Ontario's supervised consumption site law violates Charter, group says in legal challenge

A social services agency that operates a supervised consumption site in Toronto has filed a legal challenge against recently passed Ontario legislation that will shut down several such sites and effectively prevent new ones from opening.

The Neighbourhood Group Community Services agency, along with two people who use or have used supervised consumption sites, argue the legislation violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as the Constitution.

They argue the law infringes on the right to life, liberty and security of the person by forcing people who use the sites to instead resort to unhealthy and unsafe consumption, which carries an increased risk of death from overdose.

The challenge also argues the legislation goes against the division of powers between Ottawa and provinces, in that only the federal government can make criminal law and try to suppress what it considers a "socially undesirable practice."

Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government has taken a hard line on supervised consumption sites in favour of an abstinence-based model for treatment.

The government fast-tracked legislation that prohibits any supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of a school or daycare, and is set to close 10 sites that are within that range.

Instead, the province plans to put in place 19 new "homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs," plus 375 highly supportive housing units at a planned cost of $378 million.

Ontario's auditor general found in her latest report that the province's opioid strategy is outdated and a new, comprehensive approach is needed to deal with the ongoing crisis.

In the report released last week, Shelley Spence also found that more than 1,600 overdoses were reversed in 2022-23 at the sites slated to close, and no one died of an overdose at those locations in the same time frame.

Under the legislation, the 10 sites have to close by March 31, 2025.