An unsanctioned overdose prevention site in Campbell River became a protest after bylaw and RCMP officers ordered its closure.

Following Traffic and Highways Regulations bylaws 2043 and 2003, officers asked the Doctors for Safer Drug Policy to close shop and vacate.

"We did set up an unsanctioned overdose prevention site that was standing on Sunday and half of yesterday (March 24)," said Dr. Erika Kellerhals. "We have become more of a protest than an overdose prevention site. I think we would endeavour to get somebody somewhere safe to use drugs with a trained volunteer stand by. Probably right here on this street is not that place." 

On Sunday, the group set up shop near the nurse's residence at the hospital. Security asked them to move off the hospital's grounds, which they complied with. Instead, they set up on the corner of Birch Street and Second Avenue. On March 24, two bylaw officers accompanied by two RCMP officers served them a notice to remove structures from the site (tents). 

The bylaw's Section 31 restricts any structures, including tents, from being constructed or placed on a highway or a portion of a highway without a permit. Section 16 says any chattel or obstruction unlawfully occupying any portion of a highway or public place may be removed, detained or impounded by any person authorized by the Engineering Services Manager or a Peace Officer. 

While the notice says 'highway,' it includes all roadways and adjoining properties or roadways, including curbs, sidewalks and ditches. 

"We just kind of sat down and we had to decide are we going to keep standing this up and risk getting arrested or are we going to comply with their asks," said Dr. Kellerhals. "We didn't want to set a tone and maybe make other doctors scared to continue their own initiatives in Victoria, Nanaimo and Comox, so we decided to comply. It's sad because we are no longer providing much in the way of services that we were hoping to."

So, instead, the pop-up prevention site became a protest. The goal? More prevention sites in hospitals across the province. 

Dr. Kellerhals is a family and addictions doctor. She formerly worked at a family clinic on Quadra Island. 

She said she got into working in the addiction field because she saw a big need for it. Kellerhals got involved just before the fentanyl crisis emerged. 

"Literally just before (the crisis)," she said.  "And that need became just more and more burgeoning with the fentanyl crisis. Even before that, there were so many problems with the mental health system in terms of access points for youth struggling with mental health issues."

Dr. Kellerhals and other doctors working in addictions were promised overdose prevention sites in hospitals by former health minister Adrian Dix 11 months ago. The promise remains unfulfilled. Furthermore, Kellerhals says easily accessible access points for harm reduction supplies have been taken away. 

Hence, the unsanctioned pop-up overdose prevention site. 

"These are sites where people can take their already obtained substances. We're not handing out free drugs. I think sometimes that gets misconstrued in the media, but it's a safe place for people to use already obtained substances. But it's more than that. We're handing out food, harm reduction supplies, clothing, connection to treatment and recovery," says Kellerhals. "People have certainly asked us. We've had people stopping by and asking questions. We've had people quite irate about what we're doing. Generally, when we shared more information about what overdose prevention sites are, they were like, "Well, okay, that makes sense." 

Kellerhals says people can have their opinions on substance use, but patients are sneaking away and using drugs in hospital bathrooms and stairwells and overdosing. Because of this, health workers are inadvertently getting exposed to toxic fumes. Overdose prevention sites, which are simple, low-cost, and well-proven to work, could help prevent this. 

"Eleven months ago, we were promised this. Let's get some action because inaction is leading to more people dying, and we've had people die on the hospital grounds here, lots of overdoses. People dying in hospital bathrooms," she said. "We would love to get the Health Authority, the Ministry, to sit down with addiction medicine specialists and also peers who use substances. Let's make a plan now. We have a very high death rate in Campbell River, and we are losing our Indigenous brothers and sisters at an alarming rate and also tradespeople. I feel like this is really ground zero, so let's get something happening quickly."

One person who has died is Santos. He passed away on June 24, 2022. He was only 20. 

"Santos was a pretty unique kid," says his mother, Chantal Costaz, who was at the pop-up prevention site turned protest on March 25. "He was struggling with some mental health issues, but he sort of rode a fence that most people thought he was fine until he tripped up a little bit. But he also could fool a lot of people by just being pretty normal when he wanted to be."

Costaz described her son as "very" artistic, athletic, funny, and a great kid. But she was unable to get the help he needed, nor was he, but added she couldn't deny that sometimes he resisted. 

"But when he was ready to go to detox, there was no detox. He was often ready," Costaz said. 

Santos was put on a waiting list for the Red Fish Healing Centre for Metal Health and Addiction in Coquitlam, and Costaz was told it would take nine to twelve months for intake. 

Costaz told the centre Santos would be dead by then.

Two months into being on the list, Costaz received a call saying a bed was open for Santos. 

"I came to look for him in town. I couldn't find him. I came back the next morning because I was supposed to be on the 1 p.m. ferry to get him to Red Fish, and I found him a little bit too late. He was completely intoxicated and not in very good shape," Costaz recalled. 

The centre told Costaz they would no longer be able to accept him because of his state and because they wouldn't have been able to get him to Red Fish in time. The bed was gone. 

It was suggested to Costaz that she call the police, having Santos spend the night in a cell safely while they could regroup and wait for another bed to open. 

Instead, he passed away in the cell and became a subject of a March 17, 2023 B.C. Independent Investigations Office report, in which he was unidentified until Costaz contacted the Mirror in 2023. 

"Fight, fight, fight. Be there. Be with the people who are trying to support this and do everything you can," is what Costaz would say to parents currently filling her shoes. "There needs to be detox centres in Campbell River. There aren't.  One's being built, but it's taking years."

Kellerhals said Island Health purchased a building and is waiting for it to be retrofitted, but agreed with Costaz that it's taking way too long.

"People are dying. It shouldn't be happening," Costaz said.