How far would you go to advocate for a cause? Jessica Michalofsky went quite far indeed, both literally and figuratively.
To Hell with the boring journalistic tone today. YES, SHE DID IT! Jessica Michalofsky, indefatigable triathlete and grieving mom of a son lost to an opioid overdose, ran 900 km across BC, over five weeks, from Nelson to Victoria, to raise awareness of the toxic drug crisis and demand a safe drug supply. And roughly 150 supporters cheered her on as she ran to the finish line!
For the benefit of those who haven’t been paying attention, Jessica started running across the BC Ministry of Health office on Blanshard Street last fall, and kept at it weekly throughout the winter until May, when she departed for Nelson and ran through Winlaw, Castlegar, Grand Forks, Osoyoos, Oliver, Penticton, Kelowna, Keremeos, Princeton, Hope, Coquitlam, Vancouver, Nanaimo, and Duncan, to finally return to Victoria on June 25. Moms Stop The Harm and local organisations set up rallies at each location in order to reach out to remote communities and capture the public’s attention.
Supporters were invited to rally as early as Brentwood Ferry to run alongside Jessica on the final day. The group swelled as it reached further rally points, at Lockside Trail, Saanich police station, and the BC Ministry of Health, where about forty walked the remaining kilometre to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, where she was welcome with a standing ovation.
Two notable speakers came forward in support of her cause: Fred Cameron of SOLID Outreach (and a multitude of job titles), and BC Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe. Both stressed the acute and post-urgent imperative of improving access to a safe drug supply in order to save our loved ones.
Of course Jessica herself came forward to tell her own ordeal, of failing to navigate an uncaring system that left her son to die, and urge the attendance to come up with creative means of militancy to keep up the pressure on our elected representatives to deliver upon their noncommittal promise to keep everyone safe.
A representative of Island Health offered naloxone training to the attendance, in a grim reminder that in the meantime, the government’s strategy to keep drug users alive consists in the naloxone and prayer combo, whereas a safe drug supply lies only a few signatures away from being implemented.
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Although the event was a relative success, its outcome leaves me most apprehensive. Regretfully, we had to end it early.
