NOTE: As of today, Jan. 31, 2026, it is once again illegal in BC to possess any amount of illegal drug(s) under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. This includes private residences. Sanctioned supervised consumption sites and overdose prevention sites will continue to be the only decriminalized spaces in which to possess and consume drugs, though traveling to these sites while in possession of drugs intended to be used there risks criminalization.
In May 2025, Pivot Legal Society (“Pivot”), alongside several public interest groups intervened in Dorsey v Canada (Attorney General), 2025 SCC 38. Dorsey was an appeal brought by prisoners which affirms access to habeas corpus to challenge continued unlawful confinement in more restrictive prisons and forms of confinement that deprive a person of their liberty.
The City of Vancouver recently approved a temporary Bylaw in the lead up to the FIFA games in summer 2026. The Bylaw imposes sweeping restrictions, which the City promises it won’t actually enforce to punish residents’ ordinary activities. But how can we be asked to rely on the City’s own goodwill, especially when it has done nothing to assuage fears that FIFA will follow the playbook of past mega events by perpetuating displacement, dispossession, and harm for Vancouver residents?
Social condition discrimination is a strain on public health and deadly for those who experience discrimination. Join us in calling on the BC government to add social condition as a protected characteristic under BC Human Rights Code.
Pivot continues to push forward in our shared fight for dignity and human rights. Throughout the year, Pivot paired strategic litigation with bold movement-building, while also working to strengthen Pivot from the inside out. Thank you for your trust and work alongside us. Your support matters.
At a time when 51% of Indigenous and Black people are being classified and confined to maximum-security prisons, the mass incarceration and hyper-securitization of Indigenous and Black peoples, under the pretext of public safety considerations, in Canada’s prison system remains a critical racial justice issue. In an order by the SCC’s first Indigenous judge, Justice O’Bonsawin, Pivot was granted leave to intervene at the Supreme Court of Canada in Frank Dorsey and Ghassan Salah v Attorney General of Canada.
Connecting the intersecting fields of social justice and public health by illustrating the undeniable link between the structural determinants of health and a person’s social condition on their quality of life.
Pivot to appear before the Supreme Court of Canada to fight clawbacks to the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act
Pivot has been granted leave to make submissions on the real-world impacts of potential clawbacks to the Act, and the need for laws like this one to grant vitally necessary legal protection in the face of a deadly drug poisoning crisis. This is the only way that the law can be effective in achieving its aim: saving lives.
Policing Race, Gender & Sex Work
Learn about impacts of sex work criminalization on Black sex workers, and the ways in which advocates pushback against the erasure & racialized, gendered policing of sex work through court challenges, organizing, and community care.
⭐️ Pivot's Annual Report 2023! ❤️️ A window into Pivot's work! We hope this inspires and educates.✊🏽