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Or sign-in if you have an account.Canada could enter a unique legal environment in which its minors would be barred from accessing social media. Photo by wildpixel /Getty ImagesIf the Liberals’ proposed digital safety bill passes as written, Canada would enter a unique legal environment in which its minors would be barred from accessing social media, but would still be able to inject illicit drugs at a government-run safe consumption site.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorThis week, the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney announced plans to table legislation Wednesday that would ban social media for Canadians younger than 16. Similar age controls were also promised for AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini.“I think it’s obvious why it’s a priority. Kids are dying,” Marc Miller, the minister of identity, told reporters on Tuesday.This newsletter from NP Comment tackles the topics you care about. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays)By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againNevertheless, as has been established at a recent House of Commons committee, no such age limits extend to Canada’s network of safe consumption sites for drugs.Thus, Canadian 15-year-olds could soon face a regime in which they are not allowed to use Facebook, but could face no barriers to injecting fentanyl at a government-run facility.In a February meeting of the House of Commons health committee, Conservative MP Dan Mazier asked Health Minister Marjorie Michel whether Health Canada imposes an “age requirement” on access to “federally approved supervised drug consumption sites.”Michel answered “no.”In a follow-up, Mazier then asked “if a 16-year-old enters a federally approved drug consumption site, is there any requirement from Health Canada that prohibits that minor from injecting fentanyl at that site, yes or no?”To which Michel replied that age verification at drug consumption sites was not a federal responsibility.“We just told you that we don’t manage supervised consumption sites. They’re managed by the provinces, so it’s not our responsibility,” she said.At that same hearing, Health Canada official Kendal Weber also confirmed that there no was no age limit on safe consumption sites, nor any policies to enforce one.“If someone comes to the site looking for help and a place to be supported when they’re using a substance, there is no requirement for ID,” she said.B.C., which pioneered Canada’s system of supervised drug consumption clinics, has indeed been open about the fact that it allows minors to use illicit drugs in the province’s harm reduction facilities without parental consent.“In B.C., there is no set age when a child is considered capable to give consent. This means there is no legal age limit for youth to access harm reduction services,” reads an information sheet distributed by Interior Health, one of the province’s five health authorities.A 2023 paper in the B.C. Medical Journal went even further, declaring that children were cleared to use drugs at “non-regulated” facilities, even “without a capacity assessment.”“Youth under 19 years of age can access harm reduction supplies, Naloxone, overdose prevention services, and, in appropriate circumstances, witnessed consumption by a regulated or non-regulated health or social service provider, without a capacity assessment,” it read.The paper added that if minors were denied access to supervised drug consumption, it risked creating a “lasting imprint on the relationship between the youth and the health system.”At the core of Canada’s various harm reduction policies is the philosophy that they should be as easy to access as possible, lest drug users eschew safe consumption sites in favour of alleys or apartments where they are at higher risk of overdose. This necessarily means that age controls are difficult to enforce.A 95-page guidebook on supervised consumption published by the B.C. Ministry of Health, for instance, stresses that it’s important for drug consumption sites to be “low-threshold and low-barrier.”It’s why, even in provinces that have promised age limits on safe consumption services, there remain doubts as to how that would be enforced.The Manitoba government of Premier Wab Kinew is set to open the province’s first supervised drug consumption site this month.While Manitoba Addictions Minister Bernadette Smith has pledged that the site won’t be open to children under 16, the opposition Progressive Conservatives have countered that there’s no way of checking.In March, the Progressive Conservatives also published details from the site’s 2024 Health Canada application showing that managers intended to provide supervised drug consumption of users as young as 16, provided they showed physical signs of prior drug use.The low-barrier philosophy also extends to government distribution of drug paraphernalia.The Government of Quebec, for instance, has a policy of distributing free syringes, snorting straws and other drug equipment for children as young as 14 via its network of CAMI harm reduction sites.“People who wish to obtain drug injection equipment do not need to register anywhere, consult someone to get a referral or have a Québec health insurance card,” reads an official online guide.Although ID is not checked for those accessing “safe drug use equipment,” the guide asks that users under 14 “meet with a healthcare professional in order to access new consumption equipment.”The relatively easy access of harm reduction services to Canadian minors stands in contrast to a growing number of areas in which authorities are looking to impose ever-tighter age restrictions, a federal social media ban being only the latest example.Quebec is pursuing a bill to ban energy drinks for youth under 16. Last month, the federal health minister proposed implementing a permanent ban on tobacco sales for anyone born after 2009.The idea, which has also been pursued in the U.K., would be a “rolling age restriction” under which young Canadians would be permanently denied legal access to cigarettes. Get the latest from Tristin Hopper straight to your inbox Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.