Sudbury slams door on temporary safe injection site, bans volunteers from city property

Karla Ghartey, one of the volunteers behind the Sudbury Temporary Overdose Prevention Society, or STOP, wants to know why they've been banned from operating a safe injection site in the middle of an opioid crisis.

Her comments come after the group was issued a no trespass order from the city, effectively preventing them from running a supervised injection site downtown, even as Sudbury's death rate continues to soar.

"What is it going to take? Someone dying in the mayor's office, someone knocking on his door and overdosing?" Ghartey said.

"This has been going on for years and it's just getting worse and worse." 

STOP had been running a site in an underground parking lot near the YMCA on Durham Street – not sanctioned, but mostly left alone by police and bylaws officers – since the winter, Ghartey said.

But the order – issued on May 21 –  extends to "all properties owned and operated by the City of Greater Sudbury."

That means STOP will be forced to provide its services remotely, using volunteer's personal vehicles to monitor the city's homeless and vulnerable populations. 

That's unless they can find private property on which to operate, something Ghartey thinks will be a challenge.

"We are out there every single day working with our community, saving lives. Why is that on our shoulders?" Ghartey said.

A group of approximately 20 people took shelter in the parking lot, but they were dispersed by bylaw officers over the past weeks in what Ghartey called "emotional" interactions.

"You can't do that to people," she said. "If someone were to come into my house and say, 'I'm sorry, guess what, the city now owns your house. You need to be out in a week.' Would we allow that to happen?"

"The rules can't be different for certain people and versus others. We all have a stake in this community, we all matter to this community." 

Following a conference of mayor's from northern Ontario cities in May, Josee Joliat, coordinator of the Sudbury's community drug strategy, said the challenge in setting up a safe injection site has been finding a suitable location. 

The city is working with Public Health Sudbury & Districts and Reseau Access Network to find a location in the downtown core, she said, adding that the needs of the community have to balance out with the needs of those who require the injection site's services.