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“First Nations leaders in British Columbia say they suspect fentanyl is having a disproportionate impact on their communities, but they can’t get the numbers to prove it.
Grand Chief Edward John of the First Nations Summit said he’s been asking the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) and other provincial authorities for the data since last fall, but nothing has yet been delivered.
“I don’t even know how to feel — we need to have that information and we shouldn’t wait to act,” he said.
Over 900 people died in the province from illicit overdoses last year. John said that although he doesn’t know what proportion of those who died are Indigenous, he knows plenty who have fallen victim to the crisis.
“All I hear is the anecdotal information from communities where funerals are taking place,” he said “People are dying needlessly.””
– CBCNews, B.C. First Nations say fentanyl crisis disproportionately affecting their communities.
“First Nations leaders in British Columbia say they suspect the deadly opioid fentanyl is having a disproportionate impact on their communities but they can’t get the numbers to prove it.
Grand Chief Edward John of the First Nations Summit said he’s been asking the First Nations Health Authority and other provincial authorities for the data since last fall but nothing has yet been delivered.
“I don’t even know how to feel, we need to have that information and we shouldn’t wait to act,” he said.
Over 900 people died in the province from illicit overdoses last year. John said although he doesn’t know what proportion of those who died are indigenous, he knows plenty of families and communities that have fallen victim to the crisis.
“All I hear is the anecdotal information from communities where funerals are taking place,” he said “People are dying needlessly.”
The First Nations Health Authority said it’s working with the BC Coroners Service to develop an approach to collect the data that would identify deceased individuals as aboriginal.”
– Times Colonist, B.C.’s First Nations leaders suspect high rate of overdose deaths.
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country.
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This work by David Bernie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. You may download, share, and post the images under the condition that the works are attributed to the artist.
