Legal Commentary

"Hardcore addicts have no less right to the best health care than anyone else."

Ottawa is wrong to appeal a British Columbia Supreme Court ruling that extended a government-funded safe-injection site for junkies. Instead, it should have done its duty and resolved the case once and for all.

Asked to rule on a narrow case - the legality of the experimental safe-injection Insite drug program in Vancouver's seedy Downtown Eastside - the highest B.C. court on Tuesday instead went wide.

Unexpectedly, it ruled that Canada's drug law encroaches on provincial jurisdiction over health issues - and contravenes the country's Charter of Rights and Freedoms into the bargain.

Full post as published by Althouse on June 02, 2008 (boomark / email).