A bunch of posts back, showed the needles and crime up in Edmonton. But I hadn't seen this article originally.
Interesting how they rammed this through without consultation and are now claiming that they did not need to consult, and that there is no crime. But even if there is an increase in crime, you can't close them because it'll hurt the people injecting.
https://www.thestar.com/edmonton/201...-edmonton.html
Businesses and residents in Chinatown want two of the three supervised drug consumption sites in their area closed, claiming they weren’t properly consulted prior to the decision to open the sites.
Their argument, as well as that of the Access to Medically Supervised Injection Services Edmonton (AMSISE), is that consultation with third parties, like the Chinatown business association, was not outlined as a requirement when the legislation for applications of consumption sites was drafted by the federal government.
Edward Molstad, the lawyer representing the business association, counter-argued that legislation does require AMSISE to submit “expressions of community support or opposition” when submitting their applications. But he said the Chinatown community was not consulted properly, mainly due to what they claim is a language barrier, where many members of the community only speak Chinese.
“You can’t have community support or opposition without talking to the community,” Molstad told the court.
He also countered the claim of an increase in crime, saying it is purely based on speculation and that no concrete data exists to prove it as an issue.
Elford told the court that if speculation on crime rates is the basis of the business association’s concerns regarding the consumption sites, then the process of approving such sites would be greatly derailed. “It’ll never get done,” Elford said.
“Now is not the time to re-argue,” Nathan Whitling, the lawyer representing AMSISE, told the court.