On March 7th, lawyers for organizers Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum will appear in Federal Court to challenge Health Canada’s 2022 decision to deny an application by DULF (Drug User Liberation Front). In 2021 DULF requested permission to legally operate a compassion club through an exemption from Canada’s drug laws. The upcoming Judicial Review is expected to shed critical light on governmental obstruction of lifesaving action on the overdose crisis.

In BC alone, more than 13,000 people have died from overdoses and drug poisonings related to the unregulated and systemically toxic drug supply since April 2016. In 2021, the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) submitted a request to Health Canada to operate a Compassion Club as an urgent response to the drug toxicity crisis. Their submission was rejected in 2022 but is now under Judicial Review.

As the election approaches, we can expect the assault on harm reduction to grow and metastasize as a lurid wedge issue, fed from Conservative Canada’s deep well of racism and anti-poor resentment. And while Poilievre reaps electoral gains from fanning the flames of the drug war, those whose lives depend on harm reduction services will face dire, deadly consequences.