Risebridge

It’s been Ten years since the toxic drug crisis was declared a public health emergency in BC. On Tuesday , we gathered on the legislature lawn in Victoria—as grieving families and friends, frontline workers, advocates, led by grieving mothers with Moms Stop the Harm.

Over 18,000 lives have been lost since the emergency was declared. In Nanaimo, the purple hearts 💜 staircase at Risebridge is running out of space.

It was cold and wet on Tuesday, but the real discomfort was grief, exhaustion, and a the weight knowing how badly our system is still falling short. Death tolls may be declining ( slightly) , but harm is rising—brain injuries, homelessness, survival crimes, grief.

We’ve rallied, marched, mourned—and still, people can’t access basic needs like safe supply, treatment, food, and shelter. Communities are burnt out from all angle’s. And those in power didn’t even step outside to listen or lend their umbrellas.

Nothing changes unless we do.

This is a call to act—together. To demand real solutions now, not later. We can’t keep waiting on a broken system or the same names and faces to make a difference for us.

There was power on that lawn on Tuesday . A lot of harm reduction hero’s in our province. The knowledge, the lived experience, the will to do better and make change is palatable and has been happening in many corners- but we need to find a better way to organize and use the little energy we all have left towards tangible action, together.

Too many more lives demand that we start doing more , or acting differently. As this crisis shifts, so must our organizing and efforts.

Let’s encourage ourselves to ACT through the discomfort and do better as a community - so that no more cool humans have to die, and no more mourning ceremonies have to take place.

More photos and videos of Tuesdays Rally coming soon - along with further calls to action
💜🧡🖤❤️