Poilievre says Conservatives will defund and shutter some supervised consumption sites

Supervised consumption sites are just “drug dens” that a future Conservative government would not fund and in some cases close, Pierre Poilievre said Friday.

During a visit to a park near such in Montreal Poilievre said he would close all locations near schools, playgrounds and “anywhere else that they endanger the public.”

“Radical bureaucrats don’t have the right to open these drugs dens anywhere they want,” he said.

The first supervised injection site opened in Vancouver more than 20 years ago.

The sites are intended to try and prevent overdoses by allowing people to bring drugs to use under the observation of trained staff and provide access to clean supplies to reduce rates of HIV and other diseases.

A 2011 the Supreme Court ruling said that closing the Vancouver operation would deprive users of their Charter rights.

Poilievre said Friday that decision does not mean supervised drug sites can operate anywhere without any restrictions.

He said he believes “reasonable restrictions” can be placed on them to prevent them from opening “in locations that endanger the community, or where there is community opposition.”

Poilievre was a member of the Conservative government of Stephen Harper that passed the Respect for Communities Act following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision.

It required prospective supervised consumption sites to meet a suite of criteria in order to operate, such as tracking crime rates and consulting with local residents and police.

After they were elected in 2015, the Liberals passed their own law allowing facilities to open with more ease. There are now 39 supervised consumption sites, according to Health Canada, and another 10 open applications.