New report looks at impacts of PACE Society’s closure: "...consequence of a system that prioritizes investments in policing as a main approach to “community safety” in place of sustained investments in social infrastructure, support and reciprocal care" themainlander.com/2026/04/17/p...

Hello! We are collecting funds to support SWers who will be impacted by FIFA taking over the DTES. As always, happy to trade nudes for donations of $50 and above, and I’ll be adding this fundraiser as one of the ways I accept deposits. chuffed.org/project/1775...

sharing a short reflection I wrote about working in the toxic drug crisis—which was formally declared 10 years ago today in BC. see those who can make it at Oppenheimer this evening themainlander.com/2026/04/14/e...

"In a short time, we have seen the premier abandon his party’s commitments to address the toxic drug crisis, climate action, affordable housing, access to justice — and now the human rights of the Indigenous Peoples" via @thetyee.ca: thetyee.ca/Opinion/2026...

Call for clothing contributions for s*x workers in the DTES!! As we brace for the upcoming FIFA games in Vancouver, now is the time to start preparing support for our neighbors most impacted by policing and displacement. 1/5

Police training facility is an affront to people’s vision for Woodward’s via @themainlander.bsky.social "It was not a surprise when London Drugs left Woodward’s in February, but rather the finale of a prolonged panic-fueled campaign" themainlander.com/2026/04/05/w...

“For Premier Eby to suddenly say changing DRIPA is ‘non-negotiable’ and will pass this session is an absolute betrayal of everything DRIPA and of our evolving relationship with the NDP over the last decade” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip #bcpoli cheknews.ca/premier-eby-...

people use drugs. five people die from the toxic drug supply per day in BC, and many more people experience a range of nonfatal overdose and poisonings. we are in a time and place where saying we shouldn't set people up to die is 'advocacy' www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar... bsky.app/profile/ctvn...

State surveillance is part of a wider retaliatory scheme meant to silence. In my case the govt tracked my movements, social media infringements, etc b/c we filed a human rights case v the feds to help children. www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/rcmp-security-infiltration-george-manuel-9.7145083

"Complaints of sexualized conduct in British Columbia’s municipal police departments have been frequent enough for the province’s policing watchdog to launch its first systemic investigation into how forces deal with the problem." www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

A look into how the RCMP set up a spy operation on Indigenous organizations in the 1970s by CBC's Brett Forester www.cbc.ca/news/indigen...

Our crises are shared: Doug Ford’s government to defund safe consumption sites, drive toxic drug crisis death toll via @sudubc.bsky.social @policeoversight.ca @carenotcops.bsky.social www.policeoversight.ca/p/our-crises...

"The introduction of community police was described by one officer as “a public relations job” meant to “sell the department” to the public:" read @policingblack.bsky.social's look at history of community policing: briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/vie... bsky.app/profile/poli...

Excerpt from the new chapter in Policing Black Lives, “Against the Romance of Police Reform” out in Briarpatch: “Community Policing: Expanding the Carceral Web”. briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/vie...

Dr Lorian Hardcastle told me the way the Alberta government is using personal data for ‘research’ on people who use drugs could cause real harm: “We're potentially targeting people for criminalization or involuntary treatment. The consequences are significant." drugdatadecoded.ca/centre-of-re...

from 2023 - 2025, the BCNDP rejected expanding access to a regulated supply - the primary recommendation by the BC Chief Coroner's Death Review Panel; the Office of the Public Health Officer & a Health Canada Excerpt Task Force on the crisis [1/2] bsky.app/profile/vanc...

2,389 paramedic-attended overdose events in january 2026 is the second highest number of such events attended ever.

As drug deaths decline, non-fatal overdoses/poisonings are shattering records, a decade into the crisis. In 2025, B.C. paramedics responded to avg 108 drug OD/poisoning events per day. Nov 19: 222 Jan 21: 256 Feb 25: 284 nanaimonewsnow.com/2026/02/27/n...

the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has found that the RCMP discriminated during their investigation into abuse by John Furlong, a former day school 'teacher' in Burns Lake, and CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee thetyee.ca/News/2026/03... bsky.app/profile/thet...

as someone who would strongly support a city councillor like @seanorr.bsky.social distributing a predictable & regulated drug supply, i've never heard an inkling of this happening. Ken Sim's seeming inability to parse fact from fiction remains his primary mayoral trait bsky.app/profile/isab...

The Province has still not approve this training facility. Westbank was there but didn't take interviews. Chief Rai tapped Westbank founder Ian Gillespie on the shoulder and said, "Thanks for working with us."

ABC has always been a party of strategic lies thetyee.ca/Opinion/2022...

