On Thursday, Feb 28, join University of Ottawa Health Services for an evening of discussion about community-based harm reduction in Ottawa at Cafe Alt from 6:30-8:30pm. With special guests:
• Wendy Muckle, Executive Director of Ottawa Inner City Health (OICH)
• Sean LeBlanc, Chair of the Drug User’s Advocacy League (DUAL)

R.S.V.P. on Facebook

UOHS welcomes students and the community to join in this informative and engaging discussion. This presentation will be especially relevant to students in the fields of health, allied health, medicine and social work.

This past weekend, CSCS volunteers took to Winterlude to talk with people about supervised consumption sites & collect signatures on our petition to the provincial health minister. We had great conversations about harm reduction and received lots of positive feedback from Ottawans and tourists alike. There's no doubt that supervised consumption sites are a health service that people are ready to support in our community.

Thank you so much to our amazing volunteers! With your help, we're now at well over 1000 signatures on our paper petition, which we'll be submitting to the provincial legislature later in the year.

Professor Suzanne Bouclin of the Ottawa University Faculty of Law and Priyanka Vittal, a law student & CSCS volunteer, have co-authored a paper on the 2011 Supreme Court decision in favour of Insite remaining open, and what the decision means for the possibility of similar sites opening in Ottawa. The article is available in the December issue of the Canadian Journal of Poverty Law, and offers a valuable analysis of the legal aspects of this issue.

On September 29, 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled to allow a safer supervised consumption facility (SCF) to remain open under a section 56 exemption of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The decision has lent additional legitimacy to SCFs as a necessary health care service that is part of a comprehensive and holistic drug and addiction strategy. In part one of this comment, we describe the context in which Insite emerged in Vancouver, British Columbia. In part two, we discuss the legal mobilization that led to the Supreme Court decision and the framework under which Insite currently operates. In part three, we explore the decision’s implications for another jurisdiction – Ottawa, Ontario.

Read the full article here (PDF)

This video about Insite, created by the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, is an amazing look at the program, the people, and the vital place it holds in the community. Supervised consumption sites are about so much more than using drugs - they're also about compassionate health care, forming respectful connections with people, and providing help when it's needed.

Thank you to everyone who made it out to our movie night tonight! A big thanks to Gilles from DUAL for sharing his experience, to Chris for answering questions about the campaign, and to OPIRG for co-hosting the event.

You can sign on to the Break the Taboo campaign's call to world leaders to end the war on drugs and move towards a system based on decriminalisation, regulation, public health and education at breakingthetaboo.com.

Check out the Drug Users Advocacy League online at dualottawa.ca, and don't forget to like them on Facebook!