House of Commons Hansard #21 of the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site.) The word of the day was insite.
The House resumed consideration of the motion that Bill C-2, An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, be read the second time and referred to a committee, and of the amendment.
The Speaker Conservative Andrew Scheer
The hon. member for Sackville—Eastern Shore has five minutes left to conclude his remarks.
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
Mr. Speaker, I will take the first 30 seconds to congratulate him and the great province of Saskatchewan on its future victory over the Ticats. I can say that we were not whipped on this side of the House. I send my condolences to my colleagues from the great city of Hamilton, as well, but congratulations to the Ticats for even getting there.
I will come back to the serious issue of InSite in British Columbia, the safe injection site. It is an extremely serious issue. As I said prior to question period, the men and women who find themselves at the bottom of the ladder, as we say, in the deepest hole they can find themselves in, who have unfortunately turned to intravenous drugs, or drugs of any kind, are in a really desperate situation.
What these sites do is take these men and women in and allow them to continue that habit while hopefully giving them the counselling and the means to be get off the drugs so that they can realize that life is beautiful, that they have worth and are loved, and that they and their families can live normal lives.
If we do not do that, they will end up under bridges. They will end up in the back alleys and everywhere. I should know. I grew up in British Columbia, in the Lower Mainland. I saw the east end of Vancouver.
Again, I go back to my colleague from Vancouver East, our representative there for the last 16 and a half years, and my colleagues from the Lower Mainland. They know what we are talking about. The reality is that this site is really a godsend to these people. It is a beacon of hope and trust.
I understand the Conservative philosophy. They do not like the idea of people using illegal drugs. That is also our philosophy. However, we have a great divide on how we react and how we treat people who use drugs. They look more at the criminal aspect of it, and we look more at the health aspect of it. That is the difference between the Conservatives and the NDP.
We encourage all people not to use intravenous or illegal drugs of any kind, ever. That is a wishful thing to say. As long as we have been on this planet, people have somehow managed to abuse themselves in particular circumstances for a variety of reasons.
There is only one person who can judge those individuals, and that person has a lot higher standing than me. It is simply not for me or anybody in this House of Commons to do that. These people are human beings. They have worth. They have lives. At one time, they had mothers and fathers who loved them. For whatever reason, they found themselves in a very terrible and unfortunate situation.
We on this side of the House are very concerned about the legislation coming forward, not necessary because of what the government is trying to say but because of the ulterior motives behind it. We understand how the Conservatives work in legislation. The devil is always in the details. What is the real motive for their doing this?
If the bill gets to committee, we will be able to examine it very carefully and get witnesses in. The government will hear not just from members of Parliament. They will actually hear from people whose lives were saved by InSite and safe injection sites.
With that, I thank the House for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. Mr. Speaker, I wish you the very best this weekend.
Bruce Hyer Independent Thunder Bay—Superior North, ON
Mr. Speaker, I would really like to hear an opinion from the parliamentarian of the year, and congratulations to him, on whether, like many on the opposite side of the House, he feels that those unfortunate individuals who are poor and disadvantaged, have had bad luck, and have then turned to drugs to ease the pain, should be further marginalized and criminalized.
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague and my personal friend very much for a very important question.
We are not to judge how a person ends up there. The reality is that these people have worth. As a Canadian society, as a society that cares for one another, we should be looking at these individuals and not judging them.
What we should be doing is taking the opportunity to work with them and help them, not only on the medical side but on the social side and the religious or spiritual side or whatever one wants to call it. If we do that, can give them a leg up, and help them be productive citizens in our society and feel that they have worth, in turn they will become advocates for other people who may find themselves in that situation. That would indeed be a good thing.
Judy Sgro Liberal York West, ON
Mr. Speaker, I want to applaud my colleague's commitment to humanity. This is just another example of the issues that matter to him and certainly to those of us on this end of the House.
