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Years after Insite ruling, drug policy landscape is still being shaped in B.C.

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VANCOUVER – In 2021, the Vancouver-based Drug User Liberation Front approached Health Canada with a proposal.

It wanted permission to buy heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine on the dark web, before having the drugs tested for contaminants and selling them to users through its “compassion club and fulfilment centre.”

Health Canada rejected the application for exemption from drug laws, saying DULF’s plan presented too many public health and safety risks — but the group went ahead with it anyway, saying it would save lives.

The unsanctioned operation would trigger a political firestorm, arrests and constitutional challenges.

Lawyers for DULF are now waiting to hear if a judge will agree that Health Canada violated drug users’ Charter rights when it refused to grant the exemption, while DULF prepares a second Charter challenge as part of its defence of its two co-founders, Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum, who were arrested and charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking.

The court cases keep British Columbia on the cutting edge of the legal landscape around drug use and understanding of Canadians’ constitutional rights, more than a decade after a landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision that kept Vancouver’s Insite safe injection site open.

But one expert says that while the 2011 Insite decision set some key precedents, applying that decision to the DULF case is not necessarily straightforward.

Margot Young, a professor at the Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, said it’s difficult to know how the Insite decision will affect the DULF cases, particularly since Insite did not address selling of drugs.

She said the Insite ruling is often seen as site-specific to the work Insite does.

“That’s been of some concern with respect to opening other safer injection sites across Canada, although it has happened, and Insite does lead the way for that,” she said.

“But to say that there’s an easy, transference of Insite to this circumstance, I think is probably not right.”

The DULF cases come amid a growing push in B.C. for new approaches to a drug toxicity crisis that has killed more than 14,000 people since the province declared a health emergency eight years ago. Both provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and former chief coroner Lisa Lapointe have called for alternatives to street drugs to be made available without a prescription.

A report from Henry last week cited DULF’s compassion club, and academic research on its outcomes.

Young, who focuses on the intersection of social justice and constitutional law, said the DULF cases are among the latest to explore what it means to have the protected right to “security of the person,” beyond the risk of criminal prosecution.

“How can we say someone has security as a person, if they can’t access a safe supply of drugs that they need for the health condition of addiction?” she said.

In the Insite ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered the federal minister of health to continue exempting Insite, which allows users to inject their own drugs under the observation of trained professionals.

The country’s top judges ruled the risk of death for Insite users if the program were to stop “is grossly disproportionate to any benefit that Canada might derive from presenting a uniform stance on the possession of narcotics.”

Young said courts had repeatedly rejected the moral blame that traditionally attaches to individuals who use drugs.

“The (Supreme Court) recognized that addiction is a health issue. It’s not an issue of moral culpability, or a wilfulness or individual choice. It’s a health issue,” she said.

“And that means that this larger context is one not of where you’re dealing with individuals who have a particular lifestyle, or they’re just making bad choices, but you’re dealing with individuals who have health issues.”

PUSHING ‘BARRIERS’ in B.C.

DULF’s work was not conducted in secret. The group described what it was doing on its website, issued press releases and held news conferences.

In a press release issued on Sept. 20 last year, the group said: “For one year the Drug User Liberation Front has operated an illegal heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine compassion club pilot study.”

It said on its website it had sold three kilograms of the drugs to compassion club members “for up to 80 per cent cheaper than they would (pay) on the street.”

It said that among 42 participants there had been zero known deaths resulting from the substances provided by the club.

Subsequent peer-reviewed research was published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, with Nyx and Kalicum as co-authors. It said enrolment in the compassion club was associated with a 49 per cent reduced likelihood of non-fatal overdose, and a 63 per cent reduced likelihood of non-fatal overdose involving naloxone administration.

But the announcements by DULF triggered criticism in the B.C. legislature from the Opposition BC United — DULF’s operations had been funded, at least in part, by government money. Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said the contract granted to DULF was to save lives, not to buy drugs, and when the government found out it had been doing so, the contract was cancelled.

