Illicit drug possession decriminalized

Federal government agrees to B.C.’s request for criminal code exemption, in an eff ort to slow fatal overdose toll

By Eric Plummer Ha-Shilth-Sa Editor

Vancouver, BC – On May 31 the federal and provincial governments announced that small quantities of illicit drugs will no longer bring criminal charges, a longawaited move that health authorities hope will curb a fatal crisis that’s escalated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal government granted British Columbia an exemption under Section 56 of the Criminal Code of Canada, making B.C. the fi rst province to not arrest, charge or seize small amounts of illegal drugs from people. Now people in B.C. are permitted to carry up to 2.5 grams of illicit drugs, a criminal code exemption that applies to opioids like heroin, morphine and Fentanyl, as well as cocaine, methamphetamine or MDMA (ecstasy). This measure will be in place for three years, starting Jan. 31, 2023. The exemption represents “a major step in changing how we view addiction and drug use in British Columbia,” said provincial Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Sheila Malcolmson during a press conference. “The fear of being criminalized has led many people to hide their addiction and use drugs alone – and using alone can mean dying alone,” she added. With over 2,220 deaths, last year was the most fatal for illicit drug use since B.C. declared a public health emergency in April 2016. The province has poured millions into the opioid crisis, funding more treatment options, harm reduction support and measures to increase the supply of safer prescribed alternatives to illicit drugs. But after the toll dropped to under 1,000 in 2019, fatalities jumped with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related health measures encouraging isolation. The First Nations Health Authority reported that in 2020 Indigenous people were 5.3 times more likely to die from illicit drug use than the rest of the population in B.C. “We know that this was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic when people needed to isolate at home,” commented Provincial Health Offi cer Bonnie Henry at the decriminalization announcement. “Mostly younger men, who were living at home who may have had social connections, have lost those connections and are using alone, afraid or ashamed to talk to family or friends about their drug use.” Henry added that the move to decriminalization is “a philosophical approach” to better support people who use illicit drugs. She noted that this could have impacts on the overrepresentation of First Nations people in the criminal justice system. “Over half of the women in our provincial correctional facilities are Indigenous women, and 80 per cent of the women in those facilities are there for low-level drug crimes,” said Henry. “We need to get out of that cycle.” The provincial health offi cer noted the shift in how government is responding to calls for decriminalization, after her report Stopping the Harm met resistance four years ago. “When the decriminalization report came out in 2018, there was not a lot of support for it at any level,” said Henry. “For too many years, the ideological opposition to harm reduction has cost lives,” admitted Carolyn Bennett, Canada’s minister of Mental Health and Addictions, during the press conference. Yet Bennett said she would not support Bill C-216 in the House of Commons, legislation which was set to be voted on the day after the criminal code exemption was announced. Introduced by NDP Courtenay-Alberni MP Gord Johns, this bill proposes to decriminalize personal possession across Canada, with record expungement for past low-level drug convictions and measures for more treatment, safer supply and other harm reduc-

Photo supplied by the Provinve of BC Sheila Malcolmson, B.C.’s minister of Mental Health and Addictions, is calling a federally approved exemption under the Criminal Code of Canada a “a major step in changing how we view addiction and drug use in British Columbia.” tion methods. “I have some discomfort with the bill because I think it doesn’t put in place the guardrails around implementation and how you would actually be able to ascertain thresholds,” said Bennett, who noted that “starting with British Columbia is a prudent way to go.” In response, Johns is calling B.C.’s criminal code exemption a “patchwork approach to the national drug crisis.” “It is hard to understand why the Liberal government seems unwilling to support our legislation that is intended to save lives so that more and more families aren’t forced to bury their loved ones,” said the NDP member of parliament in a statement. Federal and provincial offi cials at the announcement said decriminalization will be one tool among several others needed to fi nally curb the rising toll of overdose deaths. Another measure is pushing ahead more prescribed alternatives to illicit drugs, such as methadone and hydromorphone. “Putting in place a regulated safe supply of drugs is the real antidote to the toxicity of the present supply,” said Bennett. In recent years this increase in toxicity is largely due to the prevalence of Fentanyl in street drugs. Originally designed to be a medically prescribed painkiller, Fentanyl has been blamed for a high percentage of overdose fatalities. Amidst the ongoing opioid crisis, the B.C. government has taken aim at pharmaceutical companies with a class action lawsuit launched in 2018. The government claims that drug companies have contributed to an epidemic of addiction by deceiving prescribers and patients of TOQUAHT the risks in taking painkillers. “It’s time that they take responsibility for the human and fi nancial toll that their products have taken,” said Malcolmson.

