Liam Michaud

Drug User Advocacy Groups Challenge ‘Recriminalization’ in Court | The Tyee Foes of decriminalization wrongly conflated it with poverty and the rise of homelessness, lawyer argues.

thetyee.ca/News/2025/07...

Alberta recovery programs require private 'coaches,' emails show As one recovery centre admits that recovery coaches supplied by Bowline Health are now mandatory to access its residential services, it is unclear if the Province will mandate its coaches across the r...

Exclusive: Alberta Recovery Model

A private company with its hands in most stages of Alberta's abstinence-oriented drug strategy has evaded public scrutiny.

Here, I show how its 'recovery coaches' are becoming mandatory to access publicly funded recovery centres.
drugdatadecoded.ca/substance-us...

the decades long fight to get needle access in prisons is also a helpful tool of how rights-based approaches, while limited, can be critical tools in fighting for material resources & basic dignity.

uptake on the program is extremely low, especially among women, because of lacking confidentiality protections & risk of reprisal. several prisons hosting a program have ZERO people accessing it. canada is an outlier internationally with its high barrier and security-oriented approach.

needle distribution, in community and in prison, began through impacted communities and healthcare allies engaging in unsanctioned practices — defying 1-for-1 exchange policies, smuggling, creative professional disobedience.

established measures like needle distribution that have been around since the 80s are facing renewed attacks; in ontario, established agencies are being barred from distributing them under new draconian funding agreements.

eligibility is effectively determined by prison wardens. close to 1/3 of applicants are deemed ineligible based on a ‘threat risk assessment’. imagine the health fallout if we subjected people in community to the same process just to access sterile equipment.

Securitizing carceral health: a realist review of Canada’s prison needle exchange program - Health & Justice Background In 2018, in response to a lawsuit and years of civil society advocacy for prison-based syringe distribution due to elevated rates of injection drug use, HIV, and hepatitis C virus among inc...

canada’s prison needle exchange program is a helpful case study in how crucial reforms can be undermined through bad implementation, punitive barriers, conditioning entitlement, or policy sabotage. it provides helpful lessons for other areas of drug policy & law reform-open access in Health&Justice

Police in Ontario Increasingly Obstruct Harm Reduction Service Delivery

"Members of the research team heard about frequent unannounced police visits to local [Ontario] harm reduction programs."

"[P]olice would enter the premises, search clients' belongings, interrogate staff, and at times arrest service users."
#Ontario #Canada #Drugs #Healthcare #Policing

The situation also underscores urgent need for public health and municipal leadership to reign in excessive and abusive enforcement practices that violate the right to health & access emergency care.

Police in Ontario Increasingly Obstruct Harm Reduction Service Delivery Police surveillance and interference block life-saving care as the province becomes more hostile to harm reduction, our study shows.

Police interference w/ harm reduction services is a growing crisis. Surveilling services, arresting clients & other abuses cause service avoidance, violate peoples right to healthcare & highlights urgent need for binding non-interference policies. @filtermag.bsky.social @hivlegalnetwork.bsky.social

In Baltimore's drug war, 'public safety' comes before public health. Nearly everyone impacted is Black At first glance, it may seem that the War on Drugs has all but disappeared in Baltimore. The decades-long campaign decimated Black neighborhoods and fueled mass incarceration in the city under the gui...

As public officials post about Juneteenth...

Remember that @baltimorebeat.bsky.social published articles just this week detailing how the War on Drugs almost exclusively impacts Black residents, and how the BPD just killed a beloved arabber.

baltimorebeat.com/in-baltimore...

Episode 54: Get Sober or Get Dead — Crackdown Podcast Alberta is the involuntary treatment capital of Canada. Since 2006, the province has encouraged parents to waive their children's rights and force them into detox as part of the Protection of Children...

per usual—as the political class creates spectacle from the toxic drug crisis, @crackdownpod.bsky.social shows us the intimate realities. important new episode: www.crackdownpod.com/episodes/epi...
ft. @momsstoptheharm.bsky.social @4bharmredux.bsky.social

BREAKING: Canada exported $18.9 million of military goods to Israel in 2024, despite the Liberal government's "pause" on new export permits. international.gc.ca/transparency...

Canada’s sovereignty is facing an existential threat over disproven allegations that illicit fentanyl, originating from Canada, is significantly contributing the American drug poisoning emergency.

This Bill is a dangerous and unfounded admission of guilt

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#cdnpoli

www.canada.ca/en/public-sa...

