In December of 2024, the Ford government announced amendments to The Community Care and Recovery Act that would close supervised consumption sites (SCS) within 200 metres of schools or daycares across Ontario. Due to these changes, 10 sites in the province were set to close on April 1st. In response, the Neighbourhood Group Community Services (TNG) and two individuals who have accessed SCS in Toronto and Kitchener have taken the province to court, suggesting that the act infringed on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and its guarantee to life, liberty, and security. Now we await a ruling. Though the judge granted an injunction allowing the sites to stay open until a decision is made, 9 out of 10 of the sites have closed due to withdrawn provincial funding.
This decision will have a profound impact on library patrons, communities, and workers. Library Workers for Supervised Consumption Sites (LW4SCS) is a coalition of library workers across Ontario committed to advocating for SCSs and prioritizing harm reduction in our library work.
Library Workers for Supervised Consumption Sites
Libraries in Ontario have long been more than just a place for books. Libraries are community hubs that offer comprehensive free services including educational and social programs, printing and computer access, and of course, information in all kinds of formats. In extreme weather conditions libraries become warming and cooling spaces. During a housing crisis, a place of respite for people sleeping rough. During a pandemic, entertainment and a means to stay connected to the rest of the world.
As library workers embedded in our communities, our dedication to and support of supervised consumption sites (SCS) and harm reduction arise out of the evolving needs that we see in our spaces. Care is a large part of our work and why we do it. With the closures of SCSs, we are expecting to see an increase in drug use and drug poisonings in our libraries. Responding to drug toxicity deaths has become an increasing reality for us.
Every day, we witness how the province has abandoned our most vulnerable patrons. Libraries don’t require an exchange of money, thus they are one of the only free and truly public spaces available in our cities. Public libraries have become safe havens for the most vulnerable of our patrons struggling to navigate the overcrowded and inadequate shelter system. The struggle is palpable in our spaces, leading many library workers to take on roles that we aren’t properly trained or equipped for.
A recent CBC News report highlighted the dramatic increase in drug poisonings in public libraries across Canada, including a 529 percent increase in suspected poisonings at the Toronto Public Library (TPL) between 2022 and 2023. LW4SCS recently conducted a survey gauging Ontario library workers’ knowledge and confidence in overdose response. Based on the survey results, 40 percent of the respondents have responded to a suspected overdose at work, but only half of those respondents felt confident in how they handled it. Significantly, 58 percent of the respondents do not feel confident that they can recognize the signs of an overdose at all. Library workers have seen an increase in drug poisonings, emergency medical care, and crisis intervention, all while most library systems remain understaffed, underfunded, and under-resourced.
Doug Ford’s Bill 223 and its closing of 10 (and eventually all) SCSs across the province will only exacerbate this increase, and leave many workers feeling abandoned while navigating the opioid crisis in our communities. As the results of our survey show, we do not have the resources we need to keep patrons safe and alive. As library workers, we are bracing for the loss of these vital services and the impact we will see in our workplace, on our communities and for our patrons.
Health and safety for all
Increased drug use in our spaces due to closures of SCS means increased exposure to sharps and bio-hazardous materials for patrons and library staff, creating real health and safety concerns. That said, we will not let our right to a safe workplace be mobilized to demonize people who use drugs and deprive them of their human right to health care. Our experience as public sector workers allows us to identify that these challenges don’t stem from people who use drugs, but a host of band-aid solutions and lack of properly funded and comprehensive social support by our government. We cannot do more with less, and neither can people who use drugs. When institutions that provide valuable access to harm reduction, a core element of healthcare, come under threat, the impact reverberates in our libraries.
We recognize the necessity of SCSs to provide safe places to use drugs, dispose of drug paraphernalia, find community, and access health care support for some of the most vulnerable in our communities. We understand that harm reduction keeps individuals who use drugs safe and alive, and lessens the workload for frontline workers in healthcare, social work, and other various public sector jobs.
We assert that having a dignified space to use drugs and know you won’t die from drug poisoning is important and vital for a community facing a drug toxicity crisis. SCSs offer a sterile, supervised space to use drugs and to access other critical health and social resources not offered by libraries. While some libraries might carry naloxone and sharps containers, most library workers lack trauma-informed harm reduction resources and training to handle emergency situations. The closure of SCSs has been named a ‘death-sentence’ for many people, an avoidable reality.
Libraries need SCSs
The network of harm reduction services in Ontario provides crucial care and resources to a wide network of people. This includes library workers on the front lines of the drug toxicity crisis. When SCSs and harm reduction services are eliminated, library staff will not only have fewer ways of providing meaningful support, but will be forced to provide medical care we are ill-equipped to handle.
We do not want to see further policing and criminalization taking place in our libraries as a response to increases in public drug use either. Policing people in struggle is not a genuine response to a toxic drug supply crisis; it fails to address the real, underlying causes and further pushes vulnerable patrons out of public spaces. We also do not want to see increasing staff burn-out keeping library workers from doing their work.
In the midst of this crisis, public libraries nationwide are committed to building relationships with community services and organizations that address the evolving needs of our patrons. We are establishing partnerships with local public health units and harm reduction agencies, creating new staffing positions, providing drug poisoning response training, and facilitating warm referrals to SCS. We depend on the network of harm reduction services in Ontario, not only to support patrons but to resource library workers.
The closures for SCSs in Ontario is a stark example of public health decisions having wide-reaching impacts. It was very clear that in the creation of Bill 223, the role that the libraries have in the community was not considered at all. We call on the Government of Ontario to address the underlying causes of the drug toxicity crisis, to stand up for vulnerable Ontarians, and create a comprehensive response that doesn’t further criminalize and alienate an already struggling community. Placing more weight on overburdened public institutions like the library won’t provide a solution. More Ontarians will die. The government needs to provide more funding to strengthen the public sector, provide a dignifying solution for those using drugs, including increasing affordable housing, access to appropriate healthcare, and addressing the very real mental health needs in our communities.
We assert that while library workers will do good work in responding to anything that comes our way, the network of public services needs to be strengthened. Libraries cannot become de-facto, and therefore, un-safe consumption sites; Ontarians deserve better than this, and we stand firmly behind harm reduction services and their vital work.
Our libraries are our patrons, and we are committed to their survival and their flourishing. We, as library workers, are doing our part. It’s time the Government of Ontario do theirs.
Be sure to follow our Resource list to see the latest updates on the legal challenge against the SCS closure in Ontario, and to learn more about SCS and the impact it has on libraries, as well as what library workers can do to support SCS. Consider donating to established SCS, such as the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Sites (KMOPS). Also, consider being trained in administering naloxone and carrying naloxone around. If you’re in broader Canada, check out what services are being offered in your city.
Did you like this article? Help us produce more like it by donating $1, $2, or $5. Donate
