Facing a legal challenge over its decision to close several supervised consumption sites, the Ontario government has hired outside investigators to gather information about the sites.
Ema Popovic, a spokesperson for Minister of Health Sylvia Jones, said the province has hired a “third party” to gather evidence about the impact of the sites, as it prepares for litigation “aimed at keeping drug injection sites open next to where children learn and play.”
Last year, the Ontario government fast-tracked legislation banning these sites from being within 200 metres of schools and daycares and effectively preventing any more from opening. The new law will force five supervised consumption sites in Toronto to shut down by the end of March.
A legal challenge to the legislation was launched by The Neighbourhood Group, a Toronto social services agency, in December. It argues the legislation violates both the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Constitution, including the right to life, liberty and security of the person.
Bill Sinclair, CEO of The Neighbourhood Group, said staff at the agency’s child-care centre were approached by investigators last week.
Sinclair said two people came to the child-care centre and were asking about the impact of the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site that the agency operates. The site is one of five in Toronto that’s slated to close in March because it’s located near the agency’s child-care centre.
“I don’t know if they didn’t know that we’re the same organization or they were just following their mandate, which is asking everyone,” he said.
The individuals left business cards that said they worked for an investigative services firm and said they were hired by a lawyer, Sinclair said.
As the future of Ontario’s supervised consumption sites goes before the courts, Metro Morning host David Common spoke to a researcher about whether the facilities actually lead to an increase in crime.
Community anxious as word spreads: reverend
Sinclair said he’s heard from other community members who have been approached by investigators as well, asking questions about how they feel about supervised consumption sites.
“It was a bit shocking and unsettling to have it happen,” he said.
In a news release, Toronto Overdose Prevention Society says it has also heard concerns from frontline workers, residents and local businesses in the city over private investigators entering buildings where supervised consumption sites are located and questioning staff members.
Ontario’s shifting approach to the drug overdose crisis has ignited a fierce debate between those who see supervised consumption sites as critical spaces that save lives every day and others who say they’ve made the neighbourhoods where they’re located unsafe.
Rev. Canon Maggie Helwig of the Church of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields, located near the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site, said she hasn’t been approached by any of the investigators personally or seen them talking to people near her church.
But word has spread about the private investigators in the area, which is making community members quite anxious, she said.
“Obviously for people who are using this site, this just increases their anxiety, their sense of stigma, their sense that they’re being blamed for whatever problems there might be in the neighborhood,” she said.
The Ontario government already commissioned two reviews of the sites following the killing of a Toronto woman in 2023, who was hit by a stray bullet from a shooting near one of the sites in Leslieville. Neither of the reviews found consumption sites should close
Sinclair said the charter challenge is slated to be heard in court this March, before the sites are supposed to shutter.