Health committee  That's a very good question, and that is a huge driver right now in society in general. To me, stigma and shame go hand in hand. It plays both sides. Right now there's a huge stigma towards recovery. When I was addicted, I had a lot of people stigmatize me and everything. The way I see it now and the way I speak to people who are on the cusp of entering recovery and everything is that looking at yourself through other people's opinions is really a rotten way to live your life.

Health committee  Yes. This is my opinion. My people have experienced colonization before, and this, to me, is exploitation of a vulnerable population. It's not getting better. There needs to be a path forward to healing. Of the 95% of people who are using, it's due to childhood trauma. To me and to the people I serve, this isn't the proper approach.

Health committee  No. On the approach out there, decriminalization wasn't that approach. Decriminalization for me is to give the person the option to either seek treatment or to accept a charge for the illegal activity that's taking place. The Portuguese model is being altered, I guess you could say.

Health committee  It's no problem. We need to extend that focus further into biopsychosocial, spiritual and cultural aspects of recovery. We need to look at and evaluate all aspects of recovery and have like-minded individuals living in the same environment. In closing, I would like to read Truth and Reconciliation Commission call to action 21: We call upon the federal government to provide sustainable funding for existing and new Aboriginal healing centres to address the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual harms caused by residential schools, and to ensure that the funding of healing centres in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories is a priority.

Health committee  Thank you, and thank you, all, for the previous comments. It's an honour to be here. I bring a different perspective, the lived experience. I am an indigenous man in long-term recovery for 16 years. I'm the creator of pre-treatment housing and peer and culturally supportive indigenous recovery homes.