Family doctor shortage leaves patients scrambling across B.C., but situation is particularly bad in Port Alberni

By Mike Youds Ha-Shilth-Sa Contributor

Island Health has reached agreement with Ucluelet Medical Clinic, assuming the lease to head off closure at month’s end and ensuring another 3,000 patients do not lose family doctors. The move ends months of uncertainty for Ucluelet residents as well as for 1,500 others in outlying coastal communities such as Hitacu and Macoah who rely on the sole clinic in the village. They can consider themselves fortunate in a province where roughly 900,000 residents are not connected to a general physician and primary health care. Dr. Shannon McDonald, acting chief medical health offi cer with First Nation Health Authority, confi rmed the agreement late last week. “They’re going to take over the lease and the clinic will remain open,” said Dr. McDonald. Dr. Carrie Marshall, clinic lead and leaseholder, disclosed recently that the clinic has operated at a loss for some time and closure loomed as a possibility at the end of May when the lease expired. The health authority had been meeting with clinic physicians and the Resort Municipality of Ucluelet in search of a solution. Having a family doctor means access to longitudinal care, McDonald said. Longitudinal care is seamless, providing individuals with ongoing care, maintaining their medical records and co-ordinating referrals to other health care providers. Family doctors, general practitioners, have always performed that critical role in primary care. An estimated 900,000 B.C. residents — one in fi ve — do not have a family physician and the number is rising rapidly as doctors retire or opt out of private practice. The advent of virtual online health care and Urgent Primary Care Centres is not the same, McDonald said. “It’s not the same as a family doctor where you have a longitudinal relationship,” she said. A majority of those unattached to a family physician are left scrambling, “and that’s very sad.” Ucluelet is not any diff erent from hundreds of other smaller communities where recruiting and retaining medical professionals has been a challenge for years. With the general aging of the population, including physicians, and more medical graduates choosing alternatives to family practice, the shortage has reached crisis proportions. Rural residents may feel it more acutely in the absence of options, such as walk-in clinics, but the crisis is universal. “Even a visit to an emergency room is a major eff ort. It’s become incredibly challenging for people to get urgent care,” McDonald said. On the west coast, there may be compounding factors such as housing and a shortage of people willing to work there for a variety of reasons. Graduates are in short supply and have the pick of career choices, McDonald said. The same shortage is aff ecting FNHA’s recruitment, she said. A newly founded citizen’s action group maintains there is no shortage of trained medical professionals in the province, only a lack of political will in the face of a health care crisis that is growing steadily worse. B.C. Health Care Matters rallied support last week in front of the B.C. Legislature. “Everybody in B.C. deserves the opportunity to see a family doctor,” said

