An event was held in Quesnel's Lhtako Dene Park on International Overdose Awareness Day (Aug. 31). The event was opened by Lhtako Dene Elder Ellie Peters who gave an opening prayer.
Crosses lined Front Street, representing the lives lost to the toxic drug crisis and mannequins were placed in coffins to represent that the crisis can affect anyone.
At the park, groups offering different resources including the Quesnel Women's Resource Centre, the Echen Society, the Friendship Centre and the event's organizer, Coalition of Substance Users of the North (CSUN), had booths with information about how they can offer support.
"The importance of today is to honour our lost loved ones, to recognize the failed history of prohibition and also to create awareness around the need for decriminalization for people who use drugs," said Charlene Burmeister, who founded CSUN. "But it's also really important that we push our policymakers to adjust drug policies that are ineffective and harmful and continue to put people at risk of overdose death."
The park had photos of some of the 78 people who have died in Quesnel since 2015 due to the toxic drug crisis.
Over 2,500 lives were lost due to the crisis throughout B.C. in 2023. Most unregulated deaths take place in private residences, accounting for 47.2 per cent of those fatalities in 2023. Only 15.4 per cent of deaths were in public said a BC Coroner Service report.
CSUN works to prevent deaths by supporting a supervised consumption site, connecting people with resources and advocating for changes to policy.
