Stop Kenney from Shutting Down iOAT

Injectable Opioid Agonist Treatment (“iOAT”) is lifesaving and life sustaining medical therapy for Albertans living with severe opioid use disorder. The treatment is meant for those who are unable to manage their opioid use through standard treatment options such abstinence, methadone, or slow release oral morphine. Without an effective treatment option, individuals with severe opioid use disorder are more likely to consume street opioids, and be exposed to the social and health harms associated with street sourced opioids, including death.

In March 2020, the Alberta government announced that Albertans will no longer be able to access iOAT. The 100 patients in iOAT will no longer have access to the program past March 2021 and is removing patients from the program even though it is in their medical best interest to continue to receive the treatment.

iOAT patients are terrified of what will happen to them once the program closes. These patients have the most severe form of opioid use disorder in the province. iOAT medical staff and leading experts on the subject all agree: opioid use is not a choice, and without iOAT, the program’s participants will return to using street opioids. This will lead to an increase in homelessness, sexual exploitation and trauma, other forms of violence, criminality, the spread of diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C, and overdose death. Overdose death is a major concern, as recent data from Alberta Health indicates that at least 3 Albertans a day die of opioid overdoses, which is unprecedented in the province’s history.

For this reason, 11 brave iOAT patients have commenced legal action against the Province of Alberta seeking to ensure that Albertans with severe opioid use disorder can continue to access this lifesaving and life sustaining treatment. The iOAT patients argue that Alberta’s conduct breaches their rights at sections 7, 12, and 15 of the Charter of Rights of Freedoms. This lawsuit involves real life and death considerations for these and other iOAT patients, and the last chance they have to ensure that the program can continue to operate.

These iOAT patients are mounting a significant constitutional challenge against the Alberta government, which has teams of lawyers and unlimited resources to defend against the action. By contrast, iOAT patients have no money and, in most cases, come from marginalized and impoverished backgrounds. There is real concern that the costs of this litigation will overwhelm iOAT patients in their ability to defend their Charter rights.

We need your help to even the playing field between iOAT patients and the Alberta government. Please donate what you can to our legal fund. Any amount you can donate will go a long way to ensuring that patients can continue to access this lifesaving and life sustaining treatment.

This GoFundMe is initiated by and monitored by Avnish Nanda, the lawyer for the iOAT patients. All funds raised will be placed in the Nanda & Company legal trust account for this lawsuit. The funds will be earmarked towards insulating iOAT patients for negative costs awards (the first $20,000.00 of any funds raised will be set aside to cover any adverse cost awards), paying disbursement fees (court filings, transcripts, expert fees, etc), and paying legal fees incurred on the file. For more information, please email [email redacted].