The whole issue of harm reduction has been talked about for probably the last 20 years. The clinic is just one example of what harm reduction is all about. It tries to help people who clearly have tried to get help, and it has not worked. This is a way of offering them a chance to be part of the human race by getting them the help they need and treating them like the human beings they are.
I appreciate the positive comments from my colleague, but I would like to know if there is any interest in the community he represents that harm reduction opportunities be provided.
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
Mr. Speaker, as you know, my community is much smaller than Vancouver or Toronto. I thank my colleague from York West for that important question.
We do it in a different manner. We do not have the population base or that type of visible intravenous drug use on our streets. There are homeless people, do not get me wrong, and we know what some of them may be up to, but there is simply not that large a population in that regard.
Usually what happens in a particular case of that nature is that shelters, such as the Salvation Army, Phoenix, Adsum House, Beacon House, and all these organizations, assist these individuals to try to give them a lift up. However, my community just does not have the sort of problem that exists in Toronto and Vancouver.
Charmaine Borg NDP Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
Mr. Speaker, in the debate on Bill C-2, it is crucial that we focus on the benefits of supervised injection sites like InSite, which has achieved many things.
What would my colleague say are the benefits of having such a site in Canada?
Peter Stoffer NDP Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS
With a question like that, Mr. Speaker, there is no question that this member from Quebec will be a long-time member of Parliament in the House of Commons.
She is so right. It gets people off the streets, out from under bridges, out of abandoned trailers, out of the back alleys, and out of the holes and ditches they find themselves in. It gets them into a safe, warm, and loving environment. While there, they get the medical help and counselling they need. That is the human approach to assisting those who end up that way.
I ask everybody here who has children, what if it is one of their children who ends up in that situation? Would members throw them in jail? Would they punish them, or would they hug them, show them the love, and give them the help they need? I ask that as a father of two children. I have been blessed with my children, but I know people whose children, unfortunately, have had very difficult and challenging times. When that happens, that is when the hand of friendship, the hand of humanity, what we call social democratic values, reach in, lift those people up, give them the help and guidance they need, and show them the love they require.
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to join in this difficult but important debate. It is worth noting that InSite as a program has been peer reviewed around the world. There were further studies on over 70 other safe injection sites in Europe and Australia. The fact is that it saved lives. That is exactly what we are talking about, saving the lives of Canadians.
My friend from Sackville—Eastern Shore talked about the impact on families and how we did not have to walk too far before we ran into either immediate or extended family members who had been affected by addiction. If we could just hold our breath, click our heels and make this problem go away, we would not be here, but we cannot.
These kinds of drugs bring evil upon those who succumb to addiction, as well as those around them. For every person who is at InSite, how many family members, friends and others who love that individual are hurting?
I served on the municipal council. I get it. I get NIMBY, not in my back yard. Sometimes it can be a plotted and deliberate thing, but most often it is just ordinary people who are living their lives and going to work. Suddenly something happens down the street and impacts their lives, and they react. Guess what? Their first thought is for the very kinds of children that we are talking about in other families who need and want love. Their first reaction is to protect their own, and that is totally understandable.
However, as we have shown in Canada, there are ways to approach these issues. Municipalities are given the responsibility to determine where things go in a community, what the best land use is and what the best mixed use is. Quite frankly, NIMBY applied to this issue means that it is not going to happen anywhere, and more Canadians will die.
We are one of the countries that is leading to show that a compassionate, responsible country can find a way to deal with these things, recognizing and accepting the challenges that facilities like that usually create in our urban centres. We recognize that a larger purpose has to apply.
I want to read something into the record. Let us remember that the government is bringing in a new law because the Supreme Court said it had to when it refused to extend the original program. Basically, as far as the official opposition is concerned, this legislation is merely a nice way of just saying no. That is not acceptable for us in the NDP.
