How many people will show up for a rally under pouring rain? Quite a few, for a cause like ending the opioid overdose crisis—and if they're angry enough at government inaction.
Jessica Michalofsly, indefatigable triathlete and emerging Moms Stop The Harm advocate, is interviewed by Chek News and CTV News beneath the porch at the BC Ministry of Health office at 1515 Blanshard street, Victoria.
Dozens of Moms Stop The Harm supporters defied an Environment Canada special weather warning to rally at the BC Ministry of Health office in Victoria, clamouring for a safe drug supply to put an end to the opioid crisis hecatomb that has afflicted this province for the past six years and claimed the lives of over ten thousand people.
The event was held in conjunction with triathlete Jessica Michalofsky’s Marathon a Day for Safe Drug Supply, which has being going for 22 straight workdays of circling around the block of the Ministry of Health office, and drew the attention of several news outlets in addition to Moms Stop The Harm’s official endorsement. Jessica has been harrying the government since the loss of her son Aubrey to the toxic drug supply, vowing to continue the fight until the government yields. Yesterday, she and Correne Antrobus from Moms Stop The Harm even met with BC Minister of Mental Health and Addiction Sheila Malcolmson and Dr. Bonnie Henry, who could hardly ignore the swelling media attention, at the BC Legislature.
About sixty people closed in to listen to the fiery speeches given by Cowichan Valley MP Sonia Furstenau of the Green Party, Shane Calder of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, newly-elected Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto, and Moms Stop The Harm co-founder Leslie McBain. The tone was harsher than at previous rallies, the speakers resorting to scathing rhetoric relayed by a loudspeaker that would convey the message all the way indoors to bureaucrats who, according to anonymous sources, just couldn’t care less about the people, to put it delicately.
Well, the people in question denounced lack of government action in addressing a health care crisis which has claimed the lives of over 1800 people since the beginning of this year. It was stressed that the crisis came down to civil rights, such as access to health care and protection against discrimination. Indeed, the participants could not fail to notice the stark difference in the ways the government has handled the COVID pandemic and the opioid overdose crisis, both of which have killed comparable numbers of people, and the latter which being the leading cause of death among young adults, and yet is handled with far less decisiveness.
Moms Stop The Harm demands a health care solution to a health care crisis. It demands a clean supply of drugs as medication to be delivered to patients for whom everything else failed, and whom are reduced to supplying themselves from a street drug supply notoriously contaminated by various poisonous substances, chiefly fentanyl which can kill at even negligible concentrations. In the meantime, Leslie McBain openly supports the efforts of the Drug User Liberation Front, a Vancouver-based drug dispensary engaging in civil disobedience by reselling tested drugs bought from the dark web, which is as close to a safe drug supply as mere citizens with modest means can deliver; to this date, not one drug overdose death has been reported among its customers, in stark contrast with the provincial death toll. Clearly, the current government strategy of relying on naloxone and prayer has done little to save the lives of our loved ones.
Volunteers attended the event to dispense naloxone training and distribute kits, which may prolong the lives of drug users by a few weeks or months. While laudable, this falls way short of our expectations.
As for the Marathon a Day, the concept is evolving. It may go on from this point forth as a weekly event with better organisation and greater numbers. This blog may be updated as details emerge.
More Moms Stop The Harm coverage:
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