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WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2020 | Volume 33 No. 41
DEALER DROPPED IT?
SENSELESS ASSAULT Assailant sought after security guard attacked in park
Baby finds suspected drugs on playground
TODAY’S WEATHER
Sun and clouds High 25 C Low 12 C
NEWS/A6
NEWS/A3
Toxicity, isolation cited in spike in First Nations overdoses TODD SULLIVAN
LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER
todd@kamloopsthisweek.com
Donning hard hats, shovels and masks to officially break ground on The Hive project downtown on Tuesday are, from left, Delta Hotels by Marriott and Invictus Properties vice-president and general manager, Bryan Pilbeam, Kamloops Deputy Mayor Dale Bass, A&T Project Development vice-president Brandon Lolli, Invictus Properties president Tristan Armstrong, Rocky Mountaineer founder Peter Armstrong, A&T Project Development partner Frank Quinn, A&T Project Development vice-president sales and marketing Gary Reed, A&T Project Development owner Jeff Arnold and KCBIA executive director Carl DeSantis. For more on the first office building set to rise downtown in more than a decade, turn to page A13. DAVE EAGLES/KTW
The First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) released numbers on Monday showing a dramatic increase in the number of overdose deaths among the Indigenous population in the months from January to May 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. There have been 89 deaths during that period this year, compared to 46 deaths in 2019, an increase of 93 per cent. The FNHA also revealed that the opioid problem in B.C. has been disproportionately affecting First Nations people, with 16 per cent of all overdose deaths between January and May in that demographic. During the same five-month period in 2019, that percentage was 9.9. First Nations represent 3.3 per cent of the province’s population, meaning the Indigenous community has experienced overdose deaths 5.6 times more often than other B.C. residents. When looking at why there is an increase in overdose deaths, there were three primary reasons cited by Dr. Shannon McDonald, acting chief medical officer of the First Nations Health Authority: an increased toxicity of illicit drugs, the COVID-19 pandemic forcing people into isolation and precautions enacted to slow the spread of COVID19 making it harder to support vulner-
able people with physical-distancing rules in place. Other issues likely behind the increase in overdose deaths include insufficient access to culturally safe mental-health and addiction treatment, systemic racism acting as a barrier to accessing health care and intergenerational trauma. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry also voiced her concern. “The increase in overdoses in First Nations people in B.C. id deeply disturbing,” she said. “First Nations people are routinely differentially impacted by these deaths.” According to Lisa Lapointe, the province’s chief coroner, there have been about 6,000 overdose deaths in B.C. since January 2015, primarily driven by fentanyl. Though overdose fatality numbers dropped in 2019, they are on the rise again in 2020, including 170 deaths in May, the most ever recorded in the province in one month. The FNHA has been working to reduce overdose deaths in a number of ways, including partnering with organizations in eight cities to increase outreach in the community and in primary care and delivering more than 6,000 Naloxone kits through First Nations sites and Aboriginal friendship centres. The FNHA, provincial and federal governments are also spending up to $60 million on First Nations treatment centres in B.C.
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