Photo supplied by B.C. Health Care Matters A rally in May at the B.C. Legislature declared that, “Everyone deserves a family doctor.” Camille Currie, who founded the group. “Longitudinal care is the best way to ensure the best health outcomes for people.” Currie was spurred to action when she and her family lost their doctor in Victoria earlier this year. “This is a provincewide problem and it’s not localized to the main centres,” she said. Physician services among First Nations is already 3.3 percent lower than the rest of the population. According to In Plain Sight, the 2020 report on Indigenousspecifi c racism and discrimination in B.C. health care, access to primary care should be higher based on greater health needs. “Lower access to physician services may be refl ected in a higher burden of disease, or simply refl ect that access is insuffi cient to meet the health needs of the population,” the report states. The possibility of clinic closure in Ucluelet came up in legislative debate earlier this month when the Liberal health critic Shirley Bond took Health Minister Adrian Dix to task. “It’s time he gave meaningful answers that give hope to British Columbians and health care workers across this province,” Bond said. Family doctors are leaving their practices, walk-in clinic wait times are the longest in the country, and doctors and nurses are overwhelmed, she added. Dix countered that the provincial government is acting, having opened 27 urgent and primary care centres (UPCCs), adding virtual visits and setting up 59 primary care networks, which are local care teams. “It is extraordinarily eff ective,” he said. He also pointed to addressing a fee-forservice system that favours less serious and episodic care. The government is currently negotiating a new contract with private practitioners. “The honorable members try to pretend that COVID didn’t happen during this time,” Dix said. Currie maintains that COVID is not the cause, though it has exacerbated the problem. She said the government is unwilling to admit that its prescribed approach to the crisis is not working. Band-Aid measures simply don’t cut it, she said. “It’s just a huge disconnect,” she said. “The UPCC was quite a wonderful model when it was fi rst described, but they are not the solution to the crisis and are also not addressing current needs.” The system needs medical professionals attached to patients, Currie said. It also needs a records management system that is shareable among medical professionals. “The fi nal step has to be for the health ministry to become open and transparent about the success or failure of the UPCCs.” Each one costs $2 million to $4 million to set up with annual costs ranging from $3 million to $6 million per centre, she said. “Are they providing the kind of care needed? If not, should funds allocated for those centres be redistributed to others such as general practice offi ces?” B.C. has enough doctors but fewer are choosing private practice over hospitalist positions and specialties because of professional demands, said Camille. “In B.C., we have 6,800 licensed Family Doctors, but only 3,200 of them are choosing to work in B.C. as family doctors or to practice at all,” Camille said. “Lack of trained individuals is not the cause of this crisis, lack of political will is!” Alberni Valley residents fare worse than their neighbours on the west coast in terms of physician attachment. Find A Doctor B.C., a web tool that covers most of the southern part of the province, off ers no help for valley residents without a doctor. The site gives a link to the “patient attachment mechanism” for Port Alberni, but links instead to the Oceanside Health Connect Registry, which serves only residents of that area. McDonald sees no ready solution to the crisis. “I don’t think there is any low-hanging fruit to be had, there are just not enough bodies, not enough trained professionals to do this work,” she said. “We can’t force people to do work they don’t want to do, and we need the specialists.” Some patients wait as long as 18 months for surgery, she noted. UPCCs have some advantage in that they are multi-disciplinary and allow staff to provide team care, McDonald said. Administrative support frees up more time for practitioners to focus on patients. FNHA is opening 15 primary care centres across B.C., two of which are operational. McDonald sees opportunities for collaboration with the mainstream health care system. B.C. Family Doctors, the economic and political voice of doctors, predicts 40 percent will retire in the next 10 years, which would leave millions more without a family doctor.

Site of former Cedarwood Elementary School would be replaced with a four-storey, 35-unit apartment complex

