Recovering addict says community has nothing to fear from proposed St. James recovery centre

A man recovering from drug addiction, who lives near the proposed site of a non-profit recovery centre, says he wants to set the record straight on what the facility would mean for the neighbourhood. 

Jonathan Parker grew up in St. James and lives close to Vimy Arena, the proposed site of the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre — a 50-bed treatment facility. The project has the support of Mayor Brian Bowman, but St. Charles Coun. Shawn Dobson has rallied community opposition and organized two community meetings where he spoke against it.

A petition opposing the project has also circulated around the neighbourhood.

Parker attended both meetings and says a lot of people opposed to the centre, including the councillor, don't have all the facts.

"He spoke very prematurely and started to condemn something that he knew nothing about," Parker said.

Parker said the first meeting went OK, he was able to speak and other people were also able to share their concerns, but he says the second meeting on Nov. 11 was a "disgrace."

"That was some sort of a political move by Shawn Dobson because he again read off a piece of paper and going on and on about a backdoor deal and how it stinks at city hall," Parker said.

One woman got up repeatedly to urge people to sign a petition opposing the centre but when people got up to speak in support, Parker says Dobson cut them off.

"He took the mic back and said, 'This isn't an open forum,' and walked off," Parker said. "There was a lot of people upset. Even the people who were opposed to it were upset at the way it was handled. I talked to a lot of them afterward. It was unprofessional and two sides of the story need to be told."

Dobson has said he was kept in the dark about the plans until a few weeks ago, and accused the mayor of making a "backroom deal" to build the centre at the Vimy Ridge site.

Earlier this week, he said one of his major concerns had been laid to rest after he was informed the centre would be run as a non-profit, but said he remains opposed to it.

Dobson says the centre shouldn't be in a residential area and suggested moving it to an industrial area.

After the meeting on Saturday, Parker wrote a letter and sent it to 72 people, including Mayor Brian Bowman and Premier Brian Pallister, outlining his story of addiction and recovery.

Addiction derails promising career

Parker was a star hockey player in the Western Hockey League and the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, but his addiction derailed that.

He had his first drink at 13, and drank all through his teens while he attended Silver Heights Collegiate. After he turned 18, he tried cocaine for the first time, and that started an 11-year addiction that lasted until he was 29.

"Immediately when I got that buzz, I knew that it allowed me to get outside myself. It allowed me to feel differently. It allowed me to feel like a big shot. It allowed me to have a little bit more fun than I used to have," he said.

But the addiction sapped his motivation to train and his career ended. After approaching his parents for help in 2011, they sent him to the Edgewood Treatment Centre in Nanaimo, B.C.

Parker says the facility, which is in the middle of a residential neighbourhood, is embraced by the community.

"If the community embraces you, it's a massive positive to the community. And a lot of people, that go to treatment there end up moving there permanently," Parker said.

He says fears about safety are misplaced, because there are already people struggling with addictions living in the community.

"Would they rather have a facility in their neighbourhood that's state of the art, that's going to help people, or would you rather have your neighbours, your kids, your parents, driving around the neighbourhood buying drugs, using drugs, then having a 2,000 pound weapon of a car?" he said.

Coun. Matt Allard, secretary of the city's anti-homelessness strategies, says the city is facing a drug epidemic, which is fuelling a spike in property crime. He says the city desperately needs rehabilitation and treatment facilities and criticized Dobson for his statements about the proposed centre.

"Coun. Dobson has been — in my view — seriously misleading his community in the media and in public meetings," Allard wrote in an email sent to CBC News.

"People in St. Charles ward are telling me that the Vimy Arena is currently being used for drug deals and drug use. This facility may, in fact, clean drugs out of the area, rather than bring them in."

The Bruce Oake Recovery Centre is spearheaded by the Bruce Oake Memorial Foundation, started by former CBC sportscaster Scott Oake in memory of his son, who died as a result of a drug addiction.

A vote to transfer the land to the provincial government is expected to go before city council in December. If it passes, the province would then transfer it to the Oake Foundation.