Why no SCS on the reserve to help addicts?
By Letter to the Editor on June 19, 2021.
Editor:
The CMO for the Blood Reserve has confirmed what most Lethbridge residents have known for sometime: she stated in the local news that the reason that the Blood reserve experienced 91 deaths last year is because the SCS in Lethbridge closed.
Personally I do not believe that, unless of course the CMO is saying that while the SCS was open, there was a conscious effort to get the addicts off the Blood Reserve and send them to the Lethbridge SCS.
If that is what she is saying, then one wonders why she did not immediately call for an SCS on the Blood Reserve? Obviously the people that were attracted to the Lethbridge SCS went back to the Blood reserve.
When she saw that, why did she not open or cause to be open an SCS on the reserve that would have solved the problem?
It’s a building with booths, Naloxone kits, with people ensuring the addict does not OD. How hard can that be to arrange?
Dennis Bremner
Lethbridge
-1
Absolutely correct Dennis. Putting the SCS in the City only served to attract those people away from their homes, families and support services, and they ultimately become homeless here. Things go downhill for them from there.
But what’s the solution? The addicts on the reserve are being dealt drugs while in detox…..
Two things are happening simultaneously. First, the Blood/Kainai are calling for action to save the addicts from dying. That has put pressure on the Chief Medical Officer (CMO)
So without quite realizing it she got on the Local News and reported she was not doing her job by trying to shift the blame to Lethbridge.
The CMO for the Kanai/Blood job is to ensure the health and well being of her people. Which means its her responsibility to ensure services that are lacking on the Reserve are arranged.
Stating that deaths occurred because the Lethbridge SCS closed, demonstrates that she was more than willing to see the Blood Addicts leave the reserve and let Lethbridge do her job, for her! So she recognized the problem and secondly, knew that when the SCS closed in Lethbridge the addicts would go back to the Reserve and this would make her responsible again!
She did nothing (even though she recognized the impact of the SCS closing) and now hopes that her people do not realize she is not doing her job by blaming Lethbridge for her inability to get things done!
This is harsh, but perhaps this Lethbridge City Council will finally understand this partnership is a one way deal at the moment? Perhaps the Blood Residents will now see how their leadership is once again more than willing to shift their children off of the Reserve so someone else (whitey) can look after them! I thought they were done with that, but maybe not!
There was an SCS on Blood Reserve that opened before the SCS in Lethbridge did, and closed months before the one in Lethbridge. It was closed from lack of use.
Not one person travelled into Lethbridge specifically for the SCS there. Most of the people on the street who are drug users were born and raised in Lethbridge.
Recently, a temporary homeless shelter was opened and closed on the Blood Reserve as its seasonal and there was a drop in numbers from Alpha House in Lethbridge to the shelter on Reserve.
Most people don’t know that Blood Tribe members do have a lot of services for them on Reserve.
People have to get used to the idea that there are going to be natives in town who just live there. If anything, there should be more.
Not one person??? How do you know this?. Most of them did indeed come here from the reserve, which is why we have a huge homeless problem. They follow the drugs. Where ever there’s a SCS, someone is dealing drugs.
As for services on the reserve, it was recently revealed that clients at the reserve detox were being dealt drugs while in detox. Like, really?
Buck has previously claimed ARCHES does intake questions on where the people come from and what brought them here, so I suspect that’s where Buck is getting the so called data from.
First, as if anyone in their right mind would trust the data from a corrupt organization that has a vested interest in claiming no one from outside of Lethbridge was attracted to their drug clubhouse. The absolute last thing they would want to admit is that they’re attracting addicts to Lethbridge.
Second, as if anyone in their right mind doesn’t realize that under those circumstances, most addicts will claim they’re from Lethbridge even if they’re not. They’re going to be thinking, “Why am I being asked this”? “Will I stop getting free stuff if I say I’m not from Lethbridge”? “Will they try to send me back if I say I’m not from Lethbridge?”, etc, etc. So ya, most will just say they’re from Lethbridge even if they’re not.
Fourth, the Kainai Nation themselves have stated that approximately 70% of the scs users were their kids from the Blood Reserve. This can also be confirmed by the massive influx of young indigenous addicts following the opening of the scs.
Fifth, since the scs opened, there have been countless posts on social media from blood reserve parents and grandparents seeking assistance in finding their addicted kids on the streets of Lethbridge. The answer is always “They’ll be at the scs”, or “they were found at the scs”.
Buck also has claimed that “some of the addicts at the scs came to Lethbridge for work or school“. I’m not joking. Buck seriously believes this.
REF: https://www.mylethbridgenow.com/19372/blood-tribe-heavily-affected-by-closure-of-lethbridge-supervised-consumption-site-says-doctor/
So UncleBuck, why would the CMO say that the reason they lost 91 people is because the Lethbridge SCS closed? Unless of course, people from the Reserve left the Reserve to come to Lethbridge to use the SCS and were still residents of the Blood?
If you want to insist that anyone that is Blood by birth who lives in Lethbridge is considered Blood and is part of the “91” why are all these people Homeless? I rather enjoy your interpretation and now Dr Tailfeathers interpretation of what is a “Resident of Lethbridge”.
If a Blood Member dies in Calgary on the Streets, are they are a resident of Calgary? Does the 91 deaths include the Blood Members who live in the DTES Vancouver too?
At what point UncleBuck will your opinion take on some consistency? There is a clear path to understanding what is going on, but you continually dance around it! The Blood really does not care where there addicts go, as long as they don’t stay on the Reserve and Bug them! Not because they do not care but because they do not have ENOUGH services PERIOD!
If they did have the services there would be no reason for them to come to Lethbridge to live in Galt Gardens or London Park, would there?
So call a spade a spade, the Blood is NOT providing sufficient services to THEIR Addicts and so they leave. If the Blood Police are stopping enough drugs entering the Reserve, they will leave to find the drugs. So they come to Lethbridge. You then call them “Residents of Lethbridge” to hide the fact that the Blood is saying one thing and doing another!
You then suggest like TailFeathers, somehow its “Lethbridges Fault” , and of course gullible people like Spearman fall for the story, hook line and sinker!
So a Blood Member that leaves the Reserve and rents a room in a drug house here in Lethbridge, or sleeps in a Park, by your definition is a Resident?
According to you Lethbridge should then decide to build an infrastructure to solve the drug problem which coincidentally all seem to be Blood Members because some how that is our responsibility. Perhaps Uncle Buck you should now take Dr TailFeathers number of 91 (a number never given to us before, which is a valuable number that she should have NEVER MENTIONED) then take total number of People that Died of OD in Lethbridge area in 2020 (NOT the entire South Zone which also includes numerous other communities) . Now subtract the