It is also not acceptable for the Supreme Court of Canada or Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin. I defy any member of the government to stand and say that this is somebody who does not care about Canada, crime, issues, or those things. They can go ahead, make that case, and let us hear it. That is what the Conservatives are accusing us of doing.
This is what the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, a G7 nation and arguably the best country in the world to live in, said about the action of the government minister who denied the extension of InSite. This will give us some insight into the government's motivation.
The Supreme Court said:
The infringement at stake is serious; it threatens the health, indeed the lives, of the claimants and others like them. The grave consequences that might result from a lapse in the current constitutional exemption for Insite cannot be ignored....It is also grossly disproportionate: the potential denial of health services and the correlative increase in the 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.
That is exactly where the government is.
It further said:
The effect of denying the services of Insite to the population it serves...is grossly disproportionate to any benefit that Canada might derive from presenting a uniform stance on the possession of narcotics.
That means, just saying no is not good enough.
We are mounting as strong an opposition to this as we can. It is not because we have any desire to see or assist individuals in harming themselves; it is quite the opposite.
Collectively, we are grappling. Those nations that are compassionate and have the means like ours to deal with these issues, as opposed to just providing food, security and a roof over the head of their population, is a luxury we have and the direction we were heading. It took quite a while for the Liberals when they were in government to come on side and allow the exemption, but they got there. However, now we are running headlong into the ideology of the hard right element in the current Conservative government.
I read those quotes from the Supreme Court of Canada chief justice as my response to those members who, not necessarily today but in previous debates, accused members of the opposition of all kinds of horrible things in terms of not caring. The issue is not about caring really; the issue is the responsibility we have as lawmakers to bring in the best laws we can.
InSite works to the extent that it is saving lives. It has been peer reviewed. It is similar to other initiatives in other G7 countries. All the studies show that this is the way to go. Is it perfect? No. Would we like to just close our eyes, click our heels and make it go away? Yes. Is that going to happen? No.
We have two choices.
We can take the approach of the government and just flatly say no and then use the rhetoric of politics to play that out and accuse and hurl accusations over here that we are all somehow secretly supporting those who are addicted to drugs. I am not going to comment anymore on that thought.
The other choice, rather than to say no, is to be grown up about it and realize that we have a life-and-death issue where the easy politics, which is to just say no, do not work. We need to find a way to come to grips with this, mitigate as much as we can any impact on our communities, of course, and recognize, as the Supreme Court of Canada has, that there is a higher obligation here.
Just saying no does not make it okay in terms of the number of people who have died and will die if this site is not there. We will do everything we can to stop this wrong-headed bill and advocate for a progressive, compassionate, human approach that deals with the problem rather than hiding behind political rhetoric.
Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB
Mr. Speaker, I have listened intently here and in the lobby to my colleague's speech.
Something that is missed is that supervised injection sites do not provide drugs to the folks who go there. Addicts buy these drugs on the street from dealers and that money goes directly to organized crime, which I do not think anybody supports.
Through the bill, we are simply trying to provide the Minister of Health with some documentation from the local community and the local police force that says they support that.
Since the New Democrats will obviously oppose that community involvement with this project, is it their position that these sites should not only be approved without such consultations, but that they should also provide dangerous and addictive drugs like heroin to these people?
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
That is an interesting approach, Mr. Speaker.
First my thought was, as the hon. member was speaking, that he thinks that all of a sudden those drugs would not be bought because people who use them do not have somewhere safe to go. It does not make sense. It does not deal with that issue. Those drugs will be bought, agreed. The question is this: will we provide a compassionate environment that allows them to at least try to live, or will we just send them off into the alleyway to crawl into the darkness and what, die? That is an alternative? We say no.
The last thing is that I am informed by my colleagues from British Columbia that the CMA and even the local police are on side with this. They are the ones who have to deal with the repercussions with what happens if we do not have InSite.
