Can 200 Police Chiefs be Wrong?

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Flubber


Why slam the goverment so soon? Obviously there must be varied opionions on these things or the previous government's wouldn't have set up a single centre as a trial.

Do you really believe the government hasn't already made their decision on this? It's not like the issue has snuck up on them.

Steve knows what he is going to do he just won't share with the rest of us.

[Flubber]

Originally posted by Wezil


Do you really believe the government hasn't already made their decision on this? It's not like the issue has snuck up on them.

Steve knows what he is going to do he just won't share with the rest of us.

I don't necessarily think that this ranked high enough to be a top priority but when they have a decision they should share it. I suspect harper would be a law and order guy so would listen to the police

[Wezil]

I suspect the same thing which is why he won't announce the decision until the last moment.

More of the media control Steve is big on.

[joncha]

I live in the Downtown Eastside. In the time the Insite has been open, there have been less people shooting up in my alley and less people dying in my neighbourhood.

Before the Four Pillars strategy was put into effect, we had over a decade of war-on-drugs type approaches to the problem. They not only didn't work, they made the problem worse. This is why even the most conservative politicians in the city support the project.

Harper and Clement aren't stupid. They know all this, which is why they didn't cancel it outright. Instead of standing up for it, though, they tried to just moved it quietly away to avoid a fight with the ideologues in their party.

I'm hopeful that sometime over the next year or so, it will just as quietly be renewed. It wouldn't shock me if they decided to keep playing politics with it, though.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by joncha
This is why even the most conservative politicians in the city support the project.

But apparently not the police chief.

[joncha]

Wrong. Vancouver's chief of police supports the plan. He's not one of the vaunted 200.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by joncha
Wrong. Vancouver's chief of police supports the plan. He's not one of the vaunted 200.

Very interesting.

How do his fellow chiefs explain that?!

[joncha]

They don't, as far as I can tell.

[Wezil]

Maybe NYE will have that article....

[notyoueither]

Actually, I've misled you. I thought that it would be common knowledge that the CPA is the group that represents law enforcement personnel across the country. The 200 are the regional associations, not the chiefs.

[Wezil]

Ahh, that would explain the omission.

I thought it was somewhat deceitful to mention the 200 when the local 1 was contrary.

Police associations will never support measures and laws that would reduce their numbers. A union like any other.

[Wezil]

I'd love to get off the fence on this issue. Does anyone have some good links (pro and con)?

My concern is the same as that of the proposed (and now officially dead) decriminalization of THC. It seems silly on the one hand to increase demand while on the other keeping the supply illegal. I think it puts officers at increased risk.

[Wezil]

The Supreme Court will decide.

The future of a unique, supervised drug-injection site in Vancouver will be decided in the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Court said Thursday that it decide whether the federal government has authority to shut down the Downtown Eastside clinic - the first such clinic in North America to allow addicts to inject themselves with prohibited drugs under a nurse's supervision.

The case has turned into an important jurisdictional struggle between the province and federal governments.

In January, the B.C. Court of Appeal decided 2-1 that the province has jurisdiction over Insite for Community Safety since it provides addicts with health care, which is within provincial jurisdiction.

The court found that it was not necessary to rule on the facility's constitutional right to exist since it is a provincial responsibility. Its ruling upheld a 2008 trial decision by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Pitfield, who found that the facility reduces the risk of death and disease for addicts, and the application of federal laws violated its clients' Charter rights to life, liberty and security of the person.

However, federal lawyers maintain that, while addicts need help, providing a safe injection site is the wrong way to go about doing it.

“Our national anti-drug strategy focuses on prevention and access to treatment for those with drug dependencies,'' federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said after the B.C. Court of Appeal ruling last January.

His statement prompted B.C. Health Minister Kevin Falcon to express disappointment with the federal government's opposition to a program that has had solid support in the medical community and in medical journals.

The $3-million Insite facility was opened in 2003 after it was specifically exempted from federal drug laws. Health Canada initially granted a three-year exemption under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to establish it as a scientific research project. The federal Conservative government objected to it in recent years, however, the province continued allowing the facility to operate.

In 2008, the Portland Hotel Society and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users launched a constitutional challenge of the federal government's power to close the facility, arguing the site saves lives and money.

Clinic supporters maintain that it is a cost effective way of preventing overdose deaths, limiting the spread of disease and moving more people into addiction treatment programs. Many of its participants are homeless, have serious mental health issues or disabling illnesses. Besides the drug injection service, it offers nursing care, nutritious meals and art therapy.

The appeal will be heard next fall at the earliest.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/supreme-court-to-decide-future-of-bc-injection-site/article1616194/

Btw, why don't Conservatives use the "police can't be wrong" argument with regard to the gun registry? Our police support it but Conservatives don't.

[DinoDoc]

Necromancy is bad.

[Al B. Sure!]

4 years later...