Dr. Doris Grinspun
On May 28, we marched to Queen’s Park with a large and vocal group of care providers, families and concerned Ontarians to demand funding for supervised consumption services (SCS) sites across Ontario. Many of those involved were driven by first-hand personal and/or professional experiences that prove SCS saves lives. We insisted that SCS sites and all harm reduction services are health care and nobody should be deprived of health services. Those struggling with substance use deserve the same help as those battling cancer, living with diabetes or who have a heart condition.
As we marched, I held RNAO’s banner side-by-side with my colleague of 34 years, friend and RNAO member Kathy Moreland – a mother who lost her 19-year-old son Austin in 2020 to fentanyl poisoning. Like Kathy, and RNAO member Andrea Keller – also a mother grieving the loss of her oldest son, Tyler, to toxic drug poisoning – scores of others were walking with us that day, supporting the coalition known as Friends of SCS Ontario, which organized the rally. All have battled grief that creates an ache made unbearable by knowing that the loss of their loved one was preventable.
Seeing the despair and suffering of persons and communities is the reason RNAO will never stop advocating for SCS funding. A staggering 3,800 people died from drug poisoning in 2023 alone – that’s an average of 10 people each day.
We cannot stand by and watch another tragedy unfold like that which struck the eastern Ontario town of Belleville earlier this year. The town was forced to declare an addiction, mental health and homelessness state of emergency after 23 people collapsed within 48 hours due to drug toxicity. Six people in that city died between Feb. 25 and March 15, 2024. Other communities across the province are also struggling. Peterborough has reported its overdose rate rose by 26 per cent in 2023.
Seeing the despair and suffering of persons and communities is the reason RNAO will never stop advocating for SCS funding.
At a powerful media conference that closed Nursing Week on May 12, 2024, we witnessed the immense impact of this crisis on Kathy, who talked openly about losing her son. We also heard from Marie Pollack, a Sudbury resident who shared her personal experience with substance use and how she is now supporting others who are facing the same challenges. Marie received support through harm reduction and now provides that support to others. Neil Stephen, a Sudbury RN, talked about tackling stigma and disinformation around harm reduction, and shared compelling statistics about how harm reduction saves money.
RNAO has long urged politicians and decision makers to recognize that substance use requires compassion and access to services. It is devastating when politicians don’t listen to the evidence and appear to treat vulnerable people as disposable. That was the cruel message on Aug. 20, when the Ontario government announced it is closing 10 out of 17 SCS sites in Ontario and plans to gut harm reduction services across the province.
The planned closures include nine provincially funded SCS sites and one privately funded site by March 2025, in Guelph, Hamilton, Kitchener, Ottawa, Thunder Bay and Toronto. Other sites in Windsor, Sudbury and Timmins have already been forced to close due to a lack of provincial funding. This will result in increased deaths from the toxic drug supply and the spread of disease from unsafe needle sharing. The claim that banning SCS sites within 200 metres of schools and child-care centres “protects communities” is disingenuous when options to relocate are not allowed.
RNAO acknowledges that – after repeated and long-standing calls for recovery and treatment resources – the government has promised to invest $378 million in 19 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) Hubs to help connect individuals to treatment, primary care, mental health and other essential services. While we welcome this news, we insist that each of these 19 Hubs must include SCS and needle exchange, in addition to comprehensive wrap-around services. The government’s failure to include SCS runs counter to its purported goal of keeping communities safe.
Premier Doug Ford’s government also plans to introduce legislation this fall that would gut these essential programs and prevent municipalities from advocating for the decriminalization of illegal drugs for personal use. This is unconscionable and it’s an affront on democracy!
RNAO’s media release, A death sentence that will lead to unsafe communities and higher costs, details the consequences for Ontarians: more people dying from toxic drugs; increased violence in our streets; more needles in our parks, libraries and coffee shops; increased rates of hepatitis C and HIV with massive human and financial costs; and overwhelmed EMS and emergency departments. Such an announcement mired with deep personal, social and financial costs leaves nurses wondering who Premier Ford’s government is trying to serve.
RNAO’s mobilization in response to the government’s inexcusable announcement was fast and fierce. We have been front and centre in the media in Ontario, Canada and internationally. We issued an Action Alert calling on Premier Ford to withdraw his plan to close SCS sites. Our social media posts have reached numbers we have not seen before, and our message is spreading far. I urge you to join the chorus of concerned nurses and care providers by signing the Action Alert.
This is just the start. RNAO and nurses will not back down until we stop these preventable deaths. We will continue to powerfully mobilize when politicians and governments – driven by ideology, ignorance or greed – endanger the most vulnerable people in our society. I urge you to join us!