By Denise Titian Ha-Shilth-Sa Reporter

Port Alberni, BC – Ahousaht elder Wally Samuel appeared before Port Alberni city council on the evening of May 31 seeking zoning amendments that would allow for the construction of much-needed aff ordable housing units in the city. He was representing the Citaapi Mahtii Housing Society in its application to amend the Offi cial Community Plan and zoning bylaws at 4210 Cedarwood Street, the site of the former Cedarwood Elementary School, that they hope will be replaced with a four-storey, 35-unit apartment complex. The new building is funded by BC Housing’s Community Housing Fund and is a partnership between the Citaapi Mahtii Housing Society, BC Housing and the City of Port Alberni. The planned complex will also receive funding from CMHC. There are more than 500 registered Ahousaht members living in Port Alberni, many in a tight and very expensive rental housing market. Elected Chief Greg Louie told Ha-Shilth-Sa that his council heard from membership that they need aff ordable housing. The proposed new complex would deliver 35 aff ordable new units in a fourstorey building. The structure will have eight studio units, seven one-bedroom apartments, four two-bedroom units, 12 three-bedroom suites and four fourbedroom units. The blend of unit sizes will allow for a more inclusive community atmosphere. In addition to the housing units, the development plans show a one-storey amenity space with a kitchen that can be rented for gatherings. The public hearing allowed proponents of the project speak to the need for the project and for city residents to ask questions. Harley Wylie, Sharean Van Volsen and Archie Little of Tseshaht, Hupacasath and Nuchatlaht respectively all spoke in support of the project, saying their councils and people are aware of the need and support the idea. “This will not only benefi t Ahousaht, but also the city,” said Wylie. Alice Sam is an Ahousaht member residing in Port Alberni who advocates for homeless people. She noted that in today’s housing market, people are losing their homes due to renovictions, zoning changes or just being priced out of the rental market. Add to that, there are no shelters in the city that provide rooms for couples. NTC Vice-President Mariah Charleson mentioned a homelessness forum hosted by the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council a few years ago. At that forum, she said, Port Alberni was one of fi ve cities identifi ed as having a high number of Nuuchah-nulth-aht that identify as homeless. The other cities are Nanaimo, Victoria, Vancouver and Courtenay. Charleson noted that racism continues to be a problem for Indigenous people seeking rental housing. “Many can’t rent once the landlord sees the colour of their skin,” said Charleson. She went to say that moving the project forward would indicate a chance for real reconciliation with the city and its Indigenous population. Opportunities for aff ordable housing for Indigenous people would contribute to the economy and the tax base. “There’s a myth out there that we don’t pay taxes, but we do,” said Charleson. Jeff Cook of Huu-ay-aht and long-time Port Alberni resident talked about the history of housing projects in the city and the barriers that were broken through. When Ma’kola Housing went up in certain sections of town, people in the neighborhood protested, “Not in my back yard”. But everything worked out and low barrier housing has been benefi cial to all, according to Cook. There were few if any speaking against the project. One business owner was in favor of the project but worried that the noise from his business might be disruptive to the tenants. The architect assured him that the building would be well insulated and highly effi cient, and the property will be fenced so noise from the neighbors should not be an issue. The Citaapi Mahtii Housing Society is seeking amendments to the Offi cial Community Plan and zoning bylaws in order to move the project forward. If successful, the property will be rezoned to RM3 High Density Multiple Family Residential from P2 Parks and Recreation. Port Alberni City Council said they will vote on the proposed amendments sometime in June.

Design by DYS Architecture A four-story, 35-unit development is planned for a site near the Alberni Fall Fair grounds, off ering rental suites for Ahousaht members. The property was formerly used for the Port Alberni Youth Centre.

Looking for......

Usma Nuu-chah-nulth Family and Child Services are looking for individual/s or families who are interested in caregiving for teens with high-risk behaviors. The Caregiver(s) would provide 24-hour care in a culturally safe and suppor ve environment, responding eff ec vely to challenging behaviours. Compensa on would be built around the specifi c needs of the youth and the Caregiver, and could include both direct services and fi nancial support to allow Caregivers to meet the needs of the youth.

Photo by Denise Titian

Have You Moved?

If you should be getting a copy of the Ha-Shilth-Sa paper delivered to your home and you are not, please contact Holly Stocking at 250-724-5757 or email holly.stocking@ nuuchahnulth.org

Eighteen rock-walled fi sh traps have been documented in the remote area, but the wear of the ages is raising the urgency to share their secrets

By Eric Plummer Ha-Shilth-Sa Editor

Yuquot, BC - A heavy mist chills Nootka Sound one morning in mid May, as Ray Williams scans the rugged shores he has known for his whole life. With the motorboat resting in shallow water, Ray’s son Darrell has jumped from the vessel’s driver seat to search for a painting on a rocky cliff that Ray encountered over 30 years ago while helping with an archaeological survey in the area. “I’d know exactly where it was if I had my eyesight,” admits the 80-year-old as Darrell scales a cliff in Hisnet Inlet. Despite his compromised vision, Ray is able to lead his son to multiple sites that would otherwise be easily missed by other travellers, uncovering hints of the complicated occupations of his Mowachaht ancestors. With Ha-Shilth-Sa accompanying for documentation, their focus today is the stone-walled fi sh trap, a remnant of the harvesting practices of generations past. Amid the continued battering of the West Coast weather, a handful of these traps can still be found in Nootka Sound’s tidal fl ats. The rock pilings are still evident, showing “a specialized fi shing technology” that could have been designed to collect schools of small fi sh by using the changing of the tide, wrote archaeologist Yvonne Marshall in 1993. “We know only that fi sh were captured by driving them into the enclosed pond at high tide, and trapping them behind the walls as the tide fell by closing off openings in the walls with branches or basketry nets,” wrote Marshall, part of her extensive project on the traditional practices of the The remains of a rosk-walled fi sh trap can still be found by Cougar Creek in Nootka Sound. Archaeologist Yvonne Marshall speculated that “it may have been po trap salmon which were congregating prior to enter the stream to spawn.” casionally occurring in groups, usually across the mouth of a small bay or cove,” wrote Alan McMillan, from surveys he did in Barkley Sound and the Alberni Inlet with Dennis St. Claire from 1973-75. “Such structures are likely to have a long-time depth in this area.”

