Violating the Fundamental Rights to Life, Liberty and Security of the Person: Bill C-2 and its Implications on Supervised Consumption Sites in Canada

Abstract

In 2015, the Conservative federal government passed Bill C-2, the Respect for Communities Act⏤amending the requirements of applications for exemption from the Canadian Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. These exemptions allowed for supervised consumption sites to legally operate within Canada. The guiding principle behind such services is to promote and protect health through a variety of means, such as: reducing incidence rates of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis C, and other sexually-transmitted and blood-borne infections; and reducing mortality rates from substance overdose. The reform sought to regulate the exemption application, however, it created an onerous process which made it substantially more difficult to obtain exemptions. The bill was a direct outcome of the ruling of Canada (Attorney General) v. PHS Community Services Society due to the failure by the then Minister of Health, Tony Clement, to grant an extension to Insite, Canada’s first legally-exempted supervised consumption site. Within two years, another bill was introduced in an attempt to remove unnecessary barriers created by Bill C-2. As a result of the swift amendments to Bill C-2, there was no formal evaluation conducted to assess the impacts of this reform. Many opponents of Bill C-2 argued that this legislation made it more difficult to develop new or maintain existing supervised consumption sites and as a result violated the rights of the users of these services.

Keywords

• canadian controlled drugs and substances act
• canadian charter of rights and freedoms
• supervised consumption site
• drug use
• overdose
• human rights