More than a dozen people participated in a walk in Port Alberni last week that aimed to draw attention to the toxic drug poisoning crisis.
In the “Walk with Me” audio journey on Nov. 28, participants met at the North Island College (NIC) campus and took a walk in the paths behind NIC and through the Alberni Fairgrounds, all while listening to powerful stories of the toxic drug crisis on wireless headsets.
Walk With Me is a project of the Comox Valley Art Gallery in Courtenay. It is an arts-based research project developed by a group of artists, outreach workers, researchers and people with lived and living experience. Organizers partnered with Port Alberni’s Community Action Team (CAT) for the walk in Port Alberni.
With the Nov. 28 walk, 16 people from the local CAT, various agencies, the community at large and the Walk With Me program participated in the walk.
Christopher Hauschildt, research coordinator with Walk With Me and a person with lived experience, talked about the staggering numbers of people who have lost their lives since the toxic drug poisoning crisis was declared a public health emergency in 2016. “The toxic drug poisoning crisis…has claimed the lives of 13,000 people in this province. It’s hard to comprehend,” he said. He pointed out that six people per day lose their lives to this crisis.
(Just two days after the walk took place, the BC Coroners Service announced that at least 2,039 lives have been lost to unregulated drugs in the province in the first 10 months of 2023.)
For Hauschildt, the toxic drug poisoning crisis began even earlier: he shared a story of losing his first friend in 2012. He said at the beginning of the project they used to light candles for the people they have lost. On Tuesday there were six battery-operated candles lit in the centre of the room at NIC to represent lives lost to the crisis.
“We as a team have lost a great deal of people,” Hauschildt said.
To find out more about the project or look for an upcoming walk, visit www.walkwithme.ca.