Quebec Mulls Safe-Injection Clinics

But the Supreme Court's ruling on InSite might not have given the provinces the necessary grounds to follow B.C.'s lead.

Quebec's health minister says the province will soon make a decision on whether or not it should open a safe-injection clinic now that the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Vancouver's InSite clinic can stay open. Yves Bolduc says the Quebec government is discussing the legality of opening such a clinic with its lawyers, and will have an answer in a matter of days. The InSite clinic, in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, provides nurses and sterilized equipment to prevent heroin users from spreading disease or overdosing. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the province of British Columbia has the ultimate say over the fate of the clinic, as the federal government had argued that InSite broke the Criminal Code. The court said that closing the clinic would amount to a violation of the S. 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the right to life and security of the person. The court's ruling, however, did not explicitly open the doors for all other provinces to open their own clinics, a fact upon which Macleans' Paul Wells elucidates here.