Kevin Lamoureux Liberal Winnipeg North, MB
Mr. Speaker, it is important for us to make note of the wonderful example of how a federation can work when we get a national government working alongside the provincial and municipal governments and the many different stakeholders that were involved in turning Insite into a reality. All of them should be applauded for their efforts.
That said, through years now, InSite has demonstrated to be hugely successful, not only for the people in direct need, but also for the community in which it is located. It has made the community a healthier, safer community to live. All the stakeholders tell us that this is the case and that we need to sustain it.
Would the member comment on why one easily gets frustrated with the government when it seems to want to toss aside science or facts when it brings in legislation such as this?
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Mr. Speaker, my colleague and I have been at a couple of committee meetings lately. I have not had a chance to agree with him much. I will take the opportunity now to say that I do, very much.
I have served, like my colleague, not just here, but provincially, and I am not sure if he served municipally. Provinces deal with a lot of municipal issues because municipalities only exist by virtue of provincial legislation.
I agree with him entirely. The shame of it is that when we are here at the federal level, these issues seem awfully far away, yet by not providing framework and using legislation that is a federal responsibility, it leaves the provinces with less ability to do anything. It certainly leaves those municipalities that have to deal with the fact that people are dying in their communities, and they would like to do something about it. When they turn to the province, it says it is willing to get on board with the municipality, but it needs the feds.
There are an awful lot of examples of things that are only properly dealt with when we have the co-operation my hon. friend talks about between the federal, provincial, and municipal levels, but in so many cases, the feds have to provide the leadership.
First, the federal government has more means to money and access, but also a lot of the legislation. In this case, it is federal legislation that allows whether that can exist, because we are bumping up against the Criminal Code.
In order for municipalities, the ones that are grappling with this day by day and looking these individuals in the eye, rather than them being left alone, leadership could and should be provided from the federal level to bring those other two partners together so we can work together.
They are Canadians. It does not matter whether we are talking municipal, provincial or federal governance for them, they are Canadians.
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Speaker, before I start I would like to offer my sincere thanks to the member from Hamilton, not only for an insightful addition to this debate but also for the passion and the compassion that he brings to the debate, qualities that are so lacking on the other side.
So unwilling are Conservatives to defend this legislation that they will not speak to it. Time and time again an opportunity comes to speak to the bill and to justify their actions today and the day previously, but they stay silent. They have nothing to say.
Here is the challenge for them: it is that they have no evidence to support the decisions they are making in this legislation. It has become so cynical for the Conservatives that the first and virtually only thing they did after writing the bill was to use it as a fundraiser. They drafted legislation that negatively affects Canadian society, municipalities, and the police forces that do their work on our behalf, and then immediately sent out a fundraiser to raise funds for the Conservative Party.
That is what they use Parliament for. That is what they think legislation and law-making has become. It is to raise a few more bucks.
That is what they have done with the bill. They do not debate it. They do not defend it. They do not offer up any evidence.
One would think that a party that says it is interested in good governance and providing some sort of sanity in the way we make policies would have one scrap, one piece of paper in this place that produces so much paper, that would actually identify why they think this is a good idea and what is it based upon.
Let us deal with some of the facts.
Such radicals as the Canadian Medical Association think that safe injection sites work. Such radicals as the Nurses Association have testified that the bill is bad for Canada, along with such radicals as conservative and progressive mayors consistently in the city of Vancouver, which has the only safe injection site in Canada. Those people, regardless of their political affiliation, have taken up this cause and realize that harm reduction can only happen if we practise harm reduction.
The Conservatives take a knee-jerk ideological approach to this issue with no compassion whatsoever. They yammer and they heckle across the way, but they do not have anything to support their view on this issue. All they have is some cynical, cheap attempt to win a few votes and get some cheap dollars in a fundraising initiative, rather than supporting the city of Vancouver, British Columbia as a province, and the other municipalities that are looking to grapple with this intractable issue of drug abuse and addiction in our communities because their path has not worked so far.
