Parents want Montreal safe injection site to change opening hours
Spectre de Rue's site to be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. — a problem for some parents of nearby schoolchildren
Some parents want the opening hours of a safe injection site, located metres away from an elementary school, to be changed.
Spectre de Rue, a community group that works with people with drug addictions, is set to open the site in five days at its location on Ontario Street near Panet Street.
The safe injection site is to be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., down the street and around the corner from École Marguerite Bourgeoys, an elementary school on Plessis Street, as well as a community centre.
Christelle Perrine, whose two children go to the school, says the opening hours of the safe injection site coincide with the times of day that children and teenagers are in the area.
She said it's "nonsense" to have schoolchildren and drug users in such close proximity.
Perrine is the head of the school's governing board. She isn't against safe injection sites, she explained, but she feels government officials didn't properly consult parents and the school before moving ahead with the project.
"We clearly understand why it's useful to have injection sites, but that's not the right place, or that's not the right hours," she said. "We have to discuss that, and for the moment, they don't want to discuss."
A spokesperson for the Commission scolaire de Montréal said the school board wasn't consulted either.
Possible legal action
Perrine said she is concerned that drug users suffering through withdrawals will cross paths with young kids.
She suggested a solution: have the safe injection site at Cactus — a community organization that is nearby but not as close to the school — open during the day, and the one at Spectre de rue open at night, when children aren't in such close proximity.
The parents are considering taking legal action if they can't get the various levels of government to listen to them.
They've enlisted the help of noted constitutional rights lawyer Julius Grey to argue their case, if it comes to that.
Grey said it's an issue of principle — no one disagrees that safe injection sites are needed and useful, but the danger is in acting too quickly and not considering the needs of others in the area.
He said legally, the parents were supposed to be consulted about the project, and they were not.
"This is not the right way to do it," Grey said. "You want to do it in such a way that it is generally acceptable and that nobody is hurt by your plan."
With files from CBC Montreal's Daybreak and Elias Abboud