The judge deciding the fate of several supervised drug consumption sites in Ontario is calling everyone back into the courtroom.
Ontario Superior Court Justice John Callaghan is currently considering a Charter challenge that could overturn a Ford government law that outlaws supervised consumption sites within 200 metres of schools or childcare centres and bans any new sites from opening. The government has said it won't allow existing sites to relocate — meaning the law would essentially permanently shutter 10 sites.
Callaghan, who issued an injunction allowing the sites to stay open while he considers the case, has requested that the two sides — the province and the applicants challenging the law — reconvene in a downtown Toronto courtroom Monday morning.
Spencer Bass, a lawyer for the applicants, said he was unsure why Callaghan made the request and that it was "somewhat unusual" for the court to do so.
Callaghan grappled with weighty issues during the two days of oral arguments last week.
In his decision to grant the injunction preventing the sites from closing, he wrote that the issues at play are "complex" and that his decision will take time.
“Like British Columbia and Alberta, the current opioid crisis in Ontario is exceptional,” he wrote. “The closing of SCSs will cause significant harm across the province, including the loss of life.”
Granting the injunction "will have a substantial public benefit of preventing serious health risks and deaths which, in my view, outweighs the harm caused by the continued public disorder,” he wrote.
Callaghan will also have to contend with the province's lawyers' argument that the law does not ban the supervised consumption sites at issue — even though the government has said that its intent is to do so.
Despite the injunction allowing SCS sites to stay open, nine of the 10 at issue have chosen to stop offering harm reduction services as provincial funding is contingent on following its abstinence-only model.
Callaghan wrote that his judgment "will be released in the coming months.”
