Minister Lionel Carmant on Tuesday defended the opening of a homeless shelter that includes a supervised inhalation and injection center less than 100 meters from an elementary school in Montreal’s Saint-Henri district.
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“I want to tell all Quebecers to pay attention to “not in my back yard.” We have to be very, very careful when we talk about these things, okay? There are people who have needs. We are here to help these people, not to make them disappear,” said the minister in charge of social services at Salon Bleu.
Lionel Carmant was closely followed by Liberal MPs Marwah Rizqy and Elisabeth Prass regarding the impending opening of the new Maison Benoît-Labre animal shelter, located across from a school park and about 80 meters from Victor Rousselot School.
The four-story building will feature a day center, 36 supervised studios, dining, health services and two voting booths reserved for supervised consumption.
Interviewed in the hallways of the National Assembly, Lionel Carmant explained that the shelter is responding to a real problem. “I want to make sure that this consumption takes place under supervision if possible and not on the street,” he says.
Misled
MP Marwah Rizqy is not against supervised injection centers, but believes they should be located some distance from schools.
Eventually, she recalls, the Legault government banned the presence of Société québécoise du Cannabis branches within 250 meters of a school (150 meters in Montreal). “A fortiori, we should not have an injection center, even under supervision, in the backyard of a school,” Marwah Rizqy explained in an interview.
Minister Carmant argues that the project was initiated when former Liberal leader Dominique Anglade represented the constituency. But Ms. Rizqy emphasizes that at the time there was talk of a “rehabilitation center” without mentioning the use of hard drugs.
“What has misled people is that in the sketches presented there are two islands, but nowhere in these sketches is it indicated that they are supervised injection centers,” says -She.
On Wednesday, Ms. Rizqy and her colleague Elisabeth Prass will table amendments to two separate bills (the first on opioids, the other on education) so that Quebec requires a minimum distance of 250 meters between a supervised consumption site and a residential school.
QA supported
For his part, the local MP for Saint-Henri-Sainte-Anne also supports the project, which has received the approval of many stakeholders in the field.
Québec Solidaire member Guillaume Cliche-Rivard said this week that there was strong support for the project “from elected officials, the community sector and…” [d’]“a significant proportion of parents and residents,” acknowledging that this could have been better communicated.
“I understand the concerns of parents, but I think that with everyone involved mobilizing, we are able to create an opening that will work well,” he explained earlier in the week.
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