B.C.'s health officer hopes federal support for Insite will lead to 'restrictive' bill's repeal

B.C.'s public health officer is hopeful federal Health Minister Jane Philpott'ssupport ofVancouver's supervisedinjection site leads to a repeal of a bill he says is blockingsimilar sites.

"It's hugely encouraging. It means that science, compassion, common sense are going to hopefully come to the fore when we look at these kind of harm reduction initiatives," saidDr. Perry Kendall.

In a move that places her in stark contrast toher Conservative predecessor,Philpott toured the Insite clinic Thursday while visiting Vancouver for a meeting with provincial health ministers.

"It was a verymovingexperience for me. I wanted to commend all of those who had worked so hard to make it possible and toencouragethem and let them know that our government will continue to work to reduce harm to Canadians," she said.

Kendall says Bill C-2, passed by Stephen Harper's conservativeslast year,places serious hurdles in the way of bringing more places like Insite to B.C., andCanada:

"It was clearly designed as an obstacle to further supervised injection sites."

Under C-2, an exemption must be granted to any government hoping to open such an establishment, whichrequires a large amount of documentation.

'Insuperable barriers'

"It places huge, almost insuperable barriers in terms of the information that has to be gathered, letters of support," saidKendall.

Canada's only other supervisedinjection site, also in Vancouver, is theDr. Peter Centre. For the past 13years, ithadbeen operating by the grace of the province andpolice whoturned a blind eye to what was technically illegal drug use inside.

The Dr. Peter Centre receivedan exemptionlast weekand can nowcontinue operations legally. But itapplied for theexemption before Bill C-2 passed, and wasgranted anexemption to a different law. What if it had applied for an exemption to Bill C-2?

"They would have had extraordinary difficulties doing it, even in an environment where you have political support, policing support, neighbourhood support and provincial support," Kendall said.