We know that addiction rates drop at two times the level for those who have participated in the InSite program in Vancouver. If the Conservatives are actually interested in getting drugs off our streets, why not clean up the addicts? Why not help them out? We know this program works to do that. Why not do it? Do they have a better suggestion?
Of course they do not. Their suggestion is to put them in prisons, where they have six times the access to illegal drugs that they would have on the street. That is the Conservatives' agenda. That is the result of the Conservatives' agenda.
Those are facts. The Conservatives are entitled to their opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts. Those are the facts of the matter. There has been a one-third drop in the rate of death due to overdose in the city of Vancouver over the last 10 years since this program has started. There are 35% fewer people dying as a result of drug overdose, and the Conservatives talk about standing up for communities and protecting communities.
Which communities are they talking about? Are they talking about any of those people who are likely to die as a result of shutting down and preventing any safe injection sites? Those folks do not count as community. They are not Canadians. They do not matter in the Conservatives' world.
It is a deeply cynical point of view. It points to a government that is so wedded to an ideology that it refuses to listen to anybody, including doctors, police, nurses, and municipal leaders of this country. All of those people do not matter in the mix in creating the bill, none of them.
One would think that one Conservative would get up here today and offer some sort of fact-based decision-making. Conservatives decide on something based on their ideology and then present legislation that is only intended to raise money. It is only intended to wedge out a few more votes for their cynical purposes rather than to deal with the issue at hand.
If they want to deal with drug addiction in this country, then let us deal with it.
Conservatives defy the Supreme Court of Canada in its ruling. So much for respect for the courts. The Supreme Court ordered the government to do something about this, and it has done the opposite. It is disgraceful.
There is not right and left on this one, there is right and wrong. The Conservatives are wrong on the bill. New Democrats will stand up against them every single time.
Pierre Jacob NDP Brome—Missisquoi, QC
Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Skeena—Bulkley Valley for his very heartfelt, convincing and compassionate speech.
Can he explain how keeping supervised injection sites open will make our streets and neighbourhoods safer, and most of all, minimize the number of victims?
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for the question.
Once again, the Conservatives have no opinion and no evidence, and they are remaining silent because they have no arguments against our position. However, it is absolutely clear that the number of victims can be reduced, not only in terms of the people directly involved, but also their families and their communities, which are also the victims of drug abuse.
As for whether we need to talk to people in the community, the NDP believes that yes, we do, but with compassion and taking into account the scientific evidence, not with cynicism, like the Conservatives do, although today they remain silent.
The Conservatives say they oppose drugs. Okay, but I would like them to give me an example, because no Conservative voices have been heard today; it has been radio silence.
Isabelle Morin NDP Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for his very passionate remarks.
What worries me is that the Conservatives have decided to refer this bill to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security instead of to the Standing Committee on Health.
When I read the bill, I felt that it was mostly about the health of patients and victims. We are talking about drug addiction and people who need health care. Safe injection sites are health care sites.
I also see that the Conservatives are trying to scare the public. Sending the bill to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security is like saying that people should really watch out because this is a safety issue.
Could the hon. member comment on this issue? I feel the Conservatives are trying to scare the public about safe injection sites in a backhanded way.
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Speaker, the Conservatives' argument is clearly a lie.
The safe injection site works well and helps victims and families a great deal. What is more, it has the support of the police, doctors and leaders in the municipality. Those people support it because it works. This is a very difficult issue.
A bill like this is unbelievable to me, just like the government's cynicism. The government is just trying to raise funds because it has no support.
If the government is looking for a voice for communities, we recommend listening to the voices of the Vancouver community, particularly those of the Vancouver police, Canadian doctors and all those who feel they can contribute to solving the problem. It is unfortunate because this is a terrible problem for individuals and communities. All voices must be heard, not just the ideological voice of the Conservatives.
Charmaine Borg NDP Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
Mr. Speaker, before giving my speech, I want to point out that this debate unfortunately has to be take place because a Conservative bill has been introduced.
