Quebec Liberals want to ban supervised injection sites near schools, daycares

The Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) wants to ban supervised drug consumption sites within 150 metres of schools and daycares in Montreal, and within 250 metres elsewhere in Quebec.

Liberal MP Marwah Rizqy tabled Bill 892 on Wednesday in response to the controversy surrounding Maison Benoit Labre, located near an elementary school in the city’s St-Henri neighbourhood.

Since the centre opened last April, neighbourhood residents have reported dozens of incidents: theft, violence, crack use, nudity, public defecation.

“Many of you have written to us to ask for legislation to ensure that supervised drug consumption centres are not set up near schools and daycares,” wrote Rizqy on the X platform.

“I stood up in the House to challenge the Legault government on this issue a year ago. Last September, Premier François Legault finally admitted that we cannot ask children to live with intoxicated people.

“The parliamentary session is coming to an end. The PLQ is offering the bill to the government. You can even erase my name; the important thing is to legislate promptly,” added the Liberal MNA from Saint-Laurent.

The bill would give organizations that offer supervised drug consumption services two years to comply with the ban.

However, it is extremely rare for the government to decide to enact an opposition bill.

On Wednesday, the minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, said he was aware of the issues. He assured that he was working on his own bill that he should table sometime in the spring of 2025.

“We are already working on this with the legal affairs department,” he said. “I have already said that we want, yes, the distances, but also to facilitate access to care for drug addicts.

“We will study what she presented to us, but we want something a little broader,” he added.

Ontario recently decided to ban supervised drug consumption sites within 200 metres of schools and daycares.

In 2023, in Toronto, in neighbourhoods near these sites, assaults were 113 per cent higher and robberies were 97 per cent higher than rates in the rest of the city, the Ontario government said.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews.