Toronto crowd rallies to fight closure of supervised drug consumption sites

At least 100 people gathered outside the Kensington Market supervised consumption site in a rally to keep it open in the face of new provincial rules that would shut at least a dozen such sites down across Ontario.

At least 100 people gathered outside the Kensington Market supervised consumption site in a rally to keep it open in the face of new provincial rules that would shut at least a dozen such sites down across Ontario.

Holding signs that said, “Life inside or death outside” and “Save the site, save lives,” protesters called for a reversal of the policy, which they believed would stop the work of the self-funded Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site and leave people with an addiction at the mercy of the toxic illicit drug market.

“This year alone, we reversed 50 overdoses, and saved 50 lives,” said the CEO of the group that runs the site, The Neighbourhood Group Community Services.

“We don’t know what will happen to people when we don’t have health care and services for people. We’re afraid people will be using in the street, in the parks, in the laneways and more people will die. We can prevent that,” he said.

Last month, the provincial government announced a ban on the operation of supervised consumption sites within 200 meters of a school or childcare centre.

It was in response to a shooting outside the South Riverdale Community Health Centre, which killed passerby Karolina Huebner-Makurat, a mother of three, with a stray bullet.

Instead, the government will put $387 million to create treatment hubs. Existing sites cannot move and reopen.