‘I’d like to see other people not get that far’: Manitoba marks overdose awareness day

Hundreds of people gathered outside the Legislative Building to commemorate international overdose awareness day and to honour their loved ones.

For the first time since Manitoba has marked the event, the day began inside the Legislature.

“Although people might think that these aren’t my loved ones, I don’t have to worry about this, this isn’t my community, we’re all connected. This affects all of us,” said Manitoba’s Minister of Housing, Addictions and Homelessness, Bernadette Smith.

Community members leading the charge for overdose awareness spoke of their stories including Arlene Last-Kolb, who co-founded Overdose Awareness Manitoba and spoke on behalf of organization Moms Stop The Harm. Last-Kolb’s 24-year-old son Jessie died from fentanyl poisoning just over 10 years ago.

“It has been an incredibly long and hard journey. Grief is hard, but love is strong,” said Last-Kolb, whose statement brought a loud round of applause in the rotunda.

People soon moved outside, pausing to celebrate a memorial tree planted on the west lawn: a symbol of honour, remembrance and hope for less overdose deaths moving forward.

Just outside of Winnipeg at A Maze In Corn, 42-year-old Tommy Durand chose to spend the day with his two children and partner on an outing with Acorn Family Place — an organization that supports the community through counselling and programming.

“I myself used to be an addict. A lot of my friends were, too. I’ve had to do a lot of change in that. I’d like to see more people with less stigma about it,” he said.

“People (still think) that drug addicts are dirty or they’re not capable of taking care of anything. More often than not, they just need the help and somebody to listen.”

For a decade prior, Durand had a high chance of ending up as another statistic in Manitoba. In recent years, numbers have been surging for substance-related deaths.

Last year, 445 deaths were reported by the chief medical examiner. In the first 4 months of 2024, Manitoba has seen 171 deaths so far.

“I’d like to see other people not get that far. If I could, I’d just like to reach out for people and be that ear,” said Durand.

He’s echoing calls from the province and other advocates, saying people need supports to get them through to sobriety to help prevent more deaths.

“More often than not, people try first to reach out for help before they start diving in deeper. Deeper lying issues, the trauma that helps bring that stuff, a lot of that is just stuff people need to talk through. Sometimes it is just a listening ear that’ll help.”

Part of Durand’s support system now comes from Acorn Family Place. He hopes others can also find the support and community programming they need.

“I first started coming to Acorn about two years ago with my kids. I was going through a pretty rough patch with my partner. We were separated for a while. Acorn kind of helped bring everything back together. It kind of helped keep me out of the addiction. Going back to it. It’s a great place.”