Amnesty International is weighing in on the Ford government's plans to defund more safe-consumption sites in the province after shutting down ten last year.
It warns the province's "war on drugs" is fuelling an overdose crisis in Ontario.
"At a time when overdoses are escalating, shutting down life-saving services is not just inhumane, it is a violent choice," said Elaheh Sajadi, a gender-rights campaigner with Amnesty International Canada's English-speaking section. "The government's war on drugs is making a deadly crisis worse by attacking the very measures that save lives."
Earlier this month, the Windsor Essex Community Opioid and Substance Strategy held an emergency meeting after an unusually high number of overdoses in the region the week before. Following the meeting, the strategy's 32 community partners came up with a plan to address the growing number of overdoses.
A safe consumption site in Windsor opened in the spring of 2023, only to close less than a year later after Premier Doug Ford ordered a review into safe consumption sites following a shooting outside a clinic in Toronto.
Cities across Ontario are witnessing the same high number of overdoses. In Hamilton last month, paramedics responded to more opioid-related overdose calls than in any other month since 2017. Hamilton's safe consumption site closed in March 2025 after the province introduced new restrictions on where safe-consumption sites can operate.
In London, police issued a public safety alert earlier this month after officials handled 39 overdose-related emergency calls in a 24-hour period. That city's only safe-consumption site will lose provincial funding in June.
The Windsor Essex County Health Unit, along with others, blames the recent jump in overdoses on an unregulated, toxic drug supply. Amnesty International says Ontario's anti-harm reduction legislation is making it harder for healthcare workers, advocates, and those who use drugs to adapt.
Last June, the Ford government passed Bill 6, which bans the public consumption of illegal substances, which it said was needed to clear homeless encampments. It gave police expanded powers to arrest suspected drug users without a warrant and to relocate those living in public spaces.
Amnesty International claims the opioid overdose crisis disproportionately impacts the Indigenous, particularly Indigenous women. They face alarmingly high rates of overdose death, while being overrepresented by those experiencing homelessness. The group says shutting down harm-reduction services endangers their lives.
"Ontario's actions come on the heels of Canada being challenged at the United Nations for failing its constitutional duty to protect the right to life, by refusing to address the toxic drug crisis, allowing the erosion of evidence-based harm reduction across the country, and failing to confront systemic conditions that put their lives at risk," said Brianna Olson-Pitawanakwat of Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction. "Combined with the disproportionate harm faced by Indigenous people, this reflects an ongoing pattern of colonial violence and systemic neglect."
Amnesty International recently launched a petition online calling on the provincial government to repeal Bill 6 and Bill 223.
"People have a right to life. Full stop," said Sajadi. "We urgently demand that the Ontario government repeal punitive laws and fund evidence-based, community-led harm-reduction services to prevent this crisis from becoming even deadlier."