He said the contract was for “drug testing.”

On Oct. 26, Vancouver police shut it all down.

Officers raided the compassion club and arrested Nyx and Kalicum. The pair would later be charged with multiple counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Tim Dickson, who represents DULF, said its request for a judicial review of the Health Canada decision represents a “highly practical application of constitutional law” at a time when the politics around drug use are “very, very difficult.”

“We have seen a sort of coalescing of views of some political parties, a number of political parties, in clamping down on harm reduction and putting the convenience of the public first, and not prioritizing methods to protect the lives and safety of drug users,” he said.

“And in that kind of political environment, constitutional rights obviously become far more important, because they set up limits on the policies that can be implemented by the government,” he said.

He argued in Federal Court in March that the exemption rejection violated the Charter rights of people who use drugs because it impeded their right to life and liberty, and punished people who are addicted.

In an interview, Dickson said the Insite ruling established that it is constitutional to prohibit possession and trafficking of drugs only if there is an exemption process.

He argued that in DULF’s case, Health Canada ruled out any possibility of a compassion club without taking a close look at the various interests, including those of people who use drugs.

“It can’t draw just these such bright lines without actually considering the merits of what is being proposed,” he said.

“And it definitely has to take into account the constitutional rights issue and it didn’t do those things.”

Dickson said he is also preparing to make a Charter challenge related the criminal charges against Nyx and Kalicum.

Young said a Charter challenge in the criminal case would argue that illicit street drugs are so toxic that putting people at risk of jail for providing uncontaminated drugs would infringe upon the life, liberty and security of drug users.

In a situation where there was no guarantee street drugs were not toxic, “to prevent remedy of that, which is what the compassion club is trying to do, is actually contrary to the stated goals of the (law), which is public health,” she said.

Health Canada said it would not comment on its case involving DULF while it waits for a decision from the court.

The Public Prosecution Service of Canada said it would respond to a Charter challenge in the criminal case when it is filed by DULF’s lawyers.

Both Henry and Lapointe have said B.C. cannot prescribe its way out of the toxic drug crisis, and support consideration of non-prescribed access to drugs including opioids.

Their calls were swiftly rejected by the provincial government. Premier David Eby said last week there was a “zero per cent chance” the recommendations would be implemented.

But Dickson said B.C. has a history of finding new ways “for reducing the harms of drugs, and there are people willing to push those barriers.”

He said the province had long been “ground zero for overdose epidemics” leading to various court challenges in response.

“(The) Insite (court challenge) came out of an earlier overdose crisis in the ’90s and DULF is coming out of this current overdose crisis,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 18, 2024.

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Flames re-sign defenceman Ilya Solovyov, centre Cole Schwindt

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CALGARY – The Calgary Flames have re-signed defenceman Ilya Solovyov and centre Cole Schwindt, the NHL club announced Wednesday.

Solovyov signed a two-year deal which is a two-way contract in year one and a one-way deal in year two and carries an average annual value of US$775,000 at the NHL level.

Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $800,000 at the NHL level.

The 24-year-old Solovyov, from Mogilev, Belarus, made his NHL debut last season and had three assists in 10 games for the Flames. He also had five goals and 10 assists in 51 games with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers and added one goal in six Calder Cup playoff games.

Schwindt, from Kitchener, Ont., made his Flames debut last season and appeared in four games with the club.

The 23-year-old also had 14 goals and 22 assists in 66 regular-season games with the Wranglers and added a team-leading four goals, including one game-winning goal, in the playoffs.

Schwindt was selected by Florida in the third round, 81st overall, at the 2019 NHL draft. He came to Calgary in July 2022 along with forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in the trade that sent star forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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Oman holds on to edge Nepal with one ball to spare in cricket thriller

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KING CITY, Ont. – Oman scored 10 runs in the final over to edge Nepal by one wicket with just one ball remaining in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play Wednesday.

