Insite pioneers say government open to more supervised injection services now that the Tories are gone.
A Liberal majority government will open the door for more supervised injection sites across Canada, according to Larry Campbell.
The Liberal senator was Vancouver’s mayor when Insite became the first supervised injection site in North America.
It remains the only facility of its kind (although the Dr. Peter Centre also provides injection services for clients), thanks to Stephen Harper’s repeated failed attempts to shut it down through the courts and legislation making it almost impossible for other cities to adopt a similar model.
But with a clear Justin Trudeau election night victory, the battle between evidence-based harm reduction and ideology is over, said Campbell.
“I think we’ll see harm reduction back on the table,” Campbell told Metro on Tuesday. “Insite wasn’t going anywhere, they won that battle. Two million injections and no deaths, the evidence is there. It’s a win for communities that wanted it as [Conservatives] made it impossible to build supervised injection sites anywhere else.”
Hedy Fry, the re-elected Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre, said her party was a key partner in the Vancouver Agreement that led to Insite.