While Vancouver Coastal Health has confirmed it’s not considering a standalone supervised drug consumption site in Richmond, hundreds protested Monday in opposition to the political process that raised the possibility one could be built.
Last week, seven of nine Richmond councillors voted to ask the health authority to explore the idea as at the city’s hospital and launch a consultation process. It was a contentious decision after two nights of heated hearings that required at least one person to be escorted out by RCMP, and calls for calm from Mayor Malcom Brodie.
A poster from Monday’s protest at Minoru Park Stadium says the resolution for the creation of a safe entry site was rushed through, despite “overwhelming public protests and opposition” as well as intimidation from those who opposed it.
Protesters repeatedly chanted, “No more silence!” and waved signs that read, “The silent majority has awakened,” and “We elected you, and we can vote you out.”
Protester Dickens Cheung told Global News that there haven’t been enough public consultations on the Richmond council’s move asking Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) for a supervised intake site.
“The fact that Richmond City Council (at least two of the councillors) proposed passing such a contentious and vital bill so quickly, without proper public consultation, horrified me,” he said.
“The public consultation would be something like a postcard sent to all citizens asking for their opinions, their comments, their considerations so that they can have a better concept of what all the citizens of Richmond think, rather than just moving forward. If they were the bosses and you can just make all the decisions.
Cheung claimed that Richmond’s mayor and council were elected to make such decisions, noting that the October 2022 municipal election had a turnout of less than 25 percent.
“Are they the voice of Richmond? Asked.
While citizens were given a chance to weigh in on the movement in council chambers last week, he said officials “weren’t very good to us” or “aren’t satisfied that we’re exercising that right,” with one councilmember saying, “Shame on you. ” to a gift.
Several speakers on Monday’s occasion turned out to vote as provincial elections will be held this fall.
Madelyn Ng, who was at the park celebrating Family Day, said she supports the community questioning council initiatives.
“We think it will be an open debate because it’s a complex issue,” Ng said.
“As a network, we have the right to say we don’t want those things to be brought into the network, and other people want to be heard, and reviews want to be in a broader context. “
Protesters marched to Richmond City Hall, where Coun. Carol Day said Richmond’s motion to consider the safe consumption site also included another important ask: better public education and engagement on the topic of safe consumption sites to help reduce stigma.
“It’s become a political factor for other people running for office, which is very unfair. A lot of other people who have been have been very misinformed,” Day said.
“We have a really glorious, very multicultural community, but some politicians take advantage of, I don’t know, people’s inability to clearly perceive the problems. “
The biggest misinformation, he added, was that Richmond councilmembers were voting for an admissions site, rather than investigating whether there was one in the hospital.
The motion approved by the mayor and council called for an investigation that would produce recommendations for “the successful implementation of a supervised medication intake site,” a procedure for identifying an operating organization with the most productive practices for the implementation of a safe intake site. Recommendations for comparing the effectiveness of an ingestion site and much more.
“Richmond is a glorious city. That’s not who we are. People have been manipulated and this is a sad day for Richmond,” Day said. “But I’m going to work with the rest of the council to help make connections, because I think once other people are informed and understand what the real factor is . . . we’ll be able to put Richmond back where it belongs. “
British Columbia is mired in a toxic drug crisis that has claimed the lives of more than 13,000 people since it declared a public health emergency in April 2016.
In a recent letter to the mayor and city council, VCH’s fitness doctor in Richmond supported the creation of more overdose prevention centers in the city, ensuring an investigation of conceivable responses that would be “appropriate for our local context. “
However, based on public fitness data, VCH decided that a separate, supervised admission site at the hospital was not the most appropriate option for Richmond. He insisted there had been no political interference in his position.
“Independent sites are more productive in communities where there is a significant concentration of other at-risk people, because other people will not travel far to download those services,” he wrote in an email on February 14.
“VCH will continue to work with the City of Richmond to evaluate how we can strengthen overdose prevention facilities and keep others in local networks safe so they can access therapy; however, we will not move forward with an independent supervised intake site.
According to VCH, some 1,000 people live with opioid use disorder in Richmond and about 600 have a stimulant use disorder. However, the Richmond Local Health Area has a lower rate of drug fatalities compared with other B.C. regions, with the number slowly decreasing, it said.
— with Simon Little