Drug user group in Surrey to take fight against City of Surrey to court

It was a meeting place for drug users and support groups, but it didn’t even last a year before the City of Surrey pulled its business license, and advocates say there will be lasting impacts.

They are taking their fight to the B.C. Supreme Court over the operation of the BC-Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors Surrey chapter.

Ann Livingston coordinated the project, which operated in Newton for about seven months.  She says about 100 people a day were stopping by the office, especially early on in the pandemic, and says they were harassed by bylaw officers.

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“They said, ‘oh, you’re running an overdose prevention site here or an injection site or whatever’ — and it’s impossible to have an office for a membership organization that uses drugs to not have people use drugs,” Livingstone said.

Livingston is also the co-founder of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) and has opened several unsanctioned overdose prevention sites in her efforts to address the illicit drug crisis.

“When you do a drug user group, it’s like a fellowship, it’s like joining AA,” she said.

A petition from Pivot Legal Society to the B.C. Supreme Court notes an officer visited the nonprofit last March and told the group to cease operations in two days. The society says the Fraser Health Authority sent a letter to bylaw clarifying this wasn’t a consumption site.

Surrey City Council held the hearing in May 2021 and stuck by the decision to cancel the business license.

“The organization had applied for a business license as a non-profit society that would administer meetings once per week; however, upon inspection of the facility earlier this year regarding a complaint that people within the facility were not following Provincial Health Orders on COVID safety requirements, it appeared that the facility was operating as an overdose prevention site,” City of Surrey General Manager Rob Costanzo cited as the reason.

The court is scheduled to conduct a judicial review Tuesday.

“It is before the courts and the City won’t be commenting,” the City of Surrey said in an email to CityNews.

“It’s very exciting to see what the judge says,” Livingston said. Adding, “Persisting is the best thing you can do for anyone who’s died and in their name, you know, saying that this is something we’ve got to do something about.”