GOLD: Dishonest consumption site consultations threaten Bernadette Smith’s political future

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Establishing a supervised drug consumption site was a key campaign promise of Wab Kinew as he sought to be elected Premier in 2022. But it’s proving an uphill fight to convince the prospective neighbours to go along with it.

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Bernadette Smith, the Homelessness Minister spearheading the roll-out, thinks that because she’s the area MLA the residents should automatically trust her to ensure the site won’t compromise their safety.

Instead, she’s succeeding in turning neighbour against neighbour and NDP voters against her, because those with legitimate concerns live in the reality of life in Point Douglas, while Smith lives miles away from the garbage, used needles, mayhem and danger caused for years by addicts and encampments that have overwhelmed the neighbourhood.

“This area is already stressed, on top of each other in terms of harm reduction organizations, what about harm reduction for the neighbourhood?” asks Christine Kirouac, one of an estimated 100 professional artists and writers that live in the area.

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The NDP is heavily invested in the concept, despite it proving to be a failure in major centres across Canada.

The government of Ontario moved to close 10 locations because of deteriorating public safety in affected neighbourhoods, and “harm reduction” activists filed a lawsuit with Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice to halt the closures.

Evidence filed by the Doug Ford government includes a report by Investigative Solutions Network Inc. The group, led by a retired cop, visited sites in Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, London, Kitchener, Guelph and Kingston, and documented open drug sales and use, altercations between users, weapons, and “Discarded needles and drug pipes (that) were a common observation at each of the Sites.”

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But at the initial public consultations about the proposed 200 Disraeli Fwy. location — across the street from Argyle High School — the proponents have taken an approach that denies that reality and it’s deepening the rifts in the Point Douglas communities — both North and South.

“If you don’t talk about any of that because you’re trying to put a positive spin on it, you’re missing the larger story here,” Kirouac stressed.

Smith and officials from the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre that will operate the site held a consultation session on Tuesday for residents of Waterfront Drive apartments. Kirouac and other Point Douglas homeowners crashed the affair and continued to ask questions Smith couldn’t — or wouldn’t — answer.

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“In what way are you doing it so that we won’t have the same problems other provinces have? And they’re just saying ”trust us,” you’re asking Point Douglas residents to trust you?”

AHWC confirmed users under the influence will be allowed to leave the premises. When Wab Kinew stated last week, “If the community doesn’t believe that this is safe for the surrounding neighbourhood, then we’re not going to move ahead with this location,” that’s Exhibit A.

The Winnipeg Police Service was represented on the panel by the Superintendent of Community Engagement,
Bonnie Emerson, but still, “No one stated this will be safe,” Kirouac noted.

“They kept talking about it like they’re putting it in a place where the baseline is safe like Charleswood. We are a compassionate community and they’re taking advantage of that, of a population that’s been pushed too far.”

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“I’m not against what they’re doing, I am questioning, and I have a right to do it,” Kirouac told me. “And their word they are going to do something (about our safety) is lip service, which we’ve heard many times before. Pardon me if I don’t believe them.”

Kirouac was able to ask the first question of the panel, “Who here on the panel lives here in Point Douglas? None of them answered. Ah OK, let’s start there. Not even AHWC reps live here … they have the luxury of safety in their own homes.”

As she sees it, “The panel acts like if you are opposed it’s because you don’t have any experience with addictions or with addicts.”

The consultations are dishonest, because instead of discussing the facts, “They’re trying to guilt people, it’s because ‘you don’t have compassion for addicts’. What a condescending thing to say. We are educated, intelligent people … that audience has direct experience.

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“When you talk about this issue in a zero-sum frame, that pits people against each other and the conversation that should be happening isn’t taking place,” Kirouac said. “This needs to happen with the nuances in between, not in polarized positions as portrayed in the media.”

The polarization plays out in real life. Within the “We Love Point Douglas” Facebook group, censorship by drug site supporters of differing opinions has become the norm.

“I was told I have no humanity, that I wish for people’s friends to die, that I am selfish and only care about myself and that I am the type of person who only cares about property values and not human life,” wrote one woman after being removed from the group.

Many of those being shut out for raising their concerns are long-time NDP voters in a bedrock inner-city constituency.

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Kirouac described the problematic attitude as being rooted in “‘mind your own business,’ that’s the divide here, this misconception that the actions of drug users have no ripple consequences to friends, family, the neighbourhood and the community at large.”

She noted the acrid smell of copper wire insulation being burnt from stolen wire affecting everyone’s breathing, repeated break-ins and broken windows making homes uninsurable, and her own assault and eye injury when she was attacked by an addict while out for a walk and “it took police an hour and a half to respond.”

“We live here, you’re preaching to the choir. Do you understand what we’re dealing with? And that’s what we’re not getting any acknowledgement of. The hard work comes when you have to hear the spectrum of different perspectives. We can hold more than one thing in our heads at the same time.”

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Another problematic aspect Point Douglas residents want clarified is whether housing is planned for users on or near the site.

“They thought they could just dump this here. You place people right back into a community with the same drug dealers, same addicts, no grocery stores, and you think this is the best place to put it? We don’t even have a laundromat,” Kirouac said.

“I’ve seen firsthand the wraparound services which are woefully inadequate — we see it, we live here — is this set up for success or is it set up to get money?”

The meeting heard that a site in Thunder Bay is the model for the Disraeli proposal. What the residents weren’t told, is that the Path 525 service — which “provides clients with a safe place to consume illegal drugs” — is being closed by the Ford government. That’s because it is within 200 meters of a school.

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By not mentioning that fact, Smith and AHWC hope to avoid explaining why a consumption site which is too dangerous to be near a school in Thunder Bay would somehow be safe in Winnipeg.

They also weren’t told what a spokesperson for the Ontario Health Ministry told CBC:

“In Thunder Bay, the neighbourhood with the CTS (consumption and treatment services) site slated for closure (has) a marked increase in crime when compared to the rest of the city.”

Upon hearing that, Kirouac reiterated, “This consultation is condescending, patronizing. I voted for Smith. I would rethink that if she runs again.”

— Marty Gold is a Winnipeg journalist. You can find more of his work at The Great Canadian Talk Show.

Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca

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