Buzzapp Master 
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The judge said he granted an exemption to all supervised consumption sites so they could continue operating as usual. He said the harm to users of the sites that could result from closures outweighed the harm to the public on a time-limited basis while he considered his decision.
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“Exempting the existing (supervised consumption sites) will have a substantial public benefit of preventing serious health risks and deaths which, in my view, outweighs the harm caused by the continued public disorder,” Callaghan wrote in his decision about granting the injunction.
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The Neighbourhood Group is celebrating the decision that grants temporary relief to its clients.
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“Today’s decision means people will be allowed to stay alive at least a little bit longer,” said Carlo Di Carlo, the lawyer who represented the site and its two users in court for two days of arguments.
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Last summer, Jones announced a fundamental shift in the province’s approach to the deadly and decade-long opioid crisis. The new rules, which prevented the operation of sites within a certain distance of schools and daycares, would mean 10 sites out of 23 across Ontario would have to close.
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As part of the new approach, the province is investing $529 million, including towards creating 540 highly supportive housing units.
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It is funding 18 new homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs, or HART hubs as the province calls them, in addition to the nine supervised consumption sites that agreed to become HART hubs rather than face imminent closure.
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Jones’s office said that, despite the injunction, its plan for those nine hubs would go ahead next week.
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“Our priority is to protect children and families from violent crime and dangerous public drug use occurring at drug injection sites located near schools and daycares,” said Hannah Jensen, a spokeswoman for Jones.
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“The transition of the nine drug injection sites to homelessness, addiction and recovery treatment hubs will proceed as planned on April 1st. Provincial funding for HART Hubs cannot be used for drug injection services and will be contingent on the organization not seeking to continue those services.”
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If sites do not get provincial funding, “that will summarily keep them closed,” said Angela Robertson, executive director of Toronto’s Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, which operates one of the nine sites.
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“I feel elated and despondent all at the same time,” Robertson said of the injunction, adding the decision affirmed that serious health risks and deaths would result from closures.
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She said there was an opportunity for the province to rethink things.
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“In the middle of (an) unregulated toxic drug and overdose crisis, we cannot take a zero-sum approach. We need (supervised consumption sites), and all the supports enabled by the HART hubs.”
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During the legal arguments that Callaghan heard on Tuesday, lawyers for the province had argued the law only regulated a supervised consumption site’s location and that they could simply move.
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However, Jones immediately rebuffed the province’s lawyers by saying the province would not allow new ones to launch, nor would they allow existing ones to move.
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