This week is Drug Awareness Week in Quebec. If we have to have this debate, this week is a good time to do it.
During this awareness week, there was a morning program on Radio-Canada. Three young women roughly my age were talking about their problems with addiction, with substance abuse. These utterly brilliant, committed and dynamic young women unfortunately became addicted to drugs. Fortunately, they had the support of their families. Their families and their friends managed to help them overcome their addiction. They had the support of their communities and their families. That is unfortunately not the case for everyone.
All too often, people addicted to drugs have no family to support them. Too often, they live in the street and sleep in emergency shelters. That is why it is important to have centres like InSite. There they are not viewed as bad people. Yes, they use drugs. Drug use is an indictable offence. I am aware of that. However, I must say that addiction goes far beyond that. People should not be thrown onto the street because they are addicted to an illegal substance. InSite is important because it provides a place where those people feel accepted. The staff there want to help them overcome their addiction.
Coming back to the example of the three women who gave an interview to promote Drug Awareness Week, they all have a future; these are incredible women. They have the courage to speak publicly about their personal substance abuse problems. I know that many other women and men, young people, are in the same situation, and they all have lives to lead. If we give them hope, if we welcome them, if we give them the health care they need, we can help them escape the cycle of addiction. As a society, we have a duty to try.
Thanks to InSite, 1.7% of users are more likely to go further, to OnSite, where they can get treatment to overcome their addiction. It is not easy to overcome an addiction to drugs, particularly hard drugs. Users have to be assisted by people who are well trained and very patient. In addition, people who receive care need a lot of courage to say they are ready to go into treatment to overcome their addiction. To have that courage, they need a place where they feel comfortable, where they do not feel rejected by society, but rather accepted. When they feel accepted, when they feel that someone is listening to them and when they know that people will take care of them, it is easier for them to ask for services.
That is exactly what InSite does. Of course, it is an injection site, but it is also a health care centre for users, and who knows, perhaps one day that will enable them to overcome their addiction problem. That is the ultimate objective. The ultimate objective is not for people to continue using hard drugs, but for us to be able to help them overcome their addiction problem.
This Conservative bill is too short-sighted. We notice this problem frequently with this government. It thinks only about the immediate future. It says it does not want to encourage this kind of behaviour.
I would really like it if there were no more drugs and no more drug addicts in society. I think that all my NDP colleagues dream about this at night, but it is not the real situation.
Right now, drugs are being distributed to younger and younger people in schools and other places. People get into drug use. Social problems can lead people to use hard drugs, and then they become addicted.
The reality is that unfortunately people become addicts. At the end of the day, we want to help them recover from their addiction.
This bill presupposes that we do not want people to use drugs. We do not want to see this, so they will go and hide in the streets or back alleys. This is not how addiction problems should be dealt with. Whether we like it or not, if these people do not feel accepted by the wider community or welcomed into a safe environment, they will not want to recover from their problems.
We want this program to work. InSite is the only supervised injection site in North America. However, in Quebec there is a service called Cactus Montréal. As I am a north shore MP, it is perhaps more relevant to our local situation, but I can tell you that the people at Cactus Montréal are watching InSite and all the progress it is making. They say it is a great project and that ultimately they would like to do the same thing.
InSite is the sole progressive example of a community that got organized and found an innovative solution to this problem. However, the government is setting up roadblocks, with requirements that are completely ridiculous to make sure that they cannot even operate. This flies in the face of the Supreme Court ruling that said it was legal and that InSite should continue its operations. The court added that these facilities are completely legal under section 7 of the charter.
I want to go back over a few statistics, because I think they are interesting. I have already said that the people who go to InSite at least once a week are 1.7 times more likely to enter a recovery program. In addition, 80% of the people questioned who live or work in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside support InSite. In spite of the “not in my backyard” syndrome, people who live in that area support the project.
