This statement can be attributed to the HIV Legal Network
The Ford Government’s persistent attack on supervised consumption services and people who use drugs will end in further deaths
October 27, 2025 –TORONTO – We are horrified by the Government of Ontario’s decision to force the closure of the Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) site at the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, which has been operating for more than 7 years, within just 30 days. People will die or suffer preventable injuries because of this decision. The government knows well that it is trampling on the health and human rights of its own constituents.
Their attacks on supervised consumption services (SCS) started back in 2018, when the government placed restrictions on SCS and an artificial cap on the number of sites it was willing to fund. This spring, Ontario legislation called the Community Care and Recovery Act forced more than half of operating SCS in the province to close and made it virtually impossible for new SCS to open. This was despite the government’s own experts warning that the legislation would result in more deaths and likely violated the Canadian Charter.
In particular, the government knew closing sites would put immense pressure on the remaining SCS — a reality which has come to fruition over the past six months. The government is now using this pressure that they knowingly created to justify dismantling additional life-saving services in the province by deploying their power over social and health services: funding. They already used it to limit access to needle and syringe programs despite more than three decades of experience proving that such programs prevent HIV and hepatitis C transmission. It is unjustifiable to force sites to privately fundraise to stay open. Health care is the province’s responsibility, and Canada’s highest court has recognized that SCS are health care that saves lives.
Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre’s CTS will not be the last site to be targeted in this way. If this decision stands, people who use drugs will die as the health services they rely on are shuttered.
We cannot let this happen. The time is now to send a strong message to the Government of Ontario.
We demand that the Government of Ontario safeguard and protect the health and lives of all Ontarians at a times when the province is experiencing preventable toxic drug deaths and injury alongside a crisis of homelessness.
We demand that Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre’s CTS remain open and that the Community Care and Recovery Act be repealed. Ontario must keep funding the site, or at the very least allow the Centre to operate via federal exemption.
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Please email your MPP today to tell them that you believe in evidence, dignity, and life — and that you expect the same from your government representatives. Find their email address here.