A private member's bill that would make it easier to close crack houses in Ontario has drawn protesters who say it will trample the rights of drug addicts and sex workers.

If passed, the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act would allow a judge to close a property for up to 90 days or evict individual tenants if he or she decides that illegal activity is consistently taking place there and having a negative impact on the surrounding community, Liberal MPP Yasir Naqvi said.

Naqvi, who represents Ottawa Centre, spoke about his legislation Friday at a news conference as protesters carrying red placards booed and shouted "shame."

At the moment, drug houses can only be shut down via landlord and tenant boards and through charges and convictions of residents under the Criminal Code.

"Criminal Code as you know is cumbersome," Naqvi said. "At times, it takes … a very long time to act."

Similar legislation targeting crack houses has been introduced in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and Alberta, Naqvi said.

Protester Chris Bruckert, a University of Ottawa professor and former sex worker, said sex workers should have been consulted.

"It's a human-rights issue and it's something that is going to target marginalized populations, including sex workers."

Michelle Ball, who co-ordinates AIDS prevention and education services for the AIDS Committee of Ottawa, said the proposed legislation further criminalizes drug addiction, even though addiction is recognized as a disability.

"It's of grave concern to me because how can anybody access health care services, how can anybody move forward and go in any direction in terms of drug use, if the only thing we want to do is put them on the street?"

But Stephanie Strudwick, a community activist who once lived two blocks from a crack house for a period of three years, said people who live near crack houses are fed up.

"You get a drug dealer in a house and it jeopardizes the harmony and safety of every single resident … in the vicinity. And going through the regular channels just doesn't work," said Strudwick, chair of a committee called Concerned Citizens for Safer Neighbourhoods.

"We were having a break-in every day and a half. In broad daylight, we had all kinds of people wandering around in our neighourhood, going in our backyards, kicking in our doors, opening our windows. We had crack cocaine being sold from the fire escape of the building."

Ottawa police Chief Vern White said the legislation would give police one more tool.

"It's certainly not going to allow us to shut down a crack house overnight," he said. But it will allow police to be more proactive, he added, "and hopefully, at the end of the day, keep it from becoming a crack house again in the future."