VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — When Liberal Party candidate Justin Trudeau was elected Prime Minister of Canada last October, Maxine Davis breathed a sigh of relief.
Years of Conservative government, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, had placed the long-term future of the Dr. Peter Centre, the first facility in North America to offer supervised injections for drug users, in limbo.
Since 2002, the non-profit HIV/AIDS clinic led by Davis had, in violation of federal law, offered the controversial service in which medically-trained professionals supervise drug injectors — typically heroin users, although fentanyl use is becoming increasingly common — to ensure they remain safe through a strategy known as “harm reduction.”
But the Conservatives’ Minister of Health, Davis says, continuously refused to sign for the Centre what is called a “Section 56 exemption” to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
“[The Conservatives] were not at all in support of supervised injections,” Davis said, which is why that crucial exemption — which exempts nurses who observe the injection of illegal drugs from being criminally charged — went unapproved.