B.C. addictions minister allowed to respond to decriminalization court challenge

Paramedic Specialist David Hilder from B.C. Ambulance tries to speak to a drug overdose victim in downtown Vancouver, June 23, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Canada's Federal Court has agreed with British Columbia's minister of mental health and addictions that she should be a respondent to a court challenge against the province's decision to dial back its drug decriminalization policy.

The court says in a ruling issued this week that Addictions Minister Jennifer Whiteside should be added to the challenge originally filed in June by a coalition of non-profit groups including the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

The groups are seeking a judicial review, saying the decision to recriminalize possession of small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use violates drug users' Charter rights and "materially increases" their risk of death.

The changes sought by B.C. and granted by the federal addictions minister in May narrowed where people are allowed to possess drugs, namely in designated health-care clinics, private homes and where unhoused people are legally sheltering.

The advocacy groups opposed adding Whiteside to the case, but the court rejected their argument, saying it was she who formally requested the changes.

The ruling says the new exemption is "integral" to B.C.'s response to the toxic drug crisis.

"It follows that if the new exemption is quashed, the provincial minister will be prejudicially affected in a direct way because her ability to carry out a key function of her ministerial role, namely, implementing the province's multi-faceted strategy in response to the toxic drug crisis, will be significantly compromised," the ruling says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 22, 2024