Premier David Eby says a re-elected NDP government move towards involuntary treatment of people with addiction, mental illness and acquired brain injuries.
Eby says his government would open “highly secure facilities” with the first set to open in Metro Vancouver at a site called Monarch Homes on the grounds of the Allouette Correctional Centre.
Legislative changes would be made to pave the way for that involuntary care.
The Premier's announcement is similar to what B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad pledged earlier last week.
Victoria's Police Chief has been calling for this type of move and welcomed this news when speaking on C-FAX Monday morning. "This is something that I and my police colleagues have been asking for for years," says Chief Del Manak.
"There's a small group of individuals who have lost healthy insight into living in society. They need intensive supports... whether it's drug addiction or their mental health has deteriorated. Right now, there's a revolving door for many of these individuals," says Manak.
The current NDP government, both under Premier Eby and John Horgan before him, have twice explored involuntary treatment but have always backed away. The idea has faced push-back from organizations such as the BC Civil Liberties Association. After this latest announcement, they continue to think involuntary treatment would run into charter challenges.
"The BCCLA's perspective is that involuntary treatment of this nature would be charter infringing and it that it's not justifiable under section one," says Safiyya Ahmad, Staff Counsel for the BCCLA.
The charter states Everyone has the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned and section one states the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.
"The question is whether under section one it can be considered a reasonable limit," says Ahmad, "and possibly the reason we're seeing various government proposals coming forward and then going back is maybe because there's an understanding that there's a risk of a constitutional challenge for this type of legislation."
Eby said his plan is to move forward “as quickly as possible” at the first sites, where people can be held after being apprehended and detained under the Mental Health Act. Instead of releasing a person into the community, Eby said there would now be the option of moving them into one of these facilities without their consent.