Emergency Management Modernization Act, 2025 Bill 25 from Parliament 44 Session 1 of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario: Emergency Management Modernization Act, 2025.

This is bad: the Ford government's Bill 25 gives the Minister of Children, Community & Social Services new powers to issue directives to ministry-funded entities.

Bill 25 can be used to force government ideology into community services under threat of defunding. www.ola.org/en/legislati...

Revealed: Oregon spent funds meant for addiction services on prosecutors and police gadgets As the state abandons decriminalization, treatment grants are going to sheriffs and district attorneys: ‘that might be two or three case managers’

Compassionate approaches quickly shifted to more punishment in Oregon, as treatment funds were used to fund the wages of more prosecutors and acquiring police gadgets and vehicles.

There's limited funding for treatment and harm reduction, but for police..!

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

B.C.'s first involuntary care beds for incarcerated men open in Surrey Ten beds are only for men being held in the custody at the Surrey pretrial centre

I missed this: BC is holding involuntarily hospitalized people - by definition among the most vulnerable - in solitary confinenent. This runs counter to Mandela Rules and, going by prior court rulings, Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. www.mapleridgenews.com/home2/bcs-fi...

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CRIMINALIZING DISSENT? The Truth About the BUBBLE ZONE Bylaw The City of Toronto has proposed a BUBBLE ZONE bylaw that would restrict protests near so-called “vulnerable” institutions. Join us for a community teach-in exploring its potential harms, featuring leading local voices in law, labour, housing, feminist activism, and disability justice. May 20th, 5:30pm Location: Toronto Metropolitan University, PD 457 Brad Evoy, Disability Justice Network Ontario Dreddz B.L., Voices for Unhoused Liberation Sid Jackson, Voices for Unhoused Liberation Irina Ceric, Law Union of Ontario Robyn Maynard, Another Toronto and Author of Policing Black Lives Judy Rebick, Feminist, Activist, Journalist, Author and Educator

Criminalizing Dissent?
Toronto: join me, @policingblack.bsky.social, @judreb.bsky.social & others for this community teach-in about the city's proposed bubble zone bylaw.
Tuesday, May 20, 5:30pm at TMU. Info & RSVP: communityteachin.rsvpify.com

On this #HarmReduction Day we repost this reflection document about how harm reduction has, & its core, a rejection of carceral systems & an indirect approach that does not focus on exit, rehabilitation, or stopping to use drugs.

Lire en français et en anglais ici : chezstella.org/fr/travail-d...

Today, I released a letter, signed by 67 organizations working across Ontario, asking the Ford government to rescind Bill 6. We can't adopt Trumpian policies to punish encampments; people need proven solutions — especially housing. Read our letter: tinyurl.com/EJC-Bill6

Police departments wielding a de facto veto over all municipal governance is one of those things that's strangling every city. And it's doubly infuriating when you try to explain that to people, and they practically jam their fingers in their ears.

Canadian heritage minutes of Bruce Fanjoy declared elected in Ottawa Carlton, defeating Pierre Poilievre

B.C. legislation lacks safeguards, allowing vulnerable people to be detained against their will A report from B.C.’s Human Rights Commissioner highlights concerns about how the Adult Guardianship Act is being used

BC legislation intended to protect vulnerable adults from abuse and neglect lacks transparency, oversight and safeguards, allowing some health agencies to detain ppl without legal authority or due regard to procedural rights, says BC Human Rights Commissioner
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

‘It’s classist. It’s racist’: Ontario’s overdose death capital braces for more loss In Thunder Bay, the closure of safe supply sites raises concerns as the community anticipates more overdose deaths.

‘It’s classist. It’s racist’: Ontario’s overdose death capital braces for more loss.

In #ThunderBay, the Ford government's plan to close harm reduction programs is hitting the community.

The latest from @jonthompson.bsky.social:

ricochet.media/justice/heal...

#onpoli #safesupply

17 ORGANIZATIONS CONDEMN FORCED DETENTION PLANS: BCCLA, South Asian Legal Clinic of BC, Pivot Legal, Surrey Union of Drug Users & 12 more join P.O.W.E.R. to denounce involuntary treatment expansion Moms Stop the Harm, Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society, Spring Mag, VANDU, HRNA, Care Not Cops, Stop the Sweeps, BCAPOM, EACH+EVERY,CSSDP Vancouver, Crackdown, and COPA join the call.

Care is Not Forced (from Sept 2024):

www.policeoversight.ca/p/16-organiz...

The court has granted an injunction!

Safe Consumption Sites in Ontario will not be forced by law to close on Monday!

Thank you!