The Justice Institute of British Columbia is issuing a warning ahead of a Vancouver city councillor’s motion to ask for more than $1 million in funding for a new police training facility. www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

read the first peer-reviewed research paper using data P.O.W.E.R. collected and analyzed via @ijdrugpolicy.bsky.social: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #drugsky #harmreduction @pivotlegalsociety.bsky.social @hracollective.bsky.social @harmreductionintl.bsky.social

NEW: Read an explainer on the projected impacts of FIFA 2026 on Vancouver themainlander.com/2026/02/24/a...

Latest from FHS PhD candidate @tsk.bsky.social and collaborators on the public health impacts of transitioning away from decriminalization practices on populations already facing multiple challenges. #SFU #SFUFHS #pwus #ToxicDrugCrisis #Vancouver

I realize it’s not easy or comfortable to think deeply and seriously about this mass death event that people don’t give a fuck about, but that’s your job. Struggling to find the right words is appropriate. Don’t repeat the government’s alibis for their murders

The Tyee asked the health ministry for an explanation as to why it was acceptable to withhold this data during a public health emergency that had killed thousands of British Columbians. It’s been four weeks and we still haven’t heard back. @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/News/2026/02...

new: open access research in @ijdrugpolicy.bsky.social illustrates some ways that policing in Vancouver has worsened the toxic drug crisis — including alarming examples of police blocking overdose responses & raiding a food donation tent: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @sfu-fhs.bsky.social

Island Health and local groups are urging North Cowichan to reconsider "uninhabitable" shelter sites in Somenos marsh. Advocates warn that recent displacements are linked to health risks and a spike in overdoses. They’re calling for safer, accessible alternatives. #NorthCowichan #IslandHealth

"By ending the decriminalization pilot, the Province is failing to treat addiction as a public-health issue, not a criminal one, and is doubling down on policies that have already caused immense harm to First Nations." Grand Chief Stewart Phillip www.ubcic.bc.ca/ubcic_deeply...

Sharing this study we did, released in the Fall, charting the impacts of drug possession & trafficking laws in ONT on health, shifts in enforcement/prosecutions & people’s perspectives on what's needed at this juncture to overhaul Cdn drug laws #drugsky #onpoli @hivlegalnetwork.bsky.social y.social

First Nations groups say they’re disappointed to be excluded from BC’s decision to end its drug decriminalization pilot, given the policy’s disproportionate impact on Indigenous people www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

2022: vancouversun.com/news/local-n...

the drug war is international and so too must be drug war resistance and divestment briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/vie...

"It’s a classic example of governments using words to not mean what they actually mean" @dsdp.ca filtermag.org/bc-governmen...

Last week, BC NDP Premier Eby made misleading claims about Sublocade. A decade into BC's toxic drug emergency, there is a heightened risk when government leaders promote this type of disinformation. It should not be acceptable. Read in more detail: themainlander.com/2025/12/10/v...

It is a choice to keep drugs unregulated. The government chooses to prohibit drugs, which allows for black markets to flourish, which creates a more potent and dangerous unregulated supply. The government could regulate drugs and undercut the unregulated market, but chooses not to.

POWER members responded to at least four drug poisonings in a 2.5 hour window on Nov 19. The driver of these drug poisonings is prohibition. The unpredictability of the drug supply is entirely predictable — the federal, provincial & municipal policies in place ensure it bsky.app/profile/andr...

Agree or disagree, I hope people realize that this is just a piece of paper with Government logo on it; it's not legislation, it's not a peer-reviewed paper or clinical guideline; it's one random dudes thoughts and it's frankly insulting to assume that clinicians should accept it at all

There is a lot here in this analysis. I am paying close attention to the removal of "deemed consent" from the Mental Health Act.

NEW analysis in The Mainlander: The politics of the Mental Health Act amendments in Bill 32 reflect a trend of the BC NDP circumventing court rulings under Premier Eby’s leadership. themainlander.com/2025/12/05/b...

On Nov 17, North Cowichan displaced ~75 unhoused residents from Lewis Street encampments to a marsh without the promised Ramada shelter open or toilets available. NEW substack collab by me & @pearlysalts.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/jessicap...

"We can’t prescribe or police our way out of this crisis. We need housing, we need a regulated, safer supply, we need to bolster our voluntary treatment options:" globalnews.ca/news/1155470...

As DULF's compassion club was forced to close, its operators worked to get its 43 members legal Rx alternatives, successfully transitioning only 2 or 3 – a point that piqued the interest of the judge, who asked about the barriers to safer supply programs www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

"strengthening access" to apprehension and indefinite detention bsky.app/profile/sobi...