‘People are fed up. We are answering that call’

Winnipeg police detained scores of people Thursday, the second day of a 10-day initiative targeting open drug use and drug trafficking in the core area.

The co-ordinated operation, which will be formally announced Friday by the Winnipeg Police Service and Mayor Scott Gillingham, was prompted by months of mounting complaints from residents, business owners and others who demanded action on open drug use on city streets, said WPS Supt. Brian Miln.

“I’ll call it months and months of complaints, an overwhelming number of them, from communities, from people that live, work and use these neighbourhoods, that are tired of open drug use and all of the negative aspects that brings to their communities — the dangers and safety hazards,” he told the Free Press Thursday.

“People are fed up. We are answering that call.”

Miln said the operation is focused on enforcing laws related to public drug use and trafficking.

“We’re seizing their drugs, and making it known that consumption of drugs in public spaces is not welcome in Winnipeg,” he said, adding that open drug use has become so common that it’s viewed as acceptable.

“It’s done in park benches. It’s done in bus shelters. It’s done in food courts,” he said. “It’s done all over with a lot of people, not even paying attention to it anymore. And we have heard the calls from community.”

Using Winnipeg Transit as an example, Miln said needles are often discarded on city buses and pose significant hazards to the public.

“We’re seizing their drugs, and making it known that consumption of drugs in public spaces is not welcome in Winnipeg.”

“We are not, in any way, shape, or form, going after people that are suffering from addictions, but we serve the community as a whole,” he said.

Multiple sources said more than 100 people were detained by police Thursday on the Main Street strip between Logan and Higgins avenues — a hot spot for open drug use.

The workers, who are employed by agencies that do addictions work, said police officers had searched people’s belongings. They said officers had taken away harm-reduction supplies, including bubble pipes commonly used to smoke drugs such as methamphetamine and fentanyl.

“At least since this morning, but possibly for longer, workers, particularly along Main Street, close to the ACCESS Centre and Main Street Project, have been observing an increased police presence, and particularly targeting of people who have harm-reduction supplies visible,” one source said.

Police “hassled” a woman at a bus shelter near city hall after spotting a bubble pipe near her, another source said.

Front-line workers also said they observed officers confiscating and destroying harm-reduction supplies while detaining people.

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“No one is being charged, so they’re releasing people, but when they’re searching, they’re confiscating the harm-reduction supplies, including clean harm-reduction supplies,” the source said.

Miln rejected those allegations outright. He also said the only arrests involved people who had breached a condition of a release order or had an outstanding warrant.

“We are not arresting people for consumption of drugs,” Miln said, adding no one was charged with simple possession.

“We are not arresting people for consumption of drugs.”

Sources also said people believed to be under the influence of drugs were transported to emergency departments for assessment before a possible transfer to the provincial detox centre at 190 Disraeli Fwy.

Miln confirmed transportation was available to take people who were unable to care for themselves for an medical assessment. He called it a “very intentional” part of the strategy.

Ehiyas Beyen, who has worked at Phar Syde Convenience at Main and Logan for four months, welcomed the police presence on the troubled strip.

“What I’ve seen here is like hell,” he said, adding customers are regularly high and on the verge of passing out, while others try to steal. “Everybody is a drug user.”

Kate Sjoberg, executive director of Resource Assistance for Youth, said she is concerned by reports that harm reduction supplies were being confiscated, particularly as Manitoba responds to an HIV outbreak that’s been declared a public health emergency.

“Folks that are in the Main Street area are all health-seeking citizens who are there because they’re looking for support, whether it’s from the ACCESS (health) Centre or from Main Street Project, or the mobile overdose prevention services van,” she said.

“So to interrupt, what we hope people will do, which is to seek support for their challenges and also interrupt access to harm-reduction supplies in general, but in particular during a public health crisis pertaining to HIV, puts those people at more risk, but also puts out entire population at risk. We need to be upholding people’s rights to health care and not getting in their way.”

Mikkey Baire, who co-owns Mikkey’s Barbershop on Portage Avenue near Sherbrook Street, said he’s pleased with the police crackdown and he hopes his area is on the list. He said he’s fed up with people smoking crack or meth outside his business and in the surrounding neighbourhood.

“A lot of kids are here, families are here, it’s not good to see this kind of stuff,” he said.

He said while working late, he’s had to lock the outer door to the barber shop.

“This area has to be clean,” he said. “It’s the downtown.”

— with files from Morgan Modjeski

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.