Kaleemullah, the No. 11 batsman who goes by one name, hit a four with the penultimate ball as Oman finished at 223 for nine. Nepal had scored 220 for nine in its 50 overs.

Kaleemullah and No. 9 batsman Shakeel Ahmed each scored five in the final over off Sompal Kami. They finished with six and 17 runs, respectively.

Opener Latinder Singh led Oman with 41 runs.

Nepal’s Gulsan Jha was named man of the match after scoring 53 runs and recording a career-best five-wicket haul. The 18-year-old slammed five sixes and three-fours in his 35-ball knock, scoring 23 runs in the 46th over alone when he hit six, six, four, two, four and one off Aqib Ilyas.

Captain Rohit Paudel led Nepal with 60 runs.

The 19th-ranked Canadians, who opened the triangular series Monday with a 103-run win over No. 17 Nepal, face No. 16 Oman on Friday, Nepal on Sunday and Oman again on Sept. 26. All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.

The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Canada (5-4) stands second in the World League 2 table. The 14th-ranked Dutch top the table at 6-2.

Oman (2-2 with one no-result) stands sixth, ahead of Nepal (1-5).

Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.

Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.

The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024

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Vancouver Canucks will miss Demko, Joshua, others to start training camp

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PENTICTON, B.C. – Rick Tocchet has already warned his Vancouver Canucks players — the looming NHL season won’t be easy.

The team made strides last year, the head coach said Wednesday ahead of training camp. The bar has been raised for this year’s campaign.

“To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations and it’s going to be hard. We know that,” Tocchet said in Penticton, B.C., where the team will open its camp on Thursday.

“So that’s the next level. It starts day one (on Thursday). My thing is don’t waste a rep out there.”

The Canucks finished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.

Last fall, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks president of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn’t change this season, he said, despite last year’s success.

“The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,” he said.

“As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well.”

Some key players will be missing as Vancouver’s training camp begins, however.

Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that star goalie Thatcher Demko will not be on the ice when the team begins it’s pre-season preparation.

Allvin did not disclose the reason for Demko’s absence, but said the 28-year-old American has been making progress.

“He’s been in working extremely hard and he seems to be in a great mindset,” the GM said.

Demko missed several weeks of the regular season and much of Vancouver’s playoff run last spring with a knee injury.

The six-foot-four, 192-pound goalie has a career 213-116-81 regular-season record with a .912 save percentage, a 2.79 goals-against average and eight shutouts across seven seasons with the Canucks.

Allvin also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had “minor lower-body surgery.”

Vancouver previously announced winger Dakota Joshua won’t be present for the start of camp as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.

Tocchet said he’ll have no problem filling the holes, and plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.

“Nothing’s set in stone,” he said. “I think it’s important that you have different puzzles at different times.”

The coach added that he expects standout centre Elias Pettersson to begin on a line with Canucks newcomer Jake DeBrusk.

Vancouver inked DeBrusk, a former Boston Bruins forward, to a seven-year, US$38.5 million deal when the NHL’s free agent market opened on July 1.

The glare on Pettersson is expected to be bright once again as he enters the first year of a new eight-year, $92.8 million contract. The 25-year-old Swede struggled at times last season and put 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games.

Rutherford said he was impressed with how Pettersson looked when he returned to Vancouver ahead of camp.

“He seems to be a guy that’s more relaxed and more comfortable. And for obvious reasons,” said the president of hockey ops. “This is a guy that I believe has worked really hard this summer. He’s done everything he can to play as a top-line player. … The expectation for him is to be one of the top players on our team.”

A number of Canucks hit milestones last season, including Quinn Hughes, who led all NHL defencemen in scoring with 92 points and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top blue liner.

Several players could once again have career-best years for Vancouver, Tocchet said, but they’ll need to be consistent and not allow frustration to creep in when things go wrong.

“You’ve just got to drive yourself every day when you have a great year,” the coach said. “You’ve got to keep creating that environment where they can achieve those goals, whatever they are. And the main goal is winning. That’s really what it comes down to.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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