#onpol

[aeolianblues]

Seeing as how polls are in 10 days, here's a slogan the other parties can have on me for free: hey Ontario, why so blue? Vote for someone else, let's fix this mess! You can have that one for free, just literally do not put Ford back in power goddddd

[desireppath]

It’s international overdose awareness day (August 31st) so today is a good day to learn about your local harm reduction services! Since the beginning of the pandemic, overdose rates have skyrocketed. In Ontario where I work there has been a 79% increase in overdose related deaths, which can be largely attributed to people using alone (x). Similar figures can be found for the United States. The supply has changed too. We are seeing more frequently fentanyl cut with benzodiazepines, a combination with a significantly higher fatality rate. Those hit the hardest have been people who are homeless with 1 in 6 deaths being someone experiencing homelessness (x). If you aren’t educated on how to identify and prevent overdose deaths now is the time to learn.

Naloxone (generic) or Narcan (brand) is a fast-acting drug that temporarily reverses the effects of an overdose, restoring breathing and providing time for life saving intervention. Naloxone is used to respond to only opioid-related overdoses such as Fentanyl, Heroin, Morphine, and Codeine. Naloxone administered to someone not having an overdose has no effect and is completely harmless. It generally comes in two forms, a nasal spray and an injectable. If you can, have a naloxone kit in your home, car, bag, or workplace.

In Canada you can get naloxone at almost any pharmacy for free (or free with a prescription) provided you have a health card. The pharmacist will give you a short demonstration on how to administer naloxone as well. Multiple harm reduction agencies exist across Canada and also supply naloxone as well as other free supplies such as needles, alcohol swabs, pipes, and sometimes testing kits to verify the purity of a drug. If your province does not have free naloxone at pharmacies, majority of needle exchange and harm reduction services will have it for free.

Alberta

Grande Prairie & Fort McMurray: Northreach Society

Hinton: Options HIV West Yellowhead

Edmonton: Streetworks

Red Deer: Turning Point Society

Calgary: Safeworks Harm Reduction Program

Calgary & Medicine Hat: HIV Community Link

British Columbia

I would list them all but there’s more than 1000 harm reduction programs in the province. This handy map can help you locate the one nearest to you.

Manitoba

Street Connections provides a list of naloxone and needle exchange programs.

The Manitoba Harm Reduction Network

New Brunswick

Fredericton, Miramichi and Bathurst: AIDS New Brunswick|SIDA Noveau-Brunswick

Saint John: Avenue B Harm Reduction

Moncton: Ensemble

Newfoundland and Labrador

St. John’s: AIDS Community of Newfoundland and Labrador (ACNL)

St. John’s: St. John’s Women’s Centre

Nova Scotia

Halifax: Mainline Needle Exchange

Truro: Northern Healthy Connections Society

Cape Breton: Ally Centre of Cape Breton

Ontario

The Ontario Harm Reduction Network has a list of harm reduction programs.

Prince Edward Island

Charlottetown: PEERS Alliance

Charlottetown, Montague, Souris, Summerside, O’Leary & Albertson: Needle Exchange Programs

Quebec

Montreal: Cactus Montreal

Montreal: L’Association Québécoise pour la promotion de la santé des personnes utilisatrices de drogues (AQPSUD)

Saskatchewan

Saskatoon: Prairie Harm Reduction

Multiple harm reduction programs can be found across Saskatchewan here

Yukon

Whitehorse: Blood Ties Four Directions Centre

This is by no means a definitive list of all the harm reduction organizations in Canada. If you can’t find a harm reduction service in your community many HIV and AIDS organizations, First Nations community and friendship centres and homeless shelters carry these supplies or can direct you to the proper organizations. As well call your local public health organization for more information.

