Harper dead set against Insite

Amid protests, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper found himself once again defending his government's controversial efforts to end supervised street-drug injections at the Insite facility during a campaign stop in Richmond yesterday.

He said the Tories remain dead set against something they consider promoting drug use.

"When it comes to drug use, we want to make sure that we expend our resources on treatment and prevention, which we believe are the more appropriate vehicles," Mr. Harper said.

Proponents of Insite have expressed anger this week that the RCMP has commissioned research that offers contrary views of the facility's effectiveness.

Strathcona resident Gillian Maxwell, who lives near the Insite safe-injection site, said she felt compelled to join the protestors. "We're reminding Mr. Harper that we're still here, and we're not going away, and Insite isn't going away," she said. "Insite is a health-care facility, and it saves lives, and he can't shut it down."

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