Ottawans of all ages marched from Parliament to the Human Rights Monument March 23, holding up signs and chanting slogans to show support for a supervised injection site in the city.
The rally, organized by Algonquin College social work students, urged the Ottawa government to support the measure, which would give drug users a safe space to inject drugs with supervision from health-care professionals.
The rally brought out students, social workers, and both current and former drug users.
They said such a site could save lives.
“People are dying in this community, and they need to be recognized right now,” Catherine Hacksel, who spoke at the rally, said. Hacksel graduated from Carleton University in 2013, and is a member of both the Campaign for Safer Consumption Sites in Ottawa and the Drug Users Advocacy League.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson and police chief Charles Bordeleau have not embraced the idea of a safe injection site. Both have spoken out against the idea, citing concerns for public safety and placing a priority on treatment.
But those at the rally said a site like this is a necessity, and they’re not backing down.
“It’s just a matter of keeping people safe, and reducing disease and harm,” Algonquin student Sarah Hoyt said. Hoyt said Ottawa is behind the times on the harm reduction front, with Vancouver’s safe injection site, Insite, already a decade old.
“Ottawa needs to catch up with this,” she said.
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Carleton student Jesse Vermeer said a safe injection site would help change the way people who struggle with substance abuse become marginalized by society.
“For me, the biggest thing is taking it away from the criminal side and putting all those people into the health care system,” Vermeer said. “That way, you can help them instead of removing them.”
Dr. Mark Tyndall, head of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Ottawa Hospital spoke at the rally. Tyndall said he has been fighting for a safe injection site in Ottawa for years, having worked at Insite in Vancouver.
Tyndall said an Ottawa site could reduce the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C. He said these are expensive diseases to treat that are extremely prevalent among injection drug users in Ottawa compared to other major Canadian cities.
The site could also prevent overdoses, stopping people from going to the hospital, and increase access to much-needed care, according to Tyndall.
“We have ironclad data that shows this is the case,” Tyndall said.
Above all is the ability to give “the most vulnerable in our society” the chance to “connect with somebody who may care about them,” Tyndall said.
“That is the core of what we’re doing,” he said. “We need to help people on some kind of trajectory to better health. Without the low-threshold connection to people that can help them, this will not happen.”
For Hacksel, safe injection sites are about “dignity and respect,” for those living with addiction.
She said with the data now available, the government should “follow facts” and take action.
“Start moving, make things happen,” she said. “I don’t think people should lose their lives when we could prevent it.”
