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Botha committed to safe injection despite “frustrated” Facebook post

Feb 22, 2017 | 1:00 PM

A city councillor who previously argued against the creation of a safe injection site in Prince Albert recently declared his full support for the idea.

Ward 3 Councillor Evert Botha made a motion in favour of safe injection sites at the Feb. 13 council meeting. The motion called for forwarding of correspondence to various provincial and federal authorities, as well as further discussion on the issue at upcoming council meetings.

Botha, now arguably the strongest proponent of these sites in the city, has not always been supportive of the idea. In a July 2016 Facebook post, made months before he ran for council, Botha openly condemned the idea of safe injection sites in Prince Albert.

“We need to stop enabling the addicts,” Botha wrote. “The herd will eventually thin itself.”

In the post, Botha called for the City to “take a stand and get rid of all the trash,” and argued “natural selection” would solve the issue.

In an interview with paNOW, Botha said he made the post in frustration, and his research and discussions on the topic since the summer led to his about-face on the issue.

“I was fortunate enough to have a lot of individuals correct my thinking, but at the end of the day it’s really not how I feel deep down inside,” Botha said. “Mine was a rapid movement from apathy to sympathy, and through empathy to compassion.”

Botha said as a downtown business owner the long-running issues around discarded needles and the climbing rates of HIV in the city contributed to his frustrations.

“We need to do better, and we need to do more,” Botha said.

The community response he has received, Botha said, has been entirely in favour of a safe injection site.

“So far it’s only been positive letters of support,” he said. “The support for this comes not just from within our community, but also from other cities and other provinces.”

Despite his strong commitment to the creation of a site, Botha acknowledged safe injection is a contentious topic for many, and stressed the importance of education when forming opinions.

“It’s a thorny issue that not a lot of people necessarily want to tackle,” Botha said. “Part of the process for anyone looking into this, be it to support it or oppose it, is obviously to become more informed, and to look at this from every single angle.”

 

Taylor.Macpherson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TMacPhersonNews