Hamilton residents share stories of loss, stigma and struggle on Overdose Awareness Day

Nearly two years ago, Barbara Swietek's best friend and mentor died of an overdose. 

On Friday, International Overdose Awareness Day, the memory of her friend, Rebecca Morris-Miller, felt fresh in Swietek's mind.

"She believed in me when I didn't believe in myself," Swietek shared with those who gathered at Hamilton's Gore Park to mark the day. 

"I miss her every single day."

Swietek is a peer-support crisis worker with the Good Shepherd's Health on Wheels bus, a career her friend Morris-Miller encouraged her to follow.

She was one of several speakers and performers who shone a light on the number of overdose deaths that occur in Hamilton every year. In 2023, Hamilton had 148 opioid-related deaths, according to the City of Hamilton.

The event also brought together many local organizations, such as the Hamilton Regional Indian Centre, the Good Shepherd, the National Overdose Response Service, and more.

Safe consumption site closures top of mind

Many of the speakers spoke about the recent move by the Ontario government to ban supervised drug consumption sites within 200 metres of schools and child-care centres. The decision will force a change in services offered by the Hamilton Urban Core Community Health Centre, which currently runs the supervised injection site on James Street South. 

"If you take away these spaces, people are going to start using alone," said Swietek.

"We're going to find people dead in alleys. We already know that there's been deaths inside Jackson Square washrooms … If you take away these safer-use spaces, we're going to see more preventable deaths."

For Sehawk, also known as Brandon Francis, of the Mohawk and Ojibway nations, the closure of the safe consumption sites is "sickening."

He said that having witnessed many overdoses in the past, with these closures, people who might be worried about overdosing might choose to consume drugs in public, where there would be a higher chance of someone helping in case of an emergency.

Sehawk spoke at the event and performed songs, including an original, inspired by his journey of sobriety.

In his hardest days, he wished someone told him "I'm never alone, and that no matter what, they'll always be there," he said in an interview with CBC Hamilton.

Harms of stigma

Swietek recalled her own struggles with drug consumption, which she started while trying to escape the grief of losing her mother, with whom she had a tumultuous relationship.

After the loss, a friend, who was struggling with addiction, told Swietek, "Here Barb, try this, this is going to make everything go away," Swietek said.

"[The drugs] did exactly what she said it was going to do... it numbed everything," she said.

"When I tried to stop using it, those feelings just came back stronger and stronger and stronger."

She reflected on the way stigma affects those struggling with addiction.

"When you call somebody a 'crackhead' or a 'methhead' or a 'junkie,' what are you doing that's improving their lives at all? Nothing," she said.

Swietek's friend, Morris-Miller, was the founder of Grenfell Ministries, a non-profit organization that offers outreach programs in Hamilton, and the National Overdose Response Service, a a peer-run overdose prevention hotline.

"It's the stigma that prevented her from calling her own [help] line to save her own life," Swietek told CBC Hamilton. "The stigma attached to this as a director of an organization."

She stressed the importance of realizing addiction can affect anyone.

"Overdose does not discriminate. It can happen to anybody, anytime, anywhere," she said.