The Harper Regime's Inhuman Legacy Takes Another Blow

It was just another dull government statement of the kind they churn out all the time. But it really made my day.

Because what it means is that in another Canadian city, fewer people like those in the picture are going to die from drug overdoses. 

Today, Health Canada granted the necessary exemptions from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act for the operation of three new supervised consumption sites in Toronto.

And not only is that great news because of the thousands of lives that will be saved.

It's also another massive blow to the inhuman legacy of the monstrous Harper regime...



For Stephen Harper hated the idea of those sites with every bone in his body. He wanted to punish drug users not heal them, even as so many died alone and helpless.

And despite all the evidence that those clinics do save lives, as the wonderful Insite clinic has in Vancouver.  



International and Canadian evidence demonstrates that, when properly established and maintained, supervised consumption sites save lives without increasing drug use or crime in the surrounding area. 

The evidence also shows that they decrease infections and the transmission of communicable disease, and can also decrease the use of emergency departments, as well as hospital admissions related to injection drug use.

Harper ignored that evidence. He chose to put his foul ideology before the lives of so many Canadians. 

And when him and Rona Ambrose failed to close down the Insite Clinic, the Cons made it almost impossible to set up a similar site anywhere in Canada.

So that Health Canada announcement is a big slap in her face too...



It's an important step in the direction of a more humane and more effective drug strategy. 

And I'm especially pleased that one of the three sites chosen in Toronto is the South Riverdale Community Health Centre...



Which is a place I know well. It's staffed by good people, who know what they're doing, and make even the most humble members of the community feel at home.

And it has at one end of the building a memorial to those who died of drug overdoses or drug related causes....



So they might be remembered, by those who knew them and loved them.



And others might be reminded that those lives mattered too.

That's the kind of attitude I respect, and my kind of caring Canada.

So many have died, so many have suffered. It's still taking too long to do what needs to be done, to fight this epidemic of opioid abuse.

But at least the cruel Cons are gone, now we are making some progress.

Now we have some hope, where once there was almost none...