This is a photo of Jonah, holding his two-year-old son Hendrix on a TTC train. Hendrix loves trains.
Jonah died of an overdose on June 2, 2024.
Hendrix lost his dad. Katherine McCloskey lost her son.
Jonah’s mother, Katherine, spoke about her son at a press conference we hosted in Queen’s Park in September, where she said: “I could not protect my adult son Jonah from being killed by Toronto’s toxic drug supply, but the Conservative government can choose to protect some of this province’s most vulnerable sons and daughters.”
The Conservatives are not listening to Katherine’s plea. The government has just introduced a law to close 10 consumption and treatment sites by March 2025, and ban new sites from opening anywhere in Ontario. The Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) site in Kensington Market on Augusta Ave is one of the 10 sites slated to close.
CTS are rooms where individuals can inject their own drugs, under the watchful eye of a nurse or health care worker who can revive them if they overdose. These sites can help people get access to health care and care, from a doctor’s appointment to getting on a wait list for supportive housing. They offer a lifeline to people who are struggling to survive.
Every day 21 people die of a drug overdose in Canada. Every day, 17 people are hospitalized, putting strain on our emergency departments and hospitals.
When someone overdoses, oxygen to the brain is reduced, which can lead to permanent brain damage. Without a safe place to use drugs, more people will die, sons, fathers, daughters, people like Jonah.
When consumption and treatment sites close, the problem of addiction will not go away. People will take drugs elsewhere, in washrooms, in front of businesses, in school yards. The entire neighborhood becomes a consumption site. The Conservatives say they’ll set up 10 abstinence treatment centers to help some people struggling with addiction. An abstinence only approach is as dangerous as instructing a drowning person on how to swim, instead of throwing them a life jacket.
Why are the Conservatives taking such a dangerous approach to addressing addiction? I think it’s because an election is coming up, and the Conservatives secure votes by targeting vulnerable people instead of showing leadership and addressing the crisis of addiction.
The truth is the Ontario government can and must meet people where they’re at by keeping them alive and protecting them from dying from an overdose. The truth is Ontario can and must provide more treatment, health care, counseling, and housing to help people recover and rebuild their lives, and work to prevent people from becoming addicted in the first place.
I will be speaking to the bill - Bill 223 - in the coming days. Please send me statements you’d like me to read.
- You can read the bill here.
- Sign up to speak or submit written comments here.
Sincerely,
Jessica Bell