BC Court of Appeal upholds ruling in favour of Vancouver's supervised injection facility AND court decision attached - sorry for cross postings..

More information.  Today the British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling from last year that granted Vancouver’s supervised injection facility an ongoing exemption from certain provisions of Canada’s drug laws (prohibiting possession and trafficking of controlled substances) and that also declared those provisions of Canada’s law constitutionally invalid insofar as they apply to the users and site operators of Insite.

 

See:  http://www.vancouversun.com/news/court+rules+Vancouver+Insite+safe+injection+site+stay+open/2446233/story.html

 

Also see attached the Court Decision Document. 

 

In plain language the PHS's Cross Appeal, to see INSITE as a jurisdictionally Provincial issue rather than Federal, WON.

Because of this decision, they didn't have to make a ruling on the Federal Appeal on the Constitutional issue, (it becomes irrelevant)... 

One of the three judges disagreed with jurisdictional decision, which likely explains why it took so long.

 

The decision was 2-1 that the province has jurisdiction over INSITE.

 

However all three agreed that the Fed government’s arguments based on the Constitution could not be upheld.   Even though they did not consider the Constitutional arguments as the jurisdiction decision took precedence, if they had gone there, all three would have dismissed the Federal government appeal on all counts. 

 

J

 

GILLIAN MAXWELL

Project Director – SafeGames

Keeping the Door Open Society,

604.253.7792

604.728.7792 cel

Enjoy the Games. Enjoy them Safely.

http://www.safegames2010.com/