About two dozen community members walked through downtown Bancroft Friday. They held signs, but hardly said a word.
It was the Silent Walk, to honour lives lost to drug overdoses. The event, run by North Hastings Community Trust’s Rural Outreach Community Kindness (ROCK) program, was also about erasing stigma around drug use.
Victoria Burke, a Harm Reduction Outreach Coordinator, said the public display allows those whose lives have been impacted by drugs, to show they’re part of this community and worthy of respect and support.
Another organizer Joe Kidman, a harm reduction advocate, says he has faced battles with drugs. He says it’s unfair for people to shame those who struggle with addictions.
“Every single last person has an addiction,” he says. “It’s bubble gum or cigarettes or alcohol; some type of fix they use every day to fulfill a need of some sort.”
Burke added that negative perceptions about those who use drugs on the street, are the result of class issues.
“Folks with money can hide their addictions more,” she says. “For folks, who live in poverty, it’s more seen.”
Burke and Kidman say more harm reduction supports are needed in the community, as well as social supports, such as transitional housing.