Pubdate: Fri, 07 Oct 2011
Source: North Shore News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2011 North Shore News
Contact:  http://www.nsnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/311
Author: Don Robertson

INSITE DECISION MERITS MP COMMENT

Dear Editor:

Thanks for your excellent Oct. 2 editorial, Strong Constitution, 
enthusiastically supporting the Supreme Court decision with respect 
to the safe injection site we know as Insite.

For the last decade I have been a volunteer in the Downtown Eastside 
of Vancouver. A sign at the front of the building out of which I 
volunteer reads Keep Insite Open. That means keep people in the 
neighborhood from dying; keep disease and illness from spreading; 
keep addicts from losing their human dignity by being forced to shoot 
up on the streets and in the alleyways. The many reasons for keeping 
Insite open were clearly evident to all in the neighbourhood and to 
virtually all health professionals.

Therefore it was, as you have stated, "morally outrageous" to see the 
government of Canada expending precious resources to close down this 
life-saving community health resource. And while it is to their 
credit that an overwhelming number of local politicians gave their 
support to the continuing existence of a safe injection site in the 
Downtown Eastside, the same cannot be said of the two local members 
of Parliament, Andrew Saxton and John Weston, whose government fought 
an irrational fight to close it down, allowing ideology to trump the 
evidence which was so clearly expressed in the Supreme Court 
decision: namely, drug addiction is a health issue and, as a health 
centre, Insite saves lives.

I have yet to hear from our local members of Parliament their reasons 
for being complicit in the incomprehensible and potentially 
death-dealing campaign conducted by their government. A public 
response by our two Conservative members of Parliament to the Supreme 
Court decision would be appreciated and perhaps indicative of where 
they stand as, indeed, the battle for a progressive response to the 
issue of drug addiction is not over.

Don Robertson,

North Vancouver
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