SUDBURY—Amy Collins knows Northern Ontario’s front lines well. Before stepping into her new role as executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Northeastern Ontario, she served as Director of Manitoulin-North Shore Victim Services, where she worked closely with survivors of trauma and violence across Manitoulin Island and the North Shore. That experience, she says, shaped her understanding of how deeply poverty, addiction, and criminalization intertwine.
Now, as police prepare to launch a month-long crackdown on open drug use and panhandling in Sudbury, Ms. Collins isn’t mincing words. “Criminalizing people for their addictions is not helpful,” she said. “It’s more counterproductive. Our correctional facilities are already overcrowded and overburdened, as well as our court system. Arresting people won’t change anything.”
Sudbury Police Chief Sara Cunningham told the city’s Police Services Board that officers will take a “support first, enforcement last” approach, but confirmed they could arrest repeat offenders. The 30-day enforcement initiative, set for November, will see officers redirect people using drugs in public to Energy Court—an industrial stretch near the city’s downtown where tents and makeshift shelters already mark the growing homelessness crisis. City officials say more social services are planned for the area, though advocates question whether the supports will meet the need.
“The answer isn’t in punishment,” said Ms. Collins. “It’s in access—to trauma-informed, long-term care that people can enter when they’re ready, not six months or a year later.”
The Elizabeth Fry Society supports women and gender-diverse individuals navigating the criminal justice system, operating a shelter and transitional housing in Sudbury while providing court and reintegration programs across the region. Ms. Collins said those services are already stretched thin, mirroring the strain felt in overcrowded jails and backlogged courts.
She understands the anxiety of downtown business owners near Energy Court, who describe fires, break-ins and fear. “I don’t dismiss their concerns,” she said. “But nobody wants to live like this. Nobody wants to wake up suffering. People make choices that help them survive another day.”
To Ms. Collins, the police crackdown reflects a familiar cycle—one where enforcement replaces empathy and visibility is mistaken for safety. “We can’t arrest our way out of a public health crisis,” she said. “We can only care our way through it.”
