Hamilton residents share raw, heartfelt stories about drug use 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.

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.