The HIV Legal Network recently launched a pair of new resources designed to provide information about Canada’s confusing and racist drug laws, for Black and Indigenous people.
For Indigenous communities, these “Know Your Rights” resources were produced in partnership with CAAN, Communities, Alliances and Networks.
For African, Caribbean, and Black communities, we worked with the African and Caribbean Council on HIV/AIDS in Ontario, Africans in Partnership Against AIDS, and the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention. Both resources are available as a longer, in-depth online report and a concise brochure that people can carry with them as needed.
We worked with our partners to create these resources, acknowledging that drug policy in Canada is steeped in racism and colonialism.
Indigenous peoples and people from African, Caribbean, and Black communities in Canada face state-sanctioned violence that is deeply rooted in the legacy of colonialism and slavery and the enduring presence of anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism. All of this manifests in Canada’s drug laws.
Black and Indigenous people are racially profiled and disproportionately targeted and criminalized by drug laws.
This has had severe consequences for Indigenous and Black communities in Canada, including but not limited to child apprehension, mass incarceration, and – for many Black people – deportation. As advocates have long urged, decriminalizing people who use and share drugs is one necessary component of undoing systemic discrimination.
In this episode you will hear a conversation with Orville Burke, Director of Health Promotion for the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention in Toronto. Black CAP supports the needs of Black People who use drugs by meeting the unique needs of African, Caribbean, and Black community members “where they are” to reduce the risks of HIV and STI transmission, criminalization, drug poisoning, and violence.
You will also hear an interview with Mkwa Giizis from Nogojiwananong/Peterborough, Ontario about the impact of drug policy and policing on Indigenous communities and how a small group of volunteers in Peterborough have created a unique program to support people who are experiencing the heightened risk of fatal drug poisoning against the backdrop of a toxic, unregulated drug supply.
Find the materials referenced in this conversation:
Know Your Rights: On Drug Laws for African, Caribbean and Black People Who Use Drugs
https://www.hivlegalnetwork.ca/site/black-communities/?lang=en
Know Your Rights: On Drug Laws for Indigenous Peoples who Use Drugs:
https://www.hivlegalnetwork.ca/site/our-work/indigenous-communities/?lang=en
We would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Department of Justice Canada in the production of these Know Your Rights materials and this podcast.
The world needs human rights activism now more than ever and we need you standing with us. There is strength in numbers and together we can work toward the changes that are so badly needed. Make your donation to the HIV Legal Network as part of Charlie’s Challenge today and your dollars will be doubled: https://www.hivlegalnetwork.ca/site/donate/?lang=en