Not including world peace and a cure for cancer, which are always my hopes for the world, I have three wishes for this holiday season – an end to the opioid crisis, homes for everyone and progress on climate change.
Instead of an end to the opioid crisis, or even an abatement, this month there was dire news – deaths from toxic drugs are increasing, now up to seven a day in Metro Vancouver.
The BC Coroners Service issued a public safety warning: Please do not use drugs alone! “It is recommended that anyone using drugs do so only in the presence of someone who will be able to provide naloxone and/or first aid and call 911,” the BC Coroners Service said in a news release.
B.C.’s top coroner, Lisa Lapointe, announced recently that she will retire after 30 years of service, frustrated at the lack of action.
“…It deeply saddens me that we have been unable to influence the essential change necessary to reduce the tragic impacts of toxic drugs on so many thousands of our family members, friends and colleagues across the province,” she said in her statement. “The measures recommended by the expert members of Coroners Service death-review panels are essential to ending this crisis and I will continue to support those recommendations post retirement.”
The provincial government rejected those suggestions.
The toxic drug crisis affects everyone. The Richmond News reported last week about Trevor Tablotney marking the one-year anniversary of his brother Curtis’s death from a toxic drug overdose by sitting all day in Minoru Park, talking to people about his brother and the overdose crisis.
Anything that could be done to prevent more deaths, should be done. I think we can take Lapointe’s resignation as one indication that isn’t happening. We need to do more.
Another tragic report came out last week, related to the housing crisis and homelessness. There’s been a sharp rise in deaths among people who are homeless, including 342 deaths in 2022, the province said in a news release. That’s significantly higher than an average of 183 deaths of homeless people for the seven previous years and the number will undoubtedly be higher again in 2023, if the number of people living in tents is any indication.
Homelessness is no small problem in our province. About 12,000 British Columbians were homeless on average each month in 2021, an increase over the previous year, the B.C. government recently reported.
I wrote earlier this year about the tents in Brighouse Park, saying the city shouldn’t move those folks unless they have somewhere they can move to. I’ve noticed there appear to be fewer tents now and I hope that means those who’ve moved on have found somewhere safe to live, but I’ve also noticed a growing encampment just over the Arthur Laing Bridge along Marine Drive.
Most of the homeless people who died were male (82 per cent) and between the ages of 30 and 59 (74 per cent), the news release said.
Most of the deaths were from drug overdoses. That’s yet another reason to do whatever can be done to stop deaths from toxic drugs, but it’s also a strong argument for creating as much affordable and safe housing as possible. It’s a matter of putting housing first – something that will require massive government effort and spending – and then trusting that once everyone has a home they can afford, other aspects of life, like the opioid crisis, will also improve.
After the Second World War, the Canadian government built thousands of homes for veterans and their families. They weren’t fancy, but they were solid. It’s that type of effort that is needed now, in particular for rental housing. We don’t need any more luxury condos; we need homes where everyone knows there will be a vacancy they can afford on the average salary, as well as social housing for vulnerable people.
My final wish is for progress on climate change – something that shows the world is ready to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, not just offset them or promise changes in the distant future.
It’s too early to say with any certainty, but it’s possible an agreement made last week at COP28 may hold promise.
Nearly 200 countries agreed to begin reducing global consumption of fossil fuels, at the climate summit in Dubai, the Globe and Mail reported.
COP stands for Conference of the Parties – a committee that was organized after the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed in 1992. This marks the first time that the group has committed to move away from fossil fuels, but there are no guarantees.
“This is not the historical deal that the world needed: It has many loopholes and shortcomings,” said Kaisa Kosonen, a senior policy advisor with Greenpeace International. “But history will be made if all those nearly 130 countries, businesses, local leaders and civil society voices, who came together to form an unprecedented force for change, now take this determination and make the fossil fuel phase-out happen.”
The loopholes and shortcomings cannot win. We must act decisively and immediately on climate change, the opioid crisis and homelessness.
Tracy Sherlock is a freelance journalist who writes about education and social issues. Read her blog or email her [email protected].
