Ontario hires private investigations firm to probe supervised consumption sites amid Charter challenge

An inside shot of the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site on Augusta Avenue. (Joanna Lavoie/CP24)

The provincial government has hired a private investigations firm to “gather additional evidence” about the impacts of supervised drug consumption sites as it faces a Charter challenge over its plan to shutter 10 of the facilities across Ontario.

The legal action, which was launched in December, targets legislation that bans all supervised consumption services (SCS) within 200 metres of schools or childcare centres. These sites must close by the end of March, the new law states.

Officials in the Doug Ford government have previously cited safety concerns as one of the driving reasons behind this legislation, including a July 2023 shooting outside a Leslieville site that claimed the life of an innocent bystander.

Ford has also said that he has received “endless phone calls” about needles being left in parks and outside schools near the facilities, calling them the “worst thing that could ever happen to a community.”

“We’ve already seen criminal and violent incidents around these sites—incidents that should never happen near a school or childcare centre. Now that the province is facing litigation aimed at keeping drug injection sites open next to where children learn and play, we have retained a third party to gather additional evidence about the impact of these sites,” Ema Popovic, a spokesperson for Ontario’s Minister of Health Sylvia Jones, said in a written statement provided to CP24.com.

The Ford government has promised to open Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hubs in place of the nine of the 10 shuttered sites.

The closures, however, have been met by harsh criticism from advocates who say there could be serious consequences as a result.

The Neighbourhood Group (TNG), which runs the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site (KMOPS) on Augusta Avenue, is one of the applicants involved with the legal action against the bill.

CEO Bill Sinclair said private investigators recently visited one of TNG’s childcare facilities at 91 Bellevue Ave. and questioned people about KMOPS, which opened in 2018 and has been funded by donations since 2019.

Sinclair said the investigators did not identify who their employer was, adding that he only learned this week that the Ontario government was behind the visit.

“Maybe they didn’t realize that we’re the same organization as the supervised consumption service,” he said.

“We figured it was someone who was building a case against the legal challenge, someone with deep pockets who was looking into it. Usually, the government doesn’t do things in secret like that.”

Operators confused by timing

In addition to requiring the closure of some facilities, the legislation that is subject to the Charter challenge also effectively blocks the licensing of any new sites unless municipalities are given provincial approval to apply for an exemption from the federal government.

Speaking with CP24, Sinclair noted that since KMOPS opened six years ago they haven’t recorded a single overdose death. He also pointed to a report that found that crime is actually down in neighbourhoods where there are SCSs.

“Why now? It’s a little bit surprising that at this point in time they’re trying to gather evidence about supervised consumption sites. We hoped their decision was based on evidence, but now they’re gathering more evidence,” he said.

“Trying to get a picture of the impacts of these sites on the neighbourhood is a strange thing to do at the 11th hour.”

At this point it is not clear how many supervised consumption sites the private investigators have visited or at what cost.

But CP24.com has spoken with multiple sources who have said that they have seen the investigators in the vicinity of at least two different supervised consumption sites.

Investigators reportedly approached community members

Rev. Canon Maggie Helwig, of the nearby St. Stephen-In-The-Fields Anglican Church, said several people from Kensington Market have told her that they’ve been approached by private investigators “from a law firm” over the last two or so weeks.

She said the investigators have asked those who live and work in the area about what they think about KMOPS.

“The private investigators, they’re looking for negatives,” said Helwig, who told CP24.com that she hasn’t spoken with any of them directly.

Helwig called the use of private investigators “destabilizing and really troubling” from those in the diverse neighbourhood.

“It’s very on form for this government,” she charged.

“They’ve got nothing on their side, no data, no experts so they’re sending private investigators around to get people to say that they’ve had a bad experience with a homeless person because of the overdose prevention site.”

NDP MPP Chris Glover told CP24.com that he was chatting with residents near Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre’s supervised consumption site at 1229 Queen St W. last Friday when private investigators approached him and asked him for an interview.

Glover said they identified themselves as being employed by a law firm retained by the provincial government that is probing the impacts of supervised consumption sites.

The Spadina-Fort York rep told CP24.com that he agreed to the interview and provided his contact information, but said he hasn’t heard back.

“I didn’t initially know what the goal of this interview was,” he told CP24.com on Tuesday.

Glover said instead of hiring private investigators to collect opinions about SCSs, the province should be spending much more money to tackle the overdose epidemic and the poisoned drug supply, which he said includes harm reduction as well as treatment options, affordable housing, and healthcare.

“We need bring an end to this crisis. If we solved these problems a lot of other issues would disappear,” he said.

Action is ‘deeply disturbing,’ says advocate

In a release, the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society (TOPS) said the provincial government has begun hiring private investigators to probe SCSs because its “struggling to justify its deadly legislation” and is making a “desperate attempt to manufacture evidence.”

The group, which opened Ontario’s first SCS in 2017 in Moss Park, added that the efforts come after two separate, independent reviews by experts who “recommended to not only keep the sites open but to expand their services.” Experts retained by the province have also called for an expansion of this service, TOPS noted.

“This is a dirty tactic, and it’s deeply disturbing that they are sending private investigators to surveil healthcare facilities. It’s a blatant misuse of public resources and clearly an act of desperation,” said long-time harm reduction worker and advocate Zoe Dodd, of TOPS.

Hannah Stahl, a street nurse and co-organizer of the Harm Reduction Advocacy Collective, said Jones “could have just visited the sites herself.”

“Politicians should be the ones consulting with their constituents and those impacted by their policies, not clandestine private investigation firms,” she said.

The group went on to say that for seven years the Ford government has “failed to properly fund evidence-based treatment and harm reduction services, or invest in an adequate response to the toxic drug death crisis.”

“Hiring PIs in a desperate move to justify their actions is a waste of public money, and reveals a government more interested in scoring cheap political points than in providing evidence-based healthcare services and saving the lives of Ontarians. The evidence is clear: they don’t have the evidence to close these sites,” TOPS said.

Earlier this week, the Toronto Board of Health tabled a report that looked at the anticipated service impacts for the health unit as well as emergency responders due to the closure of SCSs in the city.

• Toronto to see more emergency calls after supervised consumption sites close: top doc

A tentative hearing date for the Charter Challenge application is scheduled for March 24 and 25, just days prior to the required closure of 10 supervised consumption sites on March 31.