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Adam Zivo: CBC 'investigation' misleads public on consumption sites 

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The CBC published an investigative story on July 5, suggesting that the closure of Ontario’s supervised consumption sites has been exacerbating the province’s overdose crisis. A broader look at the data, though, suggests that post-closure outcomes have actually been inconclusive or positive, and that the broadcaster is using cherry-picked figures to push activist propaganda.

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The story focused on overdose calls to paramedics in the first five months of 2026 and found that, on a year-over-year basis, such calls increased by 52 per cent in Ottawa, 115 per cent in Toronto, 199 per cent in Hamilton and 20 per cent in Thunder Bay.

Adam Zivo: CBC 'investigation' misleads public on consumption sites  Back to video

Although CBC cautioned that the “data doesn’t show what’s behind the increases,” the angle of the story was clear: around 80 per cent of the report was dedicated to discussing supervised consumption sites, and five harm reduction advocates were quoted arguing, to varying degrees, that closing these sites fuels overdose calls and deaths.

No opposing voices were included, aside from a perfunctory quote from the provincial government, nor was there any mention of high-quality Canadian studies suggesting that consumption sites are ineffective. Any casual reader would’ve thus concluded that there is an urgent need to reopen these sites, which is unfortunate because the CBC’s framing is biased and the figures presented fail to account for context.

Ontario began closing its supervised consumption sites at the end of March 2025: nine sites shut down that spring, a 10th was shuttered a few months later and then the province defunded its eight remaining sites this June. Most of the closed sites either have been, or soon will be, replaced by recovery-oriented addiction treatment centres known as “HART Hubs.”

Did the first wave of closures worsen Ontario’s addiction crisis? The data here is inconclusive.

The Toronto Overdose Information System shows that suspected opioid-related paramedic calls had been declining for about six........

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