B.C. judge rules drug law unconstitutional, stays trafficking convictions of activists
The judge found the pair's compassion club reduced harms from toxic drugs and did not negatively impact public safety.
VANCOUVER — A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has stayed drug trafficking convictions against two harm-reduction activists and ruled parts of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act unconstitutional.
Justice Catherine Murray found Tuesday that sections of the act violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and stayed the convictions against Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx, founders of the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF).
Murray said Kalicum and Nyx's compassion club reduced the harms associated with the toxic drug crisis and did not negatively impact the community or public safety.
READ MORE: Quebec police charge 16 in cocaine trafficking investigation
READ MORE: Peel Police Union Endorses Alvin Tedjo in Historic First for Mississauga Mayoral Race
"Mr. Kalicum and Ms. Nyx have borne the burden of bringing a successful constitutional challenge, thereby doing the public interest a service at considerable personal cost," Murray said.
She noted thousands of people have died due to toxic drugs since the public health emergency was declared in B.C. in 2016.
The judge found the act infringes upon the rights guaranteed under Sections 7 and 15 of the Charter, which relate to life, liberty, security of the person and equality.
She has suspended her ruling for six months to give Parliament time to implement a plan that would allow for a non-medicalized safer supply program to operate.
Kalicum and Nyx were found guilty last year of drug trafficking after Vancouver police raided the club in 2023.
They had admitted to buying pure drugs on the dark web and selling them to the club's members.
Murray's ruling says that running such a safer-supply program was precisely what the applicants were doing and that formed the basis of the criminal charges against them.
In court, Murray said the pair "selflessly" put themselves to the side for the cause.
She put Kalicum and Nyx's convictions on hold last year to hear the constitutional challenge, where their lawyers argued that forcing drug users to rely on unregulated street drugs violates the Charter of Rights.
Murray said in a ruling last year that Nyx and Kalicum's intentions were good as they tried to save lives, but that buying pure drugs on the dark web and selling them to members was not covered by an exemption that allowed for drug storage and testing.
She said the two were "agitators" who wanted to make change and were aware that they ran the risk of a trafficking prosecution.
Kalicum and Nyx's lawyers had argued that closing the club violated the rights of those who are disabled by addiction and raised their risk of death from an unregulated, illicit drug supply.
Murray said the applicants in this case have borne the burden of bringing a successful constitutional challenge, doing a public interest service at considerable cost to themselves.
She ruled that parts of Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act are unconstitutional and stayed the convictions.
With files from The Canadian Press, CBC News and Global News