I have been to Vancouver a number of times. I was even accompanied by the member for Vancouver East when I went to look at the real situation there. I can tell you that InSite works. The people support it and are happy to have this innovative service that takes in people who all too often are marginalized by society.
I am urging the Conservative members to reconsider this attack on InSite and other care services, which may perhaps be outside the norm, but which are innovative and really help people who are unfortunately addicted to drugs or have other drug problems.
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Mr. Speaker, I served as a trustee on the Waterloo county board of education for a number of years. As chair of the board, I visited many schools. I am a father of three and a grandfather of nine children.
I have a question for my colleague. Does she not think it is reasonable for a school community or the parents in that community to have a say as to whether one of these injection sites is brought into their neighbourhood? I cannot understand why they would not, at the very least. This bill would give members of the community a say as to where these sites would be built.
I would like my colleague to tell us whether as a mother, grandmother, or aunt she would want one of these facilities in her backyard.
Charmaine Borg NDP Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
Mr. Speaker, I already answered that question, but perhaps the hon. member did not hear me. If he had heard me, he would not be asking the question.
I hear “not in my backyard”. However, 80% of the respondents living or working in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, where InSite is located, are in favour of that facility and support it. Therefore, this site enjoys widespread support.
I do not have the honour of being a mother, but I have two young nieces. Should they ever fall into the trap of addiction, I would want them to have access to support services and be accepted by the community, so that they would not feel isolated and end up on the streets or dying from an overdose.
François Pilon NDP Laval—Les Îles, QC
Mr. Speaker, my question is somewhat related to the question the member opposite just asked.
Would my dear colleague rather not know whether her children can walk around and play in parks because there are needles? With a facility like InSite, needles would all be in the same location, and not in parks.
Charmaine Borg NDP Terrebonne—Blainville, QC
Mr. Speaker, I would just like to share an interesting statistic directly related to Cactus Montréal. This is a needle exchange service, and the people who run it hope some day to provide the same service as InSite, because they know it works.
In 2000, Cactus Montréal distributed and collected 400,000 needles on the streets. That is a huge number. Just think of the individuals who would reuse these needles and risk contracting a disease such as HIV or AIDS. Imagine a huge pile of 400,000 needles. That is the kind of work they do.
Cactus Montréal is a different organization, but its needle exchange service is clearly essential, not only for the health of individuals who, unfortunately, have an addiction, but also for the health of children who can find needles on the streets. This initiative protects them all.
Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak to Bill C-2, an act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. I am not pleased with the act, but I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak against it, because the act does serious damage to the notion of what government ought to be doing to help some of the most vulnerable people in our country, those who are seriously at risk of dying because of an addiction to a particular drug.
Maybe Conservatives do not have any sympathy for addicts, except for Mr. Ford, in Ontario. I do not know, but they certainly seem to be willing to put at very serious risk of death and further harm people who, by their circumstances, end up being addicted to drugs and could make use of a place such as InSite in Vancouver. They tried to shut it down, and they were told by the Supreme Court of Canada that they could not do it, so they are trying an end run around safe injection sites with this legislation.
Let us look at some raw numbers and the reason this safe injection site was established in the first place. There was a situation in the Lower Eastside of Vancouver in the mid-1990s, when about 200 people a year were dying from drug overdoses. That is a serious public health issue. It is a serious crisis in public safety. There were all sorts of other harms associated with all that activity.
InSite was established to provide a safe place where those who were addicted could inject. It was supervised by professionals who were not only providing a safe place but were also providing other services, such as referrals and access to medical services, counselling, and programs that would lead to detoxification and overcoming their addictions.
In fact, users of this site were nearly two times as likely to go to a detox centre and go on drug programs than those who may have gone there occasionally. It was not the idea to allow the addiction to continue. It was an opportunity to get them out of addiction. As a result, twice the rate of participation in detoxification programs to get off drugs took place.
