This backgrounder provides information about the constitutional challenge to Ontario’s Community Care and Recovery Act launched by The Neighbourhood Group Community Services and two individual applicants who argue that the closure of Consumption and Treatment Services Sites in Ontario violates Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Overdose mortality and the legitimacy crisis facing policing have propelled momentum for drug law reform. Yet, resulting reforms and associated protections are often functionally undermined by enforcement practices and the legal environment faced by people who use drugs. To explore this tension, we conducted a community-based study in Ontario, Canada. Our findings show that people’s … Read more
The HIV Legal Network and HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (“HIV Coalition”) intervene jointly in this case to address the direct, deadly, and disproportionately adverse impact of ss. 2 and 3 of the Community Care and Recovery Act, 2024, S.O. 2024, c. 27, Sch. 2 (“impugned provisions”) on the rights of diverse communities of … Read more
Everyone — including people who have been detained — has a right to the highest attainable standard of health and to healthcare that is at least equivalent to that which is available in the community, whatever their immigration status. The current system — which allows for indefinite and punitive detention without comprehensive oversight — fails … Read more
The HIV Legal Network urges the Ontario government to withdraw the Safer Municipalities Act, which will do nothing to address the crisis of homelessness and drug toxicity deaths in the province, and only further harm people who use drugs, particularly those who are unhoused.
Submitted Wednesday, November 20, 2024 to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
On November 18, 2024, the Ontario government tabled Bill 223, Safer Streets, Stronger Communities Act, 2024. While the bill amends several laws, of relevance to drug policy is Schedule 4 of the legislation, titled Community Care and Recovery Act, 2024. This Q&A explains what is entailed in this Act.
The HIV Legal Network recently launched a pair of new resources designed to provide information about Canada’s confusing and racist drug laws, for Black and Indigenous people. For Indigenous communities, these “Know Your Rights” resources were produced in partnership with CAAN, Communities, Alliances and Networks. For African, Caribbean, and Black communities, we worked with the … Read more