Ray Williams is one of the few people with knowledge of the stone fi sh traps. Thirty years ago he served as a guide for Marshall’s extensive surveys in the area.

Mowachaht/Muchalaht First Nation. “They would open the trap at high tide,” explains Ray. “The little perch that carry little babies inside, they would probably look for a place to be safe to let out the little ones.” Similar fi sh traps have been documented elsewhere in Nuu-chah-nulth territory. Surveys have identifi ed 20 on the Toquaht First Nation’s shores, and at least 80 have been surveyed within the Pacifi c Rim National Park Reserve. Another has been identifi ed right across the water from Port Alberni in Shoemaker Bay, and down the inlet stone walled fi sh traps have been recorded in the Broken Group Islands. “These are loosely piled rock walls, ocAs a child Ray heard about the stone fi sh traps from his father and father-in-law, and fi rst encountered them as young man during a hunting trip. Now he refl ects on the need to share these little-known traditions of his people while the remains of the traps are still in place. While rain begins to fall, Darrell Williams looks over the rocks of a fi sh trap in Valdez Bay, the walls arcing out of the tidal area with an opening at the end. “I didn’t even know about these until my dad started showing me,” says Darrell, who grew up in the nearby village of Yuquot. Ray admits some concern as he looks at fl oating sports fi shing cabins in the bay, less than 50 feet from the rock walls that his ancestors carefully placed generations ago. “It’s important to keep all these fi sh traps intact,” he says. Across Valdez Bay on the north side, Marshall documented the disappearing traces of another fi sh trap that enclosed two ponds. “The walls are so fragmentary the site will probably not survive as a recognizable fi sh trap for much longer,” she wrote. “The forest, the rivers, the traps, how they fi shed - it’s been a secret for far too long,” adds Ray. “It would also help our claim about our fi shing rights. Claim of the ocean, claim of the land, claim of the forest

- what we have out there that still exists.”

“It’s important to keep all these fi sh traps intact”

~ Ray Williams

700 salmon in 15 minutes

The intricacies of Nuu-chah-nulth fi shing practices have been documented since Europeans fi rst landed in Nootka Sound in 1778. A more widely understood method entailed setting traps for salmon as they travelled along rivers, something that was observed by John Jewitt in his memoir detailing two years of slavery under the Mowachaht Chief Maquinna. As the culmination of an earlier confl ict between European traders and the local First Nation, Maquinna’s tribe massacred the crew of the Boston while it was anchored at Yuquot, leaving only Jewitt and another to survive. While he was captive Jewitt documented a trap set in a river at Tahsis during the tribe’s seasonal migration to their winter home. “A pot of twenty feet in length, and from four or fi ve feet in diameter at the mouth, is formed of a great number of pine splinters, which are strongly secured an inch and a half from each other, by means of hoops made of fl exible twigs, and placed about eight inches apart,” described the Englishman. “At the end of it tapers almost to a point, near which is a small wicker door for the purpose of taking out the fi sh.” The practice yielded a considerable harvest, indicating why salmon-bearing rivers were often the territory of certain families and chiefs who oversaw the resources. Jewitt observed another method used by the Mowachaht for catching salmon. “This pot or weir is placed at the foot of a fall or rapid where the water is not very deep, and the fi sh, driven from above with long poles, are intercepted and caught in the weir, from whence they are taken in the canoes,” he wrote. “In this manner I have seen more than 700 salmon caught in the space of fi fteen minutes.” Over a century later Phillip Drucker studied the traditional practices of northern Nuu-chah-nulth tribes in 1935 and 1936,

On a rainy morning Darrell Williams looks over a fi sh trap in Valdez Bay, which has stone walls that arc out of the tidal area.