Canadian Lawyer

8 A U G U S T 2 0 1 5 w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m \ AT L A N T I C \ C E N T R A L \ W E S T REGIONAL WRAP-UP Coderre vows to bring safe injection sites to Montreal "T here's a new sheriff in town," said Montreal mayor Denis Coderre when he took the city's helm last year. The declaration was in style with his flamboyant character known to anyone who has followed federal poli- tics in the last 20 years, during which he won six elections as a Liberal MP. People got used to his populist style, which drove many to think he was more show than substance. But as mayor of Montreal, he seems to have found a position for which he is well-suited. He's shown the strength and the resolve to stand his ground, fac- ing down the city's all-powerful public unions. He's still a showman, but he gets results. He has demonstrated his willing- ness to co-operate with political oppo- nents and thus win them over, which in turn keeps the public and the media on his side. The contrast with his dithering predecessor, whose administration was probed by the Charbonneau Commission on corruption in public works contracts, couldn't be starker. When Coderre declared in June that the city would set up several supervised injection sites, similar to Vancouver's Insite facility, he revived the hopes of lawyer Louis Letellier de St-Just, a health law expert specializing in HIV/AIDS and mental health issues, and founding member and board president of Cactus Montréal, a community organization devoted to the prevention of blood-borne and sexually transmitted diseases. Cactus Montréal has run a successful needle exchange program since it was founded 25 years ago. It was, at the time, the first such program in North America. Coderre said he wouldn't wait forever for Ottawa to grant the exemption that is required by s. 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to set up the injection sites. "What are we waiting for? People are dying," he said at the news conference. Federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose said a public consultation was needed to allow the exemption accord- ing to a new piece of legislation requir- ing that neighbourhoods where the sites would be situated be consulted before- hand. She was not surprised that the mayor, who "was a former teammate of Justin Trudeau" wants to open drug injection houses without any public consultation, she said. Coderre accused the Harper govern- ment of playing politics with an important public health issue. He said the Supreme Court of Canada's 2011 decision Canada (Attorney General) v. PHS Community Services Society made the exemption pro- cess a formality and, also, that the provin- cial government was on board. Letellier de St-Just, who represented Cactus Montréal as an intervener before the SCC in the Insite case, doesn't play politics but rather navigates patiently. "We have been waiting for government grants for years," he told Canadian Lawyer. "Now it seems that Quebec has agreed to finance the sites." He is not holding his breath for the federal government's agreement. It is openly against this sort of initiative, he says. "Their response to the SCC deci- sion in the Insite facility case was to introduce Bill C-2." Although Health Canada says that running an injection site could lead to legal action, Letellier de St-Just thinks the province could simply decide not to prosecute, in the same way the authorities acted regarding abortion when Henry Morgentaler was acquit- ted over and over. They just refused to enforce the anti-abortion section of the Criminal Code. "In 1989, when the HIV crisis was at its peak as the disease was spreading fast, Quebec's health minister Thérèse Lavoie-Roux supported our needle-exchange program regardless of the possible encroachment of federal laws," he said. In the present situation, even if the federal government has introduced new restrictions (through Bill C-2), he thinks the project is in the clear since it was introduced before C-2 was enacted and thus wouldn't have to go through the whole exemption-seeking bureau- cratic process again. In any case, "the project is a 200-page document that respects all the elements required by the new law," he said. The City of Montreal, the health authorities, both at the municipal and provincial levels, are on board, and even the Montreal police department acquiesced to the implementation pro- cess. Coderre is willing to wait until the fall for the feds to make a move — or not — before creating the facilities. Just in time for the election. — PASCAL ELIE pascalelie636@gmail.com C E N T R A L A safe injection kit ready for use at Vancouver's Insite facility. ANDY CLARK / REUTERS

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