10th Annual Harm Reduction Conference

DATES: March 4th & 5th, 2009
VENUE: Ramada Hotel and Conference Centre Edmonton

Ten Years and Going Strong

CLICK HERE FOR CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Plenary Sessions for the 10th Alberta Harm Reduction Conference

PLENARY SESSION:
Prohibition: A Hundred Years and Still Going Wrong 2009

This presentation will ask why, more than a century after Canada instituted it first laws prohibiting drugs, we persist with drug laws that succeed only in magnifying the harms associated with drugs. And what can we do to move away from our current failed policies to policies that actually have a hope of helping users, their families and communities, and the world around them?

Eugene Oscapella, Barrister and Solicitor, Ottawa, Canada.

Mr. Oscapella completed undergraduate studies in economics at the University of Toronto in 1974 and received his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Ottawa in 1977. He obtained his Master of Laws degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1979. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1980. From 1980 to 81, Mr. Oscapella served as a commission counsel with the McDonald Commission of Inquiry into the RCMP. From 1982 to 85, he was Director of Legislation and Law Reform for the Canadian Bar Association. Since 1985, Mr. Oscapella has been an independent adviser to government and private sector interests on Canadian legislative and public policy issues.Mr. Oscapella was associated with the Law Reform Commission of Canada over a 14 year period, and was the first chairman of that body's Drug Policy Group. Mr. Oscapella is a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, an independent organization created to examine Canada's drug laws and policies. For several years he sat on the policy committee of the Canadian Criminal Justice Association. He has appeared many times before Canadian Parliamentary committees on drug policy issues, including the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs and the House of Commons Special Committee on the Non-medical Use of Drugs. He lectures on drug policy issues in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa and has lectured and been published widely in Canada and abroad on drug policy issues.

PLENARY SESSION:
Women, drugs, and pregnancy: New directions in policy and practice

This presentation will discuss barriers and opportunities for harm reduction practice. Women-centred, harm reduction approaches seek to provide care and support for women and their families. Although there is much more acceptance of harm reduction philosophy and practice today, questions related to pregnant women, mothers, and their infants seem more difficult to address. Several women-centred harm reduction programs will be examined, including programs for pregnant substance-using women and their infants.

Susan C. Boyd, BA, MA, PhD

Susan Boyd teaches courses on drug law and policy, theory and research methodology. Her research interests include drug law and policy, maternal-state conflicts, film and print media representations, women in conflict with the law and research methodology. She is a community activist who works with harm reduction and anti-drug war groups.

PLENARY SESSION:
The Crack Users Project

The Crack Users Project (CUP) is a community capacity-building initiative, developed by Street Health and Regent Park Community Health Centre, with the goal of reducing the harms associated with the use of crack cocaine among users in southeast downtown Toronto.

Paula Tookey

Paula has been working with people who experience homelessness, and struggle with mental health and addiction issues in downtown Toronto for 19 years. She has worked as a housing support worker at StreetCity - an unique harm reduction housing project for the "hardest to house". Since 1998 Paula has been working at Street Health as a mental health case manager. In 2005 the Crack User' Project (CUP) was launched and Paula has been involved in design and implementation of the program. She is supervises the CUP drop in and is also the program's support worker. Paula coordinates training and social activities for the peers and other program participants, facilitates concurrent disorder support and discussion group and presents on the Crack User's Project at various conferences.

Russell McKim

Russ has experienced homelessness, incarceration and is a substance user. He joined the CUP in 2006. Russ successfully graduated from the Peer Outreach Worker training as well as the Advanced Peer Outreach training in 2007. Russ was hired by Street Health in August 2007 as a Harm Reduction Worker, where he is currently employed. Russ also continues to be involved with the CUP as a trainer and outreach mentor.

PLENARY SESSION:
Drugs and Discrimination: The Uses and Limits of the Law to
Defend the Rights of People Who Use Drugs

This presentation outlines how existing Canadian law against discrimination can be used to challenge discrimination against people with dependence on drugs. It also looks at whether and how the law might be used — or might need to be changed — to protect more broadly against discrimination faced by people who use drugs, whether or not they are dependent.

Richard Elliott, BA, LL.B, LL.M

Richard joined the Legal Network staff in January 1999 as Director of Policy and Research, following a one and a half-year term on its board of directors. He became Deputy Director in 2005 and Executive Director in 2007. Previously, he worked as a lawyer in private practice and appeared before all levels of Ontario courts, as well as the Supreme Court of Canada. He has coordinated student legal aid clinic services for low-income people with HIV/AIDS, served on the boards of directors of HALCO, the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic (Ontario), and the Prisoners with HIV/AIDS Support Action Network (PASAN), and been involved with other human rights organizations. Between 2001 and 2007, he was a member of the Ministerial Council on HIV/AIDS. Richard is a founding member of the Global Treatment Access Group (GTAG), an affiliation of Canadian civil society organizations advocating for access to medicines and other aspects of the human right to health in developing countries. Richard holds an undergraduate degree in economics and philosophy from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and obtained his LL.B. and LL.M. from the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Toronto. He was called to the bar in Ontario in 1997, and has authored numerous reports, papers and articles on the legal and human rights issues related to HIV/AIDS.