Become the electoral issue Vancouver injection site

Vancouver controversial safe injection site became an election issue Monday after yet another published study that he saved lives, by encouraging the author of the study said conservative policy on the site has no basis in fact.

Critics demanded drop of Prime Minister Stephen Harper opposition of his Government to the clinic and abandon their efforts to make it close.

Harper was in Yellowknife Monday where he regarded its strategy anti-drug, saying: it is based on the prevention and treatment.

But the Conservative Government has said in the past that he is not close our eyes to the site of safe injection and claims that it encourages addiction.

The latest study was published this week in the influential medical journal The Lancet. It was written by Dr. Thomas Kerr, with his colleagues of the urban Initiative in health research at the Hospital of Saint Paul in Vancouver.

"Canadians should be concerned with how the Federal Government approached problems such as drug addiction - that they are really not base their decision on science, they based on ideology,"Kerr said."".

The clinic, Insite, opened in 2003 as the first of its kind in North America. It allows addicts to inject their own medications in a healthy environment under the supervision of a nurse, but it requires an exemption from federal legislation of Health Act to operate.

The study concluded the site has helped reduce the number of fatal overdoses in the notorious Downtown Eastside of Vancouver by more than a third.

"It is evidence showing that Insite achieves its objectives [and] it is very important because it shows it prevents death," said Kerr.

Researchers followed fatal overdoses in the immediate vicinity of the clinic over a period of 33 months before the facility opened in September 2003 and 27 months after its opening. The rate of fatal overdose plunged 35 per cent after the opening of the site, the study concluded, while the number of fatal overdoses in the rest of the city fell by all nine percent during the same period.

But the Conservative Government has indicated that he wants to put an end to the exemption and see the supervised injection site closed.

Supporters of the clinic successfully challenged the Federal Government, winning a decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia Colombia later confirmed by the Court of appeal Colombia-British in January 2010 which found Insite is a health care facility and therefore falls within the provincial jurisdictionFederal steps.

Federal lawyers appealed appeal, however, arguing that Insite makes it easier for people to break the law.

This drew the criticism of the then-Minister of health of British Columbia Colombia Kevin Falcon, which emphasized the large body of independent research supporting the clinical.

The Supreme Court of the Canada should hear the arguments on the issue next month.

Kerr, said Monday that the position with the Conservatives on the issue is unlit.

"We really let one not back by trying to use a war on drug United States style, which is a well documented political failure," he said.

"Insite has also been shown very profitable." If you are concerned with the economy, it is clearly something that you need to support. ?

Janice Buchanan, Vice President of the BC Nurses' Union, called the Harper Government to abandon its appeal on the Lancet study, saying that the study shows contributes to Insite drug addicts in detox and retrieve.

"Instead of wasting the taxpayers money on lawyers and the courts to try to stop this service legitimate health care, the Conservatives - and all other political parties - should use this moment as an opportunity to ensure that their health care policies are based on evidence"buchanan""said in a press release.

The Government of the spent approximately 3 million per year on Insite, a pillar of the harm reduction strategy battle.

Studies of more than two dozen in various medical journals welcomed the installation as a success, suggesting that it reduced deaths by overdose, HIV and hepatitis rate and crime in the poor Downtown Eastside 10-block radiuswhere drug users are concentrated by the intravenous route of the city. The Centre of British Colombia for Excellence in HIV / AIDS said that since the opening of Insite, it has been an increase of 30 per cent of the number of drug abusers in detoxification.

Other Canadian cities, such as Victoria and Toronto, have said they want to open their own clinics safe-injection, modelled on Insite.

Liberal MP Hedy Fry, a physician whose electoral district of Vancouver Centre includes the Downtown Eastside, said that Harper must act on evidence.

"If you recognize that addiction is a disease and it is a medical problem, and you must deal with medical solutions, one of the most important things is the prevention of death," said Fry. "[Insite is] this goal in a remarkable manner.".

FRY said that the site is an effective tool for public health.

"Stephen Harper lives in the flat earth society." The evidence, this is what you watch. It works? Good. ?

Accessibility links

View the original article here

Solicitors for Egyptians to the Mubarak issue - Wall Street Journal

Cairo - former called Egyptian prosecutors President Hosni Mubarak for an examination and order former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Sunday, following the protests by demonstrators demanding legal liability for civil servants who died in the country.

The two movements seemed to destroy growing public frustration about the slow pace with which new military leadership of the Egypt continued to officials of the former regime of alleged financial misdeeds.

Action of Attorneys emphasized the persistent power of protests led by young people. Almost two months after what Mr Mubarak gave power to a high military Council, demonstrators have shown that they are still capable of the convening in large numbers, but also delight more political concessions from the military Government.

Mr. Mubarak also chose Sunday to make his first comments to the Egyptian public. In a message recorded Saturday and broadcast Sunday on the pan-Arab satellite station Al Arabiya, the former leader is committed to cooperate with prosecutors. He also denied that he or his family held all banking or "active" accounts abroad.

"I cannot remain silent about the ongoing campaigns of defamation and false accusations to ruin the reputation and the integrity of my family and me", the former President said in the message. "I felt great pain - and still do - because of the unjust campaigns and unfair accusations that my family and I have been exposed."

Some protest leaders said they considered the speech an act of defiance by a Chief who himself had stylized as a father figure to the Egyptian people.

The speeches do little to ensure the demonstrators said the army made a sincere effort to keep the former officials, Shadi Al Ghazali Harb, a leader in the Revolutionary Youth, whose members Coalition led three weeks of protests ousted Mr. Mubarak.

"There is a feeling widespread frustration in the same arrogant manner in which he spoke to us," he said. "Everybody thinks that he has probably had enough time to mobilize his money and his money and assets in recent two months for him certainly nothing will take place on him, especially abroad,", added Mr. Al Ghazali Harb. "It was all under the guise of the army."

The Swiss Government said it froze assets of Mr. Mubarak on 11 February, the day, that he resigned. Office of the Attorney General of the Egypt requested foreign embassies to freeze the assets of Mr. Mubarak abroad ten days later.

In one of the largest gatherings since Mr. Mubarak resigned in February, thousands of demonstrators Tahrir Square in Cairo completed Friday to former officials demand be held responsible for perception of widespread corruption. The military police and security officialsforcefully dispersed the crowd at about 3 a.m. Saturday morning in a clash that killed at least a person, according to the reports of the wire. But on Sunday, demonstrators remained in the square.

The violence marked a low point in relations between the protestors, led by young activists and the armed forces, who ruled the Egypt since Mr. Mubarak resigned on 11 February.

Counsel of the Office of the Attorney General, said that the Attorney General sent a request Sunday morning for the Ministry of the Interior, requesting that Mr. Mubarak and his son, Gamal and Alaa, be called to Cairo for questioning.

It is believed that the former President spent at his home in the resort of Sharm El Sheikh city since he was overthrown from power after 18 days of often violent demonstrations.

The lawyer said it belonged to the Ministry of the Interior to decide when to assign Mr Mubarak. The former President is under investigation on allegations of misappropriation of public funds and for alleged kickbacks on transactions to import weapons. Prosecutors also will examine its involvement in violence against the demonstrators in unrest that led to her eviction, said the lawyer. According to the Ministry of health of the Egypt, some 384 people died during the uprising on the part of police, rogue agents incurred by officials of the regime and the military police.

Counsel for the Office of the Prosecutor, said Mr Nazif, who was arrested Sunday afternoon, will be detained for questioning for 15 days in connection with an agreement to import licence plates marked up a German company rates. M. Nazif has not publicly commented on the allegations.

View the original article here