Thank you, Chair.
Honourable members, thank you for inviting me to contribute to your work. You have heard testimony from several experts who intervene at various levels to try to stem the crisis we are experiencing. I am pleased to be able to participate directly on the ground, in a very specific, unprecedented social and health crisis context.
I am the father of two young children. I am also someone with experiential and theoretical knowledge, having worked for nearly 30 years now in the harm reduction community. I was a street worker in Toronto and Montreal and I have been called to work at the centre of many crises such as the HIV crisis, the hepatitis C crisis, the housing crisis, the COVID-19 crisis, as well as the contaminated substances crisis that we have been going through for the past decade or more.
I am here today with you as the executive director of Dopamine, a community organization deeply rooted in the Hochelaga‑Maisonneuve neighbourhood of Montreal that has been working with substance users for 30 years. The organization works with a harm reduction approach based on best evidence. In fact, data from several studies have largely shown the many positive effects of this approach on health care for people receiving these services and the community at large.
Today I want to tell you a little-known story: that of the people who founded the organization that I have the privilege of directing and representing to you today.
The year was 1991. The HIV/AIDS epidemic hit Montreal hard. In Hochelaga‑Maisonneuve, health care institutions were struggling to reach injection drug users. The head of public health launched a pilot project to prevent infection among injection drug users. The purpose of the project was to equip community actors, directly in the substance-use environments, to distribute free needles and condoms, but especially to change the fatalist attitudes and perceptions that were driven by the stigma of HIV/AIDS.
I do not need to tell you that the initiative was met with strong resistance at first. Supported by health care bodies and political bodies, it was the stakeholders, peers and people concerned who contributed to stemming the HIV/AIDS crisis. Countless lives were saved. They contributed to making the neighbourhood safer for everyone. Their courage changed the course of history.
Since then, every member of the Dopamine team continues to develop adapted, effective solutions that are focused on the real needs of people who use drugs. They continue to fight to defend and improve the quality of life, the right to health, but especially the right to dignity.
In light of this new crisis, I am speaking to you in favour of recognizing the evidence and the science and I stand by the many experts working in the four corners of the country in order to contribute positively to solutions that are courageous to be sure, but necessary. It is high time that we come back to a pragmatic and humanist approach, instead of fuelling a polarizing debate on Canada's situation based on moralist, anecdotal and sometimes false approaches that only maintain the status quo. It is high time that we have courageous conversations and get to work on the ground, where human lives are lost every day.
We are asking for a number of measures to be taken in that regard.
First, we are calling for the overdose epidemic to be declared a public health emergency across the country.
Then, we must also pursue and guarantee a safer, pharmaceutical-grade supply based on the substance chosen by each individual.
It would also be important to provide increased support to the organizations to facilitate the implementation of supervised consumption services across the country.
We are also asking to ensure that naloxone is broadly available and easy to access for all communities.
What is more, the leadership of people who use drugs needs to be substantially included in all the work that concerns them.
Finally, we must advocate in favour of decriminalization, even the full legalization of drugs.
I would add that we need to look at, even rectify the way the war on drugs has been used to disproportionately criminalize groups such as racialized individuals, first nations communities, people living in extreme poverty, as well as queer and trans individuals, who are bearing a lot of the consequences of this war right now.
I invite you to come sit down with us. I invite you to come talk with those who are grieving. I invite you to come see all the efforts being made to reduce the number of deaths and to save lives in our communities. We need pragmatic and humanist policies for our communities to live.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for listening.