Winnipeg advocates take fight against meth to Ottawa By: Dylan Robertson Posted: 7:00 PM CST Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018 Last Modified: 12:22 PM CST Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018 Updates

OTTAWA — Winnipeg methamphetamine users need governments to fast-track mental health and housing commitments, before the crisis becomes untenable, local groups have told Parliament.

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OTTAWA — Winnipeg methamphetamine users need governments to fast-track mental health and housing commitments, before the crisis becomes untenable, local groups have told Parliament.

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OTTAWA — Winnipeg methamphetamine users need governments to fast-track mental health and housing commitments, before the crisis becomes untenable, local groups have told Parliament.

The situation has become so desperate, some Winnipeg women addicted to meth are considering getting pregnant in the belief it will fast track their access to treatment, MPs heard Tuesday at the House health committee’s hearings.

Darlene Jackson, head of the Manitoba Nurses Union, told the committee a nurse in one of the city’s neo-natal intensive units reported that women with addictions will get pregnant to jump the queue to get into a treatment bed.

Darlene Jackson, head of the Manitoba Nurses Union, heard a story about women getting pregnant to get into a treatment bed quicker. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)

“We are in desperate need of treatment beds,” she said.

James Favel, the leader of volunteer community safety Bear Clan Patrol, told the committee anti-poverty initiatives such as Ottawa’s national housing strategy need to be fast-tracked to face a growing need.

“We are in a really bad spot, right now. If things don’t change quickly, we’re going to be overrun by this,” he said.

The patrol group reported it found 18 needles on the ground in 2014, which jumped to 300 the next year, then 4,000, then 40,000 so far in 2018.

“Right now, it’s only four years in; we can still change things,” Favel said.

Jackson testified Winnipeg nurses are seeing meth use present itself in patients from across the city, from every economic strata. For example, cocaine users in the suburbs who have unknowingly snorted meth.

She said meth users in crisis are swamping emergency rooms, which the cost-cutting provincial government is already closing, resulting in vulnerable patients living near the Health Sciences Centre being sent elsewhere.

Jackson suggested the stressful environment of hospitals is probably contributing to meth users acting out, which can lead to attacks against medical staff.

“This is a crisis; this is getting bigger every day, and I have nurses who don’t even want to go to work anymore. I actually had a nurse say to me, ‘I know every day when I go to work I’m going to be assaulted; I just pray it’s a verbal assault, not a physical assault.’”

Meanwhile, downtown and North End meth users are being registered in recovery programs located at the St. Boniface or Grace Hospitals, despite lacking the money and wherewithal to make the “monumental” journey to such appointments, Jackson said, floating the idea of a shuttle for such patients.

“When that patient is ready, we need to be there for them, to provide that care.”

Bear Clan Patrol leader James Favel told a parliamentary committee it's easier and cheaper to score drugs than buy groceries in downtown Winnipeg. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Favel said his crew comes across people in mental distress in the middle of the night, who can’t access services until business hours.

Jackson, Favel and grassroots addictions workers from Ontario and Vancouver all agreed Canada needs to expand supervised-injection sites — an idea the Manitoba government has largely rejected.

Bear Clan claims CRA thwarting charity status

The head of Winnipeg’s Bear Clan Patrol claims the Canada Revenue Agency’s onerous rules are thwarting its efforts to fund-raise.

“We’re going to have to fall in line with CRA to get those donations flowing. And then it ties our hands and limits what we’re able to do,” James Favel told the Free Press, moments after testifying to Parliament on Tuesday.

“The good work that we’re doing — they’re trying to stifle that.”

Favel said the volunteer community safety group has been in touch with the tax agency for a year-and-a-half, seeking charitable status so it can get the funds to run programming in the Manitoba capital and across Canada.

“We give temporary job placements to our volunteers, but if we pay our volunteers anything more than $2,000, we’re going to come afoul of CRA,” Favel said. “So they’re telling us that we have to stop doing the things that we’re doing — what we’re focusing on in our communities: trying to alleviate poverty.”

Favel said the CRA’s rules are part of a “system that’s broken,” where recovering drug addicts have limited job opportunities and meagre welfare payments.

The CRA said it couldn’t discuss specific cases, but said charities have to follow specific rules on using donated cash to fund employees

“Whether an employee’s salary is considered an amount spent on charitable activity depends on the duties that the employee performs,” wrote spokesman Étienne Biram.

For example, a charity whose employee spends half their time teaching youth and the rest applying for grants would only be able to claim 50 per cent of paid hours as charitable work.

— Dylan Robertson

In May, the review of the province’s mental health services was accidentally sent to media in draft form, with the final version missing the recommendation for a safe-injection site in Winnipeg.

Jackson accused the provincial Conservatives of burying their head in the sand on the issue, while echoing their criticism of the federal Liberals’ plan for health-care transfers.

Both Jackson and Favel said the province’s new rapid access to addictions medicine clinics will help put a dent in the crisis — though not nearly enough to reverse a growing trend.

As for Jackson’s contention women are having babies in other to get a treatment bed, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said there is no guarantee.

“Pregnancy is a factor that is considered as part of the whole clinical picture, but pregnancy alone does not guarantee a faster intake into treatment,” wrote spokesman Paul Turenne.

The WRHA said it was not aware of women intentionally getting pregnant in order to access treatment. The Addictions Foundation of Manitoba hadn’t heard of that problem either.

In any case, Favel testified the lack of housing and job opportunities leads “stifled” people to shuffle back and forth between jail time and relapsing into addictions on the street.

“The biggest issue that I’m coming across is the poverty in my community,” he said.

The Bear Clan Patrol walks streets in Winnipeg's North End as a way of promoting safety and serving as a deterent to crime. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Help line for meth users

Former meth users in Winnipeg have started an informal peer-support phone line, under the name Jib Stop.

Through a Facebook group and a local number, drug users are encouraged to call for information and referrals to organizations that can help them stop using meth.

The phone number is 204-904-7867 (STOP).

The line is manned by former meth users, and not trained therapists.

— Dylan Robertson

Favel said welfare payments are low and have a requirement to own a bank account, freezing out those most in need. Meanwhile, it’s easier to score crack pipes and drugs downtown than it is to find affordable groceries, he said.

He said that’s partially why Winnipeggers can often find drug users clustered along West Broadway, in the North End and around the Maryland Bridge and Sherbrook Street.

“They congregate like that for their own safety. And we need to provide better for them, so that they don’t have to feel that way.”

Favel said Bear Clan is trying to educate young people about the dangers of drugs and connect them with better uses of their time, but even volunteers can’t find adequate help for their addictions.

“A boy turned 18 on June 25 and graduated from our youth patrol to our adult patrol, and then we buried him on the ninth of August,” Favel said.

His comment left the MPs visibly startled.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca