Leslieville drug consumption site closes doors for good in response to Ontario law

Muriel Draaisma · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 22, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

A supervised cause depletion tract successful Toronto's eastbound extremity closed its doors for bully connected Friday little than 2 years aft a shooting adjacent the tract killed a parent of two.

The keepSix Consumption and Treatment Service, located inside the South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC), 955 Queen St. E., closed up of the March 31 deadline to unopen down arsenic directed by the Ontario government. 

Sixteen unit members person been laid disconnected and the tract closed earlier than required owed to limited availability of staff, according to the centre.

"While this marks the extremity of an important service, we stay dedicated to providing compassionate care, equitable harm simplification services and advocating for the wellbeing of our clients," the centre said connected Friday successful a station connected X. 

Karolina Huebner-Makurat, 44, died successful infirmary connected July 7, 2023 aft she was deed by a stray slug adjacent the tract successful the country of Queen Street E. near Carlaw Avenue successful Leslieville. 

The fatal shooting prompted a assemblage outcry and provincial reviews of the sites, which were followed by legislation that bans any supervised depletion sites wrong 200 metres of a schoolhouse oregon daycare.

KeepSix is among the 10 harmless depletion sites that were slated to adjacent by the extremity of the period due to the fact that of the legislation. It's one of 9 sites that volition modulation into what the state calls Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs.

As a effect of the closure, the centre says it volition not connection supervised cause consumption, needle speech programs and safer proviso of drugs. But connected its website, the centre says it volition proceed to connection sterile harm simplification supplies. Daily sweeps for cause litter in the country and overdose effect grooming volition continue, the centre says. 

The room inside the centre dedicated to the tract volition beryllium utilized arsenic a gathering area.

Shannon Wiens, CEO of the South Riverdale Community Health Centre, said successful a quality merchandise connected Wednesday that unit were preparing for the closure by providing overdose effect grooming and referrals.

"Over the past 8 years, we person had galore ups and downs but, done it all, we person reached thousands of radical and saved hundreds of lives," Wiens said.

"Our compassionate staff, including assemblage wellness workers, societal workers, nurses and physicians, person made countless referrals to wellness and different services, specified arsenic lodging enactment and intelligence wellness treatments, and provided team-based superior care, counselling, vaccinations, ft care, coiled attraction and more," Wiens added.

"Grief and nonaccomplishment are not feelings that are antithetic for our staff, clients and household members who use, enactment successful oregon enactment our services and galore are feeling the nonaccomplishment astatine the impending closure of keepSix. We are leaning connected each different and remembering our enactment is ne'er done — we volition conscionable request to bash it otherwise successful the coming year."

The centre is present co-lead of the East Toronto HART Hub, which is slated to unfastened successful April, that volition supply healthcare, time programs, societal services and lodging support. The centre said clients volition person entree to superior care, intelligence wellness and substance usage supports with referral to different services.

Fourteen organizations successful each volition run the East Toronto HART Hub, which means it volition beryllium located at different sites.

Health ministry says sites closing for information reasons

Hannah Jensen, spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said successful an email Friday that the provincial authorities passed authorities requiring 9 sites successful Ontario to adjacent for nationalist information reasons due to the fact that they "are located dangerously adjacent to schools and daycare centres."

The authorities did not necessitate the sites to adjacent earlier than its March 31 deadline, she added.

Jensen said the HART hub locations volition unfastened connected April 1 to guarantee nary work gap. 

The closure comes arsenic a conjugation of groups prepares to argue in tribunal adjacent week that the legislation forcing the sites to close violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The lawsuit is to beryllium heard at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice successful Toronto.

Supervised depletion sites prevention lives, activistic says

At a media briefing connected the tribunal situation Thursday, Zoe Dodd, co-organizer of the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society, said supervised depletion sites prevention lives and the authorities passed by the state to adjacent them volition pb to much overdose deaths. 

"And the authorities knows this," Dodd said.

In a station connected X connected Friday, Dodd said she'd worked astatine the keepSix tract for 15 years.

"The closure of this tract is the nonaccomplishment of a beingness line," she wrote. "These past weeks galore radical person died including a coworker who we hide connected Thursday. Life is conflict for the majority."