Windsor's mayor calls it 'bonkers' that we're tolerating open drug use on the streets of the city and across Canada.
Drew Dilkens made the comment after city council heard from Windsor police during Monday's council meeting about the city's efforts to address the homeless, mental health, and addiction issues, including open drug use as part of the Strengthen the Core initiative to improve the downtown.
"It's bonkers! It's absolutely bonkers, and I don't accept this as the new baseline and the Canadian way. Someone is shirking their responsibility, or many people are shirking their responsibility, and it's putting a lot of pressure on municipalities like ours to deal with these types of things," he says.
Acting Deputy Chief of Operations Ken Cribley told council that Windsor police officers have been given direction to move people along under 2025 provincial legislation, the Restricting Public Consumption of Illegal Substances Act.
Cribley says under the legislation, no person is allowed to consume an illegal substance in a public place, so the most an officer can do is to ask people to stop what they're doing in a public place and move along, but there is no arrest authority.
He points out changes under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) that have resulted in most simple possession cases being decriminalized.
Dilkens says he can't believe that we're tolerating that type of behaviour.
"The fact that even when they arrest people for simple drug possession, the vast majority of these cases are getting tossed in court. Is that really what we want as Canadian society? Allowing this stuff to take place out in the open with no punishment for those undertaking this type of behaviour? That's not the type of society I want," he says.
Dilkens says it is wrong to expect residents that this is the new baseline that has to be tolerated.
"I don't accept that as being Canadian. I don't accept that as the baseline. I don't accept that as being right, and I think everyone needs to be better. It's going to start through the court system, where the police are going to be supported when they arrest people undertaking this type of behaviour," he says.
Cribley says unless there is a risk to public safety or vulnerability to youth, it is recommended that officers do not make an arrest for simple possession.