City’s harm-reduction plan at risk
PM wants province on board with drug decriminalization request, but Ford is soundly opposed
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested Wednesday Ottawa won’t work directly with Toronto to decriminalize personal possession of illegal drugs, and instead only deal with the province, casting immediate doubt on the future of a pillar of the city’s harmreduction strategy.
Toronto has had an application in to the federal government since 2022 for an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act that would allow, throughout the city, decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of certain hard drugs for personal use.
But despite Ottawa granting a similar exemption to British Columbia in 2021, there’s been little obvious public movement on Toronto’s request — until the issue was forced onto the political agenda this week in the wake of B.C. asking Ottawa to recriminalize certain kinds of drug use.
On Wednesday, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre demanded, both in a public letter and then in question period, that Trudeau outright reject Toronto’s application, citing the B.C. experience.
“If you allow Toronto to legalize hard drugs, as you did with British Columbia, the only outcome will be leaving the most vulnerable Canadians to a life of misery and despair,” he wrote.
In response in the House of Commons, Trudeau said when Vancouver alone had made the request for an exemption, the federal government said no — Ottawa then moved forward with British Columbia on a pilot project the province wanted.
“With regard to any other province, whether it be Quebec or Ontario, or anywhere else, we will work with the governments in place on proposals they may or may not have to deal with the opioid epidemic. That is all,” Trudeau said.
The office of the federal minister in charge of the file, Toronto MP Ya’ara Saks, did not immediately return questions from the Star about whether Trudeau’s response means the city’s request simply will go unanswered.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has already made it clear he doesn’t support Toronto’s application.
“Let people do cocaine and crack and heroin? You’ve got to be kidding me. I will fight this tooth and nail … Sometimes I wonder where people’s brains are, I really do,” he told reporters in Ottawa on Monday.
A spokesperson for Toronto Public Health, which spearheaded the application with the support of the Toronto Police Service and the city manager, said the comments made by the prime minister have not affected the city’s application.
“Toronto Public Health maintains a positive working relationship with Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada,” Dane Griffiths said.
B.C. — and also Toronto — argued that decriminalization of possessing certain drugs for personal use reduces the stigma associated with addiction, removes the negative impacts of having a criminal record and makes it simpler for people to access social supports, among other things.
The Toronto plan includes increasing access to supervised drug consumption sites, along with other supports such as treatment, safer drug supply and a non-police emergency response service.
In an era where an increasingly toxic drug supply kills hundreds of people in the city per year, giving public health officers, police and others more resources to go after illegal drug dealers is also urgent, experts have said.
B.C. began a pilot project last year to pursue that approach, and Toronto had applied for a required federal exemption from existing drug laws in 2022, broadening it last year after months of consultation.
Late last week, however, B.C. asked Health Canada to recriminalize possession of certain illicit drugs, after mounting public safety concerns associated with drug consumption in public places. Vancouver’s deputy police chief Fiona Wilson told MPs during a hearing last month that decriminalization left police with no tools to manage potentially problematic consumption.
“If somebody has their family at the beach and there’s a person next to them smoking crack cocaine, it’s not a police matter” as things stand, she told MPs. “However, when those circumstances do arise, it’s very important that police have the tools to address them.”
Toronto’s chief public health officer, Dr. Eileen De Villa, reiterated her support this week for the city’s approach.
“We have never seen this toxic a drug supply, this level of homelessness and this level of mental health crises ,” she said in a video. “And like other Toronto residents, I see this on our streets and in our community every single day. And we know that we cannot arrest our way out of this crisis.”
The city’s application requests the decriminalization of possessing drugs for personal use to apply in all areas of the city with only three exceptions: child-care facilities, K-12 schools and airports.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said Wednesday she continues to stand behind the city’s application for decriminalization, and that three levels of government need to work together to implement a holistic approach that includes housing and appropriate treatment options, rather than jailing people.
“I want the doctors to lead this. Doctors know best, not me, not the elected representatives,” Chow said. “Let’s learn from the British Columbia experience and from it, let’s fine-tune our approach.”