80% of people in an Ontario jail haven't been convicted of a crime.
“This lays waste to the principle of the presumption of innocence. It also lays waste to the argument we have a catch and release system and that our bail is too lenient.”
globalnews.ca/news/1177401...
Alberta, Ontario, Sask. announce partnership to create recovery-focused addictions treatment Critics denounce Alberta government's refusal of safe supply Brendan Coulter · CBC News ·
Don’t stop talking about how the AB government snuck a fraudulent study past peer review, which Doug Ford then used to justify closing down ON’s supervised consumption sites, while a SK conservative MP used it to call for the same in his province.
AB-SK-ON in lockstep since 2024 Recovery conference
I wish our conversations about MAID and state facilitated suicide engaged with how much inadequate pain management and concerns/fears about caregiver “burden” motivates so many people’s decisions. It’s heartbreaking and enraging, and that the policy framing excludes these questions is deliberate.
while the BCNDP was caving to the diversion moral panic and severely limiting its safe supply program, the public safety ministry was acknowledging in budget preparation documents that hydromorphone only accounted for 0.3% of VPD drug seizures by weight
STAT News: Christian group in Washington state announces potentially landmark settlement recognizing harm reduction services, including syringe exchange, as protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act
www.statnews.com/2026/02/10/n...
we have become so inured to mass death that it is immediately exploited to advance reactionary agendas, scapegoat vulnerable minorities, and calls for political violence are louder than the mourning of the bereaved.
and mass death continues
So incredibly honored & humbled to be in conversation with @silkys13.bsky.social & @harshawalia.bsky.social tomorrow night for a @haymarketbooks.org discussion on abolition, fighting "crisis at the border" rhetoric/federal occupation with insurgent care & what this moment demands of us/our movements
Fascism doesn’t rise by accident: it’s organised through capitalism, fear, and targeted wars on migrants, drugs, and people in poverty.
Read our State of Power 2026 opening interview with @harshawalia.bsky.social and Alberto Toscano. www.tni.org/en/article/l...
I have a new chapter in the 2026 edition of Policing Black Lives on how police reform has expanded police power to surveil, monitor and criminalize Black communities for 70+ years now. Did you know in Canada community policing (first in parkdale, in Toronto ) has been a “reform” since the 1960s?
📣📣📣 Vindictive UCP government coming after the last remaining safe supply prescribee in Alberta after she beat them in court in 2023.
The biggest risk in this moment is something sociologists call “symbolic compliance.”
That’s when an institution that is violating civil rights gives the public just enough symbolic victories that accountability efforts lose steam before there has been any meaningful change.
Canadian-built Roshel armored vehicles are being used by ICE right now in Minneapolis, including in today's operation where ICE murdered someone else.
I wrote about this company in December. And we know this thanks to the work of World Beyond War Canada.
noraloreto.substack.com/p/canadian-b...
some folks we spoke to speak to this point and pitch ideas around legalization / regulation & broader CDSA reform that isn't limited to simple possession but takes a more holistic and economic+racial+social justice approach ... but i think what you're pointing to needs to be among the next steps.
Totally agreed. That’s why the study calls for a departure from piecemeal tinkering of the CDSA and a more substantive overhaul. Current distinction between possession for purposes and trafficking undermines economic survival and liberation.
Report avail. here:
EN
www.hivlegalnetwork.ca/site/its-not...
FR
www.hivlegalnetwork.ca/site/its-not...
-Simple possession charges in many jurisdictions remain unchanged despite reforms aimed at limiting their use.
-Public drug use is a safety strategy in the absence of alternative spaces.
-Enforcement creates displacement & dispersal, and undermines the right to health.
-An increase in trafficking offenses in many jurisdictions.
Among the findings:
-Harm reduction strategies (scales, separate packages) are criminalized as trafficking, as are ethical practices among people who supply / distribute / sell drugs to mitigate OD risk.
Sharing this study we did, released in the Fall, charting the impacts of drug possession & trafficking laws in ONT on health, shifts in enforcement/prosecutions & people’s perspectives on what's needed at this juncture to overhaul Cdn drug laws #drugsky #onpoli @hivlegalnetwork.bsky.social y.social
I teach bystander intervention for a living and have taught de-escalation to law enforcement.
Trust me when I say that bottle girls, gas station clerks, strippers, front desk employees at hotels and airports, baristas, etc. have better de-escalation skills than any cop I've ever seen.
A raised fist, clenched in power. Text reads: "WE REFUSE: Health Workers Against Involuntary Care. A joint statement and call to action from Harm Reduction Nurses Association and Doctors for Safer Drug Policy." Below that are logos for HRNA and DSDP.
We Refuse: Health Workers Against Involuntary Care is now public.
@hrna.bsky.social and DSDP are circulating a joint statement opposing BC’s plan to expand involuntary drug treatment. This approach is ineffective, increases overdose risk, violates autonomy, and harms marginalized communities.
Got my Freedom-Of-Information request back from Ontario Ministry of Health about supervised consumption site closures from 15 months ago and it is all redacted under 'cabinet confidence' and 'advice to government' 🤡🤡🤡 #FOI #freedomofinformation #onpoli
Canadian products being used to commit war crimes in Gaza, Sudan, and the Caribbean, but stopping this apparently wrong because it would hurt the arms industry and relations with the fascists south of the border. We are governed by ghouls. www.readthemaple.com/liberals-fea...
Under the Compassionate Intervention Act, people with substance use disorder can be forced to take any prescription medication without consent. It doesn't matter if they have decisional capacity. While doctors are involved, ultimately a lawyer gets to decide what the treatment order will be. #ableg
Honoured! :)
Indebted to the important research of many others on this one including (but not limited to!) GKolla, GBardwell, CHastings @sarahferencz.bsky.social @zoedodd.bsky.social @ehyshka.bsky.social @drugpolicy.org @hivlegalnetwork.bsky.social @pivotlegalsociety.bsky.social
I used FOI requests, court records, and new media to map these cases. Many more are unreported. This practice is spreading rapidly beyond Ontario to other provinces / territories.
Prosecutors frame these cases as a form of redress to communities impacted by overdose. Friends and family are often charged.
Belatedly sharing this study on the rapid rise of manslaughter charges in Canada against people alleged to have shared or sold drugs that led to an accidental overdose death. Police agencies are quietly changing investigative procedures to recast medical emergencies as homicide scenes. #drugsky
This also risks also becoming a pipeline for involuntary medical intervention and longer term incarceration under the province's mental health act.