The impacts of police and policing

The Director of Police Services must develop the following Provincial Policies for all policing agencies in British Columbia:

Recommendation 4: A Provincial Policy governing police interactions with intoxicated persons, in partnership with people who use drugs and people living with alcoholism, and fund the implementation of the Policy. This Policy should make it clear that:

1. police interventions with a person who is intoxicated must be minimally impairing on liberty and officers must make the security of the person (health) the paramount consideration in determining whether to apprehend an individual;
2. city cells are not the appropriate place to bring an intoxicated person for their own safety or other therapeutic reasons. Alternatives to detention including, but not limited to, sobering centres, hospitals, and other community-based options must be made available; and
3. where an intoxicated person must be brought into cells, their health care needs shall be paramount and health care visits will be mandatory.

The impacts of police and policing

The Director of Police Services must develop the following Provincial Policies for all policing agencies in British Columbia:

Recommendation 5: A Provincial Policy on harm reduction which should include:

1. a directive to deprioritize simple possession of controlled substances and an overview of the harms of confiscating substances (including alcohol) from people with addictions and limited resources;
2. a directive to never confiscate new or used syringes, naloxone, and other harm reduction and overdose prevention supplies;
3. a statement that harm reduction supplies, whether new or used, are not a basis for search or investigation; and
4. a directive that local police forces work with service providers to develop bubble zones around safe consumption sites, overdose prevention sites, and other harm reduction sites, taking into consideration policing practices that may deter access including visible presence, arrests in close proximity, undercover operations in and near, and surveillance of people using the service.

How court-imposed conditions set people up to fail

Recommendation 12: The Government of Canada must amend the Criminal Code to prevent the use and prosecution of discriminatory or destructive behavioural conditions of interim release and sentencing, specifically:

• legislate that conditions imposed on interim release be reasonable and proportionate to the nature and seriousness of the alleged offence and the circumstances of the accused;
• define “drug paraphernalia” as harm reduction medical equipment and prohibit the imposition of conditions that would interfere with the ability to access or possess harm reduction equipment;
• prior to imposing an abstinence condition, require that courts consider a person’s dependence on drugs or alcohol. Abstinence conditions shall not be imposed on people living with addictions, except where doing so is necessary to protect the safety of a victim, witness, or the public, and harm-reduction measures shall be preferred over abstinence;
• limit “red zone” conditions to situations where there is a substantial likelihood that, if released without a red zone, the accused will commit an offence involving violence or serious harm within the red zone and ensure that any red zone is tailored to the alleged offence, the principles of judicial interim release or probation, and circumstances of the individual;
• remove paragraph 504(2.1) (g), the power for police to impose “abstinence” conditions; and
• eliminate criminal sanctions for non-violent breaches of behavioural conditions.

How court-imposed conditions set people up to fail

The Provincial Court of British Columbia should:

Recommendation 17: Amend the Provincial Court of British Columbia, “Bail Orders Picklist”, May 1, 2017 and Provincial Court of British Columbia, “Probation Orders Picklist” May 1, 2017 to:

1. remove “Drug Paraphernalia” conditions;
2. restrict the use of “No Alcohol or Drugs” conditions in relation to people with addictions;
3. remove “banishment” conditions entirely;
4. ensure that all “red zone” conditions are imposed only where doing so is required to protect the safety of a victim, witness, or the public from violence or serious harm. In doing so, red zones must be tailored to the alleged offence and the circumstances of the individual. Under no circumstances are standardized red zones appropriate; and
5. prohibit the imposition of behavioural or geographic conditions that would interfere with the ability to access health or social services, including harm reduction health services.

How court-imposed conditions set people up to fail

The Provincial Court of British Columbia should:

Recommendation 18: Create a Provincial Court resource outlining “harm reduction services,” including a definition of:

1. “drug paraphernalia” as harm reduction equipment;
2. “Safe Consumption Sites” and “Overdose Prevention Sites”;
3. needle exchange;
4. opioid substitution treatment; and v. low-barrier health services.

Service gaps and barriers

Recommendation 24: The Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions and the Ministry of Health must improve the ability of BC hospitals to meet the needs of people living with the effects of substance use, mental illness, and/or homelessness by:

• auditing experiences in hospitals, beginning with an analysis of people’s experiences where they have been turned away from emergency rooms or discharged and where there have been negative health consequences;
• working with people with lived experience to audit provincial standards for effectively managing substance withdrawal in hospital settings;
• ensuring that all hospitals offer supervised consumption services to patients; and
• working with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to create transitional housing options to ensuring that sick and injured people are not released from the hospital to the streets or to emergency shelter.

Service gaps and barriers

Recommendation 31: All government actors and health care providers must recognize the specific and indispensable expertise of people with lived experience. Increase peer-run and peer-delivered services and peer-support positions within government services by:

• developing a provincial advisory board of people with lived experience of homelessness for BC Housing;
• establishing provincial best practices for engaging people with lived experience of poverty, homelessness, and substance use in service delivery modelled on GIPA (Greater Involvement of People living with HIV/AIDS), MIPA (Meaningful Involvement of People Living with HIV), and NAUWU (Nothing About Us Without Us) principles;
• collaborating with peer-led organizations to audit all provincial services (hospital, health, income assistance, shelter, housing) to identify and fund opportunities for peer engagement in service provision and planning; and
• developing a model for peer-involvement in the design and execution of homeless counts.

Operationalizing stigma-auditing

Recommendation 34: In its first year in operation, the BC Human Rights Commission should prioritize stigma-auditing areas of law and policy that most directly impact highly stigmatized populations, including, but not limited to:

• public space governance;
income assistance and disability policy;
• housing policy and residential tenancy law;
• child welfare law and policy;
• policing law and policy;
• health policy related to mental health and substance use; and
• privacy law as it relates to people who live in public space and people who are criminalized as a result of substance use.