Judge dismisses injunction over planned supervised consumption site policy

A judge has dismissed an emergency injunction filed against the Alberta government over new supervised consumption site policies.

The government plans to require supervised consumption site employees to ask clients for their healthcare card numbers, but it won’t be mandatory for clients to provide the information.

However, several advocacy groups say that asking for identification could deter people from using the service and potentially increase overdose deaths.

Related article:

‘The service, as it is, is chaotic’: Supervised consumption sites to be at homeless shelters

Moms Stop the Harm Society and the Lethbridge Overdose Prevention Society filed an emergency injunction late last year.

On Monday, Justice R. Paul Belzil ruled against the applicants and dismissed the injunction application.

BREAKING: Judge dismisses injunction against the #Alberta gov. It was filed by Moms Stop the Harm Society & Lethbridge Overdose Prevention Society to stop the province's new policy to ask supervised consumption site users for their health-care numbers. #abpoli #ableg — Decision: pic.twitter.com/d5t8VjK1i0

— Saif Kaisar (@StaySaif) January 10, 2022

Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Mike Ellis provided the following statement to CityNews.

“Recently, activist organizations sued the government to prevent Alberta from becoming the first jurisdiction in Canada to regulate supervised consumption services.

Today Alberta’s government received notification that the injunction application filed against the regulation has been dismissed by the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.

I am pleased that this court decision has come forward and that this much-needed regulation can move forward. These quality standards were introduced with the intention to improve community safety in the areas surrounding supervised consumption sites, improve the quality of services that are being offered to people with addiction, and ensure that clients are better connected to the healthcare system.

We will not allow our communities to become chaotic and disorderly and we must ensure that while we treat addiction as a healthcare issue, we are keeping communities safe. That is exactly what these quality standards will do and why they are essential to safe and orderly provision of high quality supervised consumption services as part of a recovery-oriented system of care.

These services must be provided in a manner that is fair to the community, that is assertive in dealing with illness of addiction, and that is compassionate to the person who is struggling. Most importantly, recovery must always be recognised as an achievable goal and clients should be assertively encouraged to pursue it.”

The province plans to start asking clients for their healthcare numbers on Jan. 31.