The debate around cohabitation continues following the tabling of Bill 103 by the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government this week, which aims to limit the distance between supervised drug consumption sites from schools and daycares.
“It does nothing to address the needs of the children of our community,” Montreal’s St. Henri neighborhood resident Michael MacKenzie told Global News, though he agrees with what the proposed legislation is trying to achieve.
The bill requires such facilities to be at least 150 metres away from schools and daycares, and follows complaints from some St. Henri residents after the Benoit Labre housing complex opened last year. It allows supervised drug use less than 100 metres away from an elementary school.
“The largest issue has been the exposure of our children to violence and sexual acts, including coercive sexual acts witnessed on the sidewalks after school, acts right in the school yard,” MacKenzie said, echoing similar complaints from other residents and groups.
Aspects of the bill have the support of the opposition Liberals, who tabled a similar one last fall, Bill 892, to address complaints from St. Henri residents.
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“While we believe, obviously, injection and inhalation sites are important for people who have addiction issues,” said the party’s social services critic Elizabeth Prass, “it shouldn’t be to the detriment of children.”
However, some harm reduction advocates, like James Hughes who runs the Old Brewery Mission, worry that the 150-metre restriction might be too strict given Montreal’s many densely-populated neighbourhoods.
“There’s a lot of daycares and a lot of schools in this city, and fantastic organizations that are running these essential services will now be restricted,” he argued.
“We may be denying ourselves the creation of fabulous important services that actually have the result of reducing cohabitation problems.”
Hughes believes it is possible to have a well-run facility regardless of distance to a school.
The City of Montreal agrees that density needs to be taken into consideration. Both their officials and those at Benoit Labre are studying the bill. If it becomes law, the latter will have four years to move the drug consumption service, which MacKenzie says is too long to tolerate.
“The harms will continue to happen to the children of our community,” he said.
With more sites needed to curb the overdose crisis, social services minister Lionel Carmant agreed Tuesday that the sites need to be established securely.
“You know, we’ve increased from four to 14 since the pandemic, the number of sites,” he told reporters after the bill was tabled.
Many say they worry the complaints and clashes over cohabitation will only get worse if a solution isn’t found.
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