption site legal challenge against province

Toronto city council's board of health voted Monday to seek to intervene in a legal challenge against provincial legislation that will shut down several supervised consumption sites this year. 

The board is asking the city solicitor to intervene on its behalf if granted permission to do so by the Superior Court, according to the motion.

Supervised consumption sites allow for safe consumption of illicit drugs in the presence of trained staff. Last year, the Ontario government passed legislation banning these sites from being within 200 metres of schools and daycares. 

The legal challenge, launched by Toronto social services agency The Neighbourhood Group in December, argues the legislation violates both the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Constitution, including the right to life, liberty and security of the person.

"We will continue to do what we're doing here at the city to try to support [The Neighbourhood Group] and others who have really championed this fight in the courts," said Coun. Chris Moise, chair of the city's health board, who introduced the motion. 

A person who is not initially a party to a court proceeding can ask to intervene as an added party if they have an interest in the subject matter or could be negatively affected by the judgment, according to the Ontario Courts of Justice Act. 

Among the deputants at the meeting was John Sewell, who was mayor of Toronto from 1978 to 1980. 

Speaking prior to the vote, he said the city must join the legal challenge against the provincial legislation as an intervener. 

Sewell said the provincial legislation is "going to cause a lot more people to unnecessarily die." 

He said it's a direct attack on the city's power to address public health issues. If the city doesn't intervene in the court challenge, "that's a real black mark," he said. 

Board approves recommendations from city's top doctor

During Monday's meeting, the board also approved recommendations in a report that says the province's plan to close these sites could lead to more fatal overdoses. 

The closure of five supervised consumption sites in Toronto by the end of March could also increase the workload of paramedics, according to the report, prepared by acting Medical Officer of Health Na-Koshie Lamptey. 

"The new legislation will reduce access to an evidence-based clinical healthcare service leading to an anticipated increase in preventable fatal and non-fatal overdoses," according to the report before the board on Monday. 

Among its recommendations, the report asks that the board urge the Ontario government to increase access to supervised consumption sites. 

It also asks the board to request plans from the province to mitigate impacts on the health-care system as a result of the site closures. 

The report will now be considered by the city council in February. 

WATCH | Banning supervised consumption sites means more infections and deaths, critics say:

Critics call Ontario's ban of supervised drug consumption sites near schools 'a death sentence'

5 months ago

Duration 2:18

The province's new rules will force more than half of the supervised injection sites in Ontario to either transition into treatment centres or close down — a move that Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario CEO Doris Grinspun calls 'a death sentence for people that use substances.'

Speaking at Monday's board meeting, Coun. Michael Thompson, who represents Scarborough Centre, said the city has failed to address the public's safety concerns about safe consumption sites. 

"I know we talk about the province here and there's a perception that they are the 'bad people,' quite frankly," Thompson said. But he said "they're responding to complaints that we appear not to be addressing as a city." 

In response, Coun. Chris Moise said the city is doing "all we can with the limited resources we have." He said the city has been in ongoing conversations about challenges related to safe consumption sites.

Moise, who is a former addictions counsellor, later told CBC Toronto the locations of safe consumption sites were chosen strategically to meet the need in those areas. 

If the sites close, the need will remain and people will continue using drugs there — only outdoors, he said. 

"You'll see more needles, you'll see more people overdosing," Moise said.