Hundreds will die if the safe injection site in Vancouver’s Downtown East closes, said a banner at the street party held along the 100-block of East Hastings tonight.

The event was trying to send a message to Stephen Harper: don’t play politics with peoples’ lives.

“It really comes down to one man who doesn’t understand the issue. It shouldn’t be about politics. It should be about public health”, said Mark Townsend, executive director of the Portland Hotel Society which runs Insite, in the Vancouver Sun.

On a cold and rainy winter night, hundreds stood in line for free hamburgers and hotdogs that were being served by volunteers. Street performers on stilts entertained the crowd as they waited for the two main acts of the night to take the stage.

Vancouver’s own Black Mountain and Jay Malinowski of the Bedouin Soundclash performed for the event, expressing their strong support for Insite.

Libby Davis, MP for East Vancouver, and Gregor Robertson, Vancouver’s newly elected mayor, took the stage to reaffirm their support for Insite.

But Stephen Harper’s government has long opposed Insite and has been critical of its focus on harm-reduction.

The Conservative government has appealed the decision by the B.C. Supreme Court that allowed Insite to open in 2003.

Insite is designed to help high-risk injection drug users who do not normally access health care services. It gets them in the door and gives them care for anything from open wounds to drug addiction counselling.

They can also safely inject drugs. And that’s what’s made this centre a political and moral battleground.

But for some residents of the Downtown Eastside, there’s no where else they can go. Men and women with mental illness, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C, who are homeless or living in substandard housing make up most of Insite’s clients.

Libby Davis said she hopes a coalition government will ensure that Insite stays open indefinitely.

There’s no doubt that shakey economic times and political turmoil in Ottawa make Insite’s future uncertain.