Ontarios drug-site law violates Charter, Constitution, group says in legal challenge [Video]

Recently passed Ontario legislation that will shutter several supervised consumption sites and effectively prevent new ones from opening in the province violates both the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Constitution, a community organization argues in a legal challenge filed this week.

The Neighbourhood Group Community Services agency, which operates a privately funded supervised consumption site in Toronto’s Kensington Market area, launched the challenge alongside two people who use or have used such sites.

They argue the law infringes on several Charter-protected rights, including the right to life, liberty and security of the person.

Closing supervised consumption sites violates that right by forcing people who use them to resort to unhealthy and unsafe consumption, which carries a higher risk of death from overdose and increases the risk of criminal prosecution, they argue.

The challenge also argues the legislation goes against the division of powers between Ottawa and provinces, in that only the federal government can make criminal law and try …