Fundraising underway for Winnipeg advocate injured in pedestrian-vehicle crash

In a second Joseph Fourre’s world was turned upside down.

On April 1, he was hit by a vehicle in Winnipeg’s downtown breaking his femur and leaving him staring down a long recovery. 

“I’m laying in the middle of the street and I can’t move my legs,” he said of the crash, ruled an accident.

“I got to the hospital and I realized the impact had sheared the ball of my hip right off my femur and I’d require surgery.” 

Known for his work raising awareness about Fentanyl-tainted drugs, Fourre is the founder of the Singing Red Bear Foundation, which recently launched the “No Thanks, I’m Good” campaign. 

It educates people about tainted drug supply while honoring his late son, 31-year-old Harlan Fourre. He died of drug poisoning in April 2023. 

Fourre was actually leaving a rally for Prime Minister Mark Carney where he was trying to spread his message when the collision occurred. 

He was ready to spread his message throughout the rest of the campaign period, but the injury, which required medical implants to repair, has put a halt to his important work. 

“This is my new reality for the next little while,” he said, gesturing to his makeshift recovery bed at home.

The collision comes at already difficult time for him and his family. Earlier this year, his elderly mother was the victim of an attack that left her hospitalized.

He’s been checking in on her to make sure she’s ok while she recovers, but says the recent injury has stopped those visits as well and created further hardships.

While always the helper, this time, Fourre was in need of some assistance, but he admits, it was a hard ask to make.

“I never ask for help. I find a way to get things done,” he said. “And this injury kind of took that away from me.”

When Fourre’s friend Ciji Khan saw someone so passionate in need of a hand, she spring into action, launching an online fundraiser to help him on his recovery. 

“Everybody needs help sometimes,” she said, calling both Fourre and his wife Vera, “amazing people.” 

Khan says the fundraising effort is ongoing, and she hopes it’ll help Fourre heal fast so he can return to his work and passion for helping other people, saying she too has seen the tragic consequences of poisoned drugs.

She says she’s happy to help anyway she can, as even though it saddened her it was hard for Fourre to ask for help, she stresses the help is well-deserved. 

“It makes me happy, but at the same time, it makes me a little sad. Because we’re all human, we all struggle and we all need help sometimes. No one is immune,” she said. “He’s got a heart of gold.”

Fourre says he’s thankful for the aid, calling it overwhelming, but says it’s only a matter of time until he’s back to raising awareness about an issue that has affected so many.

“I can recover from this with some determination, hard work and commitment,” he said. “I’ll never be the same again, but I’ll be damn close to it.”