Some had tears in their eyes, some clapped, and others hugged each other with joy when the news was announced Friday morning that Vancouver’s supervised injection site will remain open.
The Supreme Court ruling stated that closing it would violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The decision ends a legal battle over whether federal attempts to close the safe injection site infringes on the charter rights of addicts under section seven: the right to life, liberty and security of the person.
Monique Pongracic-Speier, a lawyer with Ethos Law Group, said there were two arguments surrounding this ruling: whether this service is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the province and therefore the federal government does not have a role to play, and if they do have a role, whether it would be unconstitutional to close it down. Now that Insite has won this decision it is still up to the Minister of Health to decide about other safe injection sites on a case-by-case basis. This decision just concerns Insite.