Victoria Marks International Drug Overdose Awareness Day

Multiple events across town were set in conjunction with International Drug Overdose Awareness Day, here in Victoria, BC. And they were far more successful than previous iterations.

Let’s start with a march organised by Moms Stop The Harm, starting at Centennial Square and ending with a demonstration at the BC Ministry of Health’s office on Blanshard Street demanding a safe drug supply. Several fiery speakers, including co-founder Leslie McBain, galvanised the crowd, of about a hundred protesters, ahead of the march with grim reminders that the other pandemic is being neglected by the government. That it’s still being treated as a dirty topic. That victims are being stigmatised and even demonised. That lives are being lost by the hundreds every month in this province in a preventable fashion, due mainly to government apathy and inertia. And that’s just unacceptable.

The crowd then lined up and took to the streets, the march culminating on the very steps of the Ministry of Health’s building where the protesters shouted their demands loudly enough to be heard even from indoors. Free Naloxone kits and training were dispensed on site.

This event was much more successful than previous rallies held by Moms Stop The Harm, in large part because the crowd was much more diverse. At the Empress Hotel last month, the only participants were core members of the group. Today, the event drew nurses, outreach workers, paramedics, homeless people, and drug users. This is no accident; we’d been discussing this change in strategy in Zoom meetings, to reach out to other audiences affected by the overdose crisis instead of just the public at large.

The crowd was also larger and consequently bolder; while the Commissionaires would normally warn us to stay clear of the steps at the Ministry’s office, today they didn’t dare, illustrating the difference in leverage between a few dozens and over a hundred strong.

Then Our Place Society hosted its own purple ribbon event before its drop-in facility on Pandora Avenue, with an introductory speech by CEO Julian Daly. The attendance was around 70 family members and the tone was closer to that of a vigil, with multiple people involved in the crisis coming forward to tell their story. Some of them lost a loved one in a tragic fashion. Others were former drug users who managed to turn themselves around after a close call. Either way the tone was far more emotional, with some speakers incapable to keep their composure even before a supportive audience.

People in the downtown homeless community experience this crisis every day in a way that outsiders could hardly understand, with ambulances and fire trucks rushing to the same few destinations multiple times a night, every night (I live at such a destination, by the way); for us walking around with a Naloxone kit ready to save someone’s life at a moment’s notice, wondering who among our circle will become a statistic next, there’s no escaping this perpetual madness. As for those who lost a loved one, they will be haunted forever.

Finally, again about 100 people rallied at the Legislature for another Moms Stop The Harm event, this time a candlelight vigil. Once more multiple speakers came forward; one surprise guest was BC Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe, who’s notable for being the face behind the grim monthly statistics. The atmosphere was far more sombre, however, as it was meant as an event for those grieving as much as a protest, and much was done to put faces on those statistics, such as a slideshow on a giant screen.

Thus ends yet another International Drug Overdose Awareness Day. Judging from the speeches, the troops’ morale is low and cynical, Lisa McBain herself admitting she believed we would be doing this every year ad infinitum. I wouldn’t be so pessimistic, however, as I have today watched a movement grow exponentially; at this rate it may very well grow enough to turn public opinion and even government policy, and who knows, maybe it’ll happen before we die of old age. Stay tuned.