APRIL 14

Mark the 10 Year Anniversary of the Province of B.C.’s declaration of a public health emergency due to the toxic drug supply with a Provide-wide…

MOMENT OF SILENCE for all the lives lost in preventable drug poisonings. The songs silenced. The families left grieving. The communities sundered. The holes left in our workplaces, nations, neighbourhoods and hearts. 

MINUTE OF RAGE at the failure of politicians and institutions to address the emergency in our communities with appropriate interventions, resources and policy changes. At the hollow words and half-assed gestures while 19,000 died. 

  • Anyone can! You can do this as an individual activity, in a small group, at a larger public event in your community or by joining us at the ‘In Sadness and Rage’ demonstration at the Provincial Legislature in Victoria. The important thing is to mark the day, remember those we’ve lost, and commit to working to make change. 

  • The practice of ending activities with a moment of silence to remember those who’ve come before us and paid the ultimate price in the war on drugs comes from the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and has been embraced by many other groups. It’s an opportunity to say and remember the names of those we’ve lost and to take a moment to really honour them. 

    But after 10 years of unnecessary suffering and death, we also need to give voice to our rage! So on April 14th we’ll be reading a poem, Ten & Counting, to give expression to our collective frustration and rage, and to build our unity as a movement fighting to end the war on drugs.

  • If you are alone find yourself a quiet place or if you are part of a group gather everyone together just before 2pm. Give people an opportunity to say the names of those they want to remember, as quietly or as loudly as they’d like. Delineate the moment of silence and breath into it, to truly honour those we’ve lost. At VANDU the moment of silence is usually ended by someone saying ‘All My Relations’ to honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, who are also actively and disproportionately targeted by the drug war. 

    Then recite the Ten & Counting poem or another expression of collective rage. You can have one person recite it, or print copies of the poem and do a group recitation! If you can, make a video of your Moment of Silence & Minute of Rage and upload it in this folder so that we can compile it with other videos for social media posting:

APRIL 14 EVENTS IN BC

You can send video of your MOMENT & MINUTE to bccoalitionopwud@gmail.com for compilation in a Province-wide video montage.

APRIL 14 STATEMENT

TEN & COUNTING

TEN & COUNTING

1 is for each life we’ve lost, every one a whole story, a star in the human firmament and a wellspring of potential cut short

2 is the number of years with more than one overdose death per day before the provincial government declared a state of emergency

3 is the number of Premiers who said that they cared, but didn’t dare to challenge the bigotry and vested interests that keep this drug war going

4 is the number of dollars saved for every dollar spent on evidence-based prevention including harm reduction and prescribed alternatives

7 is for the number of times higher the death rate from overdose is for Indigenous people compared to non-Indigenous people

8 is the percent of funds from the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy that went to harm reduction

10 is for the years since the Province declared a public health emergency, and we’re still waiting for them to treat it with real urgency 

11 is for the number of months that B.C. ‘tried’ decriminalization, but without putting the necessary planning and resources toward the change, before caving to right wing backlash

49 is for the number of people who were able to get a predictable and tested supply of drugs from DULF, and the number who had to go back to the unsafe street supply when Jeremy and Eris were arrested

58 is the percent of funds from the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy that went to enforcement

624 is for the millions of dollars the Province is spending to host FIFA World Cup matches while they are cutting funding for harm reduction and overdose prevention programs, peer support and housing

19000 is for the number of preventable toxic drug supply deaths in BC since this crisis began in 2014

225,000 is for the drug war survivors in this Province who keep ourselves and each other safe, in a system designed to kill us

0 is for the patience we have for these politicians who justify and lie while our loved ones die

1 is for the mass movement we are building to end this drug war