[spoogliedoo]

Lengthy info/media thread of what happened in Trinity Bellwood's Park park in Toronto

Around 4am today (22/06/2021), hundreds of officers from the Toronto Police Service, city workers and private security descended upon a houseless encampment located in Trinity Bellwood's Park. The residents were essentially given an ultimatum that they could either pack up and leave within the hour, relinquish their belongings and be put-up in a shelter-hotel, or be detained.

Everything's going to be collapsed below, as this is going to be a lot of media.

Residents within the neighbourhood began occupying the park immediately to prevent the residents from being evicted.

City workers erected a blue fence which has been manned by the private security agency hired. The original group of protestors are largely trapped inside the perimeter. Press and legal observers were denied access to the interior of the park.

As a crowd began to grow outside of the fence, TPS intentionally trampled the crowd from horseback in order to prevent the fence from being knocked over.

The crowd grew to a couple hundred, as residents have been coming in droves to show solidarity and disrupt the operation.

Cops armed with AR-15s are patrolled the perimeter, alongside unmarked vans who are id-ing the protestors.

Tear gas, pepper spray and rubber munitions had all been deployed, and "several" arrests have been made. Among the arrests were a pregnant woman, and this man who's being carried from the park haphazardly and unconscious.

Construction equipment brought in to bulldoze the camp.

City Twitter account going on damage-control for arresting houseless people. Don't have images of them, but the TPS also deployed drones for ID-ing protestors.

The residents of the park have officially asked the community to stand-down, and are cooperating with the city. If you're local, do not head down atm, as the TPS are still doing sweeps on horseback, and you will probably be detained if you enter the park tonight.

[gothic-punk]

Look at this stupidity

Stop being stupid

[stevemaclellan]

New study finds ‘strikingly high’ rates of cancer in some Ontario industrial cities

A new study has found high rates of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in Canadian border towns, including Sarnia, Ont.

Overall, Sarnia had about 1.5 times more cases of AML than the national average, but the frequency of cases was even higher in the north side of the city and neighbouring Village of Point Edward.

The province of Prince Edward Island was also identified as a hot spot.

“People want to think that they’re being protected, that the government is properly regulating industrial emissions and what this study is showing is that they’re not,” MacDonald, an environmental engineer, told Global News in an interview.

[gothic-punk]

Doug Ford Health Care

[gothic-punk]

Causes event in Toronto, ON, Canada by Decolonize Canadian Schools and 3 others on Friday, August 2 2019 with 1.9K people interested and 377 people...

Close the Camps - Toronto Protest Friday, August 2, 2019 at 10:30 AM – 2 PM @ The US Consulate Toronto

Immediate action needs to be taken against the concentration camps currently operating in the United States. Migrants are being held captive in inhumane and cruel conditions. Facing overcrowding, lack of access to proper food, clean water and medical attention.

We must do everything we can to show the US government that NEVER AGAIN IS NOW!

[gothic-punk]

Woman handcuffed during demonstration at Queen's Park

A demonstration hoping to call attention to missing and murdered Indigenous women led to a woman being put in handcuffs Monday afternoon. A video captured of the incident shows a woman in handcuffs surrounded by three Queen’s Park security guards. The person filming, Nanook Gordon Fareal, claims the woman was handcuffed for posting a sign …

A demonstration hoping to call attention to missing and murdered Indigenous women led to a woman being put in handcuffs Monday afternoon.

A video captured of the incident shows a woman in handcuffs surrounded by three Queen’s Park security guards.

The person filming, Nanook Gordon Fareal, claims the woman was handcuffed for posting a sign with tape on a John A. MacDonald statue outside the legislature.

The woman is let out of the handcuffs by the end of the video, but a subsequent Facebook live stream shows three police cars and several officers at the scene.

Most of the officers left within minutes of arriving at the protest, but several stayed behind.

Fareal said they were protesting peacefully at the park and having a picnic.

She said her friend Keitha hung up the sign and was then placed in handcuffs.

Toronto police said no arrests were made at Queen’s Park.

Queen’s Park security had no one available to comment on the incident.