We demand honesty and accountability from political leaders for the deaths happening on their watch.
Today, on International Overdose Awareness Day, we mourn.
There is no more awareness to raise, at least with decision makers. The staggering numbers from the last decade — 56,631preventable deaths in Canada from 2016 to the end of 2025 — are calculated by federal and provincial governments and appear on their official websites. British Columbia declared a province-wide public health emergency in 2016, and the local governments of dozens of cities and towns across Canada have passed similar motions and declarations.
All levels of government in Canada are fully aware of the deaths that are happening within their jurisdictions due to the toxicity of Canada’s drug supply. They are also fully aware of what the evidence says on the effective means to prevent deaths and other harms from drug toxicity, connect people to care and support community building. Just two years ago, we shared with great hope a report documenting promising expansion of supervised consumptions services with clear recommendations on removing barriers to access. We presented the established reasons for expanding supervised consumption sites Canada-wide, and identified political interference that was preventing this urgent expansion from happening.
Instead of building communities that support the health and lives of people at risk of overdose, governments across Canada are tearing down the few services that exist and pursuing policies that will cause more harm. All too often, harm reduction and treatment are presented as being in opposition rather than part of a continuum of care.
The governments of Alberta and Ontario, for instance, have not only refused to expand health services for people at risk of overdose but have taken great pride in removing safe consumption sites from many communities, proceeding with reckless abandon and full awareness of the lives in jeopardy.
Multiple jurisdictions in Canada — again, including Alberta and Ontario — are now pushing for forced medical treatment of people who used drugs in violation of their human rights. As we made clear to the Ontario Big City Mayor’s group in our response to their open call for involuntary treatment in mid-August, this is despite the research suggesting that that coerced treatment may lead to poorer long-term outcomes and increases mortality and morbidity.
For 25 years now, communities around the world have come together to mark International Overdose Awareness Day. Today, we will be participating in events in the communities where we live and work, our hearts filled with the heaviness of the immense losses and an overriding feeling that this day should not have to exist — but intentional policy choices by our governments have made it so.
Canada’s drug supply is toxic and is killing and harming people in communities across the country, yet our leaders prioritize coerced and punitive responses over solidarity and healthcare. The tools that could have potentially saved more than 50,000 lives over the last decade — a robust response based in evidence and human rights — are known and tangible. We will not stop fighting, no matter the apathy or opposition, until every person who uses drugs in Canada is treated with dignity and respect.
In Solidarity,
The HIV Legal Network