Straight Talk

The B.C. Liberal party candidate in Vancouver–Mount Pleasant, where Vancouver’s supervised injection site is located, wants drug addicts taken away to an “island”.

There, according to Stephen Chong, addicts could get training so they could later get jobs. “After they have finished their term, they can come out and they have their own skill,” Chong told the Georgia Straight by phone. “That’s what I want.”

The 67-year-old retired businessman and former TransLink bus driver, who was acclaimed as the Liberal candidate on July 3, said that continuing to allow addicts to inject drugs “will kill them in the long run”.

But Chong said that “if you cannot get a place for them [addicts]”, he prefers to see injection sites in each riding, not just in Chinatown. That way, “they have a choice” where to go, he said.

Still, he considers moving Insite away from Chinatown a “good” idea, a measure that he deemed “possible”. He said, “I prefer it further out in the city.”

Chong also claimed that all Chinese people prefer a “strong way” of dealing with drug addiction.

It’s not the first time Chong has commented on Insite, and this has caught the attention of Jenny Kwan, the NDP MLA for Vancouver–Mount Pleasant.

In a news report that appeared in the July 7 edition of the Chinese-language newspaper Sing Tao Daily—an English version was provided to the Straight by Kwan’s office—Chong, who is referred to in the translation as Cheung Fo-wan, is described as being opposed to Insite.

“He said, in order to thoroughly changed addicts, addicts should be put in a remote place, so that they could learn life skill, so that they could stand up by themselves and stay away from drug,” the translated news report read.

The story prompted Kwan to call on Premier Gordon Campbell, Health Minister George Abbott, and Attorney General Wally Oppal to reaffirm the provincial government’s support for Insite.

“Insite is a vitally important health care intervention which does not need to be politicized by someone spreading misinformation in an attempt to garner personal political gain,” Kwan stated in a letter to the three Liberal politicians dated July 8.

Kwan also suggested that they should ask Chong to “retract his misinformed statements”.

“He’s [Chong is] either very ill-informed, or he’s a demagogue,” Kwan told the Straight. She called his statements “very disappointing and dismaying”.

Campbell’s office didn’t comment by deadline.

On May 27, in a major victory for advocates of Insite, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ian Pitfield ruled that two sections of Canada’s drug laws violate the constitutional rights of addicts using the facility.

Pitfield’s ruling allows the facility to remain open for a year without an exemption from the federal government. The exemption that was previously granted to Insite expired on June 30.

Kwan introduced a member’s bill in the legislature during the last session to have Insite designated a provincial health facility retroactive to 2003.

Called the Supervised Injection Facility Designation Act, 2008, Kwan’s bill argued that the province has exclusive constitutional jurisdiction over health.