Judge blocks injunction to keep Calgary drug sites open during appeal
A Court of King's Bench justice denied an application to temporarily keep supervised consumption sites in Calgary and Lethbridge open while the province appeals a related closure case.
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Supervised drug consumption sites in Calgary and Lethbridge will close at month's end, a judge ruled Tuesday, denying an application to keep them open pending an Alberta Court of Appeal decision on a similar case.
Calgary Court of King's Bench Justice Jason Wilkins rejected the injunction request from counsel for Travis Peddie, a local drug user who relies on both facilities. Peddie had sought to block the province's closure decision while an appeal proceeded on whether closing a Red Deer supervised consumption site violated a user's Charter rights.
In his ruling, Wilkins noted that Peddie "has a physical and psychological compulsion to consume opioids and stimulants" and that his access to the public consumption service centres "have been mitigated to some degree" of the harms from street drugs.
Wilkins said he was bound by previous court decisions on the Red Deer site. Last August, Justice Debra Yungwirth had denied a similar injunction application from Aaron Brown, the Red Deer site's user, and a Court of Appeal finding had upheld that denial. "This issue has effectively been decided by the courts in Alberta," Wilkins said.