Alberta judge dismisses bid to stall closure of supervised drug sites

A judge has dismissed a last-ditch legal effort to temporarily halt the closures of two supervised consumption sites in Alberta, citing a similar effort to stall another shuttered site.

Lawyer Avnish Nanda applied for an injunction in April to pause the closures in Calgary and in Lethbridge, as he pursues an ongoing lawsuit challenging the province’s decision to wind the sites down.

He’s arguing the closures breach several sections of the Charter, including the right to life, liberty and security.

The sites provide substance users with sterile equipment for drug use and staffed supervision in case of an overdose. Both are now expected to close June 30.

In his decision, Court of King’s Bench Justice Jason Wilkins in Calgary says he’s bound by the precedent of a higher court.

The Alberta Court of Appeal dismissed a separate application seeking an injunction against the closure of a supervised consumption site in Red Deer, also sought by Nanda.

“While the applicants are different persons … the issues are otherwise the same in all of the ways that matter,” Wilkins said Tuesday.

“I have determined the issues before me require no fresh analysis.”

Nanda’s client, Travis Peddie, says in an affidavit that he’s an addict and has used the sites in Calgary and Lethbridge for the past seven years. He says he has frequently overdosed at both sites, but staff have repeatedly saved him.

Calgary’s sole facility, housed at the Sheldon M. Chumir Health Centre in the city’s core, opened in October 2017 as the first of the province’s supervised consumption sites. It was followed by six others.

Municipal leadership in Lethbridge voted in December to request the Alberta government close that city’s only overdose prevention unit, a mobile site that has been provincially run since August 2020.

“There’s thousands of people who rely on this service for day-to-day survival. These are the most vulnerable Albertans in our communities. How can we just turn our back on them?” Nanda said in an interview, adding he plans to appeal.

Data from Alberta’s substance use surveillance system dashboard shows that from October to December of last year, more than 9,000 people used the site in Calgary and more than 15,000 used the one in Lethbridge.

Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis said in March that funding for the two sites would be transitioned into different support services, including 30 to 40 new withdrawal management beds in Calgary, and 10 more withdrawal beds and an addiction medicine clinic in Lethbridge.

“People will not be left without support,” Ellis told reporters after announcing the closures.

The government has been gradually shuttering such facilities across the province as it shifts to a recovery-centred approach.

Most recently, in December, the United Conservative Party government brought an end to the supervised drug consumption site at Royal Alexandra Hospital in downtown Edmonton. The province said it planned to replace it with a rapid access treatment site.

The remaining three sites in the province are in Edmonton and Grande Prairie.

Nanda’s separate lawsuit challenging the permanent closure of the site in Red Deer, on behalf of his client Aaron Brown, is pending a decision from the Alberta Court of Appeal.

“It could very well be that we win in the Red Deer case, but we’ve shut down the site in Calgary and Lethbridge, exposing so many people to harms that could have been averted,” Nanda said.

“I understand where the court is coming from. But just in the circumstances here, with the outstanding appeal, I would have hoped they would have actually assessed this application on the evidence and arguments before the court.”