When InSite started to operate, the number of fatalities from drug overdoses in the Lower Eastside in Vancouver went down by 35%. We are talking about 70 individuals a year whose lives were saved as a result of this. Those are a lot of human lives that one particular program was able to save by being in existence. What was the government's response? It was to get rid of harm reduction as a principle of drug treatment and to shut down InSite. It is trying an end run around the Supreme Court with this particular action.
Another statistic reported in a leading medical journal deals with the fact that there were 273 overdoses in a one-year period at InSite, but not one fatality, not one. That is indicative of the fact that the supervision of the safe injection site leads to greater safety and a lack of deaths. That is how it happens. When we add up some of these facts and the startling number of 70 lives a year saved, what is the possible excuse or reason the government has for introducing this legislation?
One thing we hear about often, even from the current government and lots of others, is something called evidence-based decision-making. We have heard that before: evidence-based decision-making. A good, sensible, reasonable government should be making decisions based on evidence.
What do we have here? We have more than 30 peer-reviewed studies published in some of the leading medical journals in the world. Members will have heard of them. They include the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the pre-eminent medical journals in the world; The Lancet, another significant British medical journal, which publishes only serious peer-reviewed, high-standard, high-quality studies; and the British Medical Journal.
More than 30 peer-reviewed studies have described the beneficial impacts of InSite, just this one particular operation. Some people and many studies have looked for the negative impact, but none have come up with any evidence demonstrating harm to the community.
We have a situation where the evidence is on the side of the use of places like InSite to facilitate harm reduction, the saving of lives, detoxification, helping addicts to get off drugs and making communities safer.
Those are the facts. That is the evidence that is brought to this. There is support from organizations like the Canadian Medical Association. It is hardly interested in promoting the use of drugs. It is hardly interested in having activities that are bad for patients and individuals. It sees it as a positive thing, and it has criticized the government for bringing forward Bill C-2.
Who else? The Canadian Nurses Association said:
Evidence demonstrates that supervised injection sites and other harm reduction programs bring critical health and social services to vulnerable populations—especially those experiencing poverty, mental illness and homelessness.
Here is the kicker. They said:
A government truly committed to public health and safety would work to enhance access to prevention and treatment services—instead of building more barriers.
That is what we have here, a building of more barriers to helping people who are addicted to drugs.
My community of St. John's East has its share of serious drug problems. They have escalated to the point now where we have hold-ups of convenience stores and gas stations taking place. There are houses being broken in to get money to buy drugs. Some of these drugs are actually prescription drugs. There's OxyContin, a major, significant, addictive prescription drug.
How did that become the bane of so many people's existence? It is something that was supposed to be reserved for only the most serious of pain in the rarest of circumstances. I do not want to exaggerate, but I have heard people say that it is being prescribed for anything from wisdom teeth being extracted to very low levels of pain, as commonly as any other painkiller, instead of being reserved for that particular rare occasion when someone was in such serious pain that addiction was not an issue, perhaps because they were in palliative care or were about to die.
In the time I have left, I do want to say that we have serious problems. There can be solutions. The government should be working very hard to find solutions. Instead, what we see is government acting against the medical profession's advice, that of the Canadian Nurses Association, the Canadian Medical Association and all sorts of significant scientific studies that have demonstrated the value of sites such as InSite in Vancouver. We see it taking action to make it nearly impossible for anyone to open further injection sites and perhaps making another attack to try to shut down InSite once again when it gets the opportunity to do so.
As I said at the beginning, I am glad I have had the chance to speak on this bill because I do oppose it. We are against this approach. We think this is a seriously harmful bill that will cause death to individuals who are vulnerable in our society because of their addictions, not allowing them to even get near the help they need. They will stay away. Obviously they will not be able to be near that.
If people are worried about heroin addicts in their backyards, they are going to find addicts a lot closer to their backyards if they do not have a site like InSite that can actually help deliver harm reduction and vital medical and other health services to these individuals.