This article was first published by TorontoToday, a Village Media publication.
An ad campaign warning public spaces like bus shelters will soon turn into unsupervised consumption sites confronted Torontonians on city streets this week.
The posters — which popped up on public infrastructure around the downtown core — are in response to a bill Queen's Park tabled earlier this month that would shutter 10 supervised consumption sites in Ontario. Five of those sites are located in Toronto.
Designed to look like an Ontario Health “public notice," the ads read: “Starting April 1, 2025, this location will become an injection site” — referring to the bus shelters they’re posted on.
These signs across Toronto this morning are making a point: @fordnation closing down supervised consumption sites doesn't make people who use drugs, let alone the toxic drug crisis, disappear — but it does ensure that using drugs will be openly forced into public space. pic.twitter.com/4f9I2zsfz0
— Diana Chan McNally (@Diana_C_McNally) November 25, 2024
Ontario Health’s logo is printed on the bottom of the ads, but the agency told TorontoToday it does not approve of the campaign.
“Ontario Health has no involvement in these posters,” a media spokesperson wrote. “We did not consent to the use of our logo, nor do we condone the improper use of it.”
Diana Chan McNally, a frontline service worker and homelessness advocate in Toronto, saw one of the posters at King Street East and Sherbourne Street while commuting to work on Monday.
She had to do a double take.
“I didn’t even recognize that it was spoofing on what the closures were really about,” she said. “I got taken by surprise. Whoever made it did an incredible job — kudos to them.”
Premier Doug Ford’s government selected the 10 supervised consumption sites that will close next March because of their proximity to schools and daycares. Health Minister Sylvia Jones has said “there is no situation where she would approve a new site anywhere in the province — regardless of its location.”
In place of the sites, the government is spending $378 million to launch 19 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment hubs.
Today, the provincial government put forward a time allocation motion to fast-track the bill by bypassing committee stage, which is when public hearings are held and amendments proposed.
McNally said she couldn’t disagree more with the province's actions.
“It’s egregious. I suspect they just want to do this as quickly as possible and make this a wedge issue in the upcoming election. Their data shows this will kill people. It’s so cynical they’re actually doing this just to win an election.”
TorontoToday attempted to photograph one of the ads that was posted to a Bay Street bus shelter on Monday — which garnered hundreds of reactions on Reddit — but the poster had been removed by Tuesday afternoon.
Gov’t rethinking injection sites?
byu/allthatbackfat intoronto
The ads include a QR code at the bottom of the poster. When scanned, it takes mobile phone users to a Linktree account called “Save Our Sites.” The page lists links to articles discussing the benefits of supervised consumption sites.
Suspecting it may have been behind the ad campaign, TorontoToday reached out to The Neighbourhood Group Community Services — a local charity organization that hosted a “Save Our Sites” rally back in September, according to its Facebook page.
The group confirmed it was not responsible for the posters, but its president Bill Sinclair was impressed by the initiative.
“Those TTC posters are not made by us, but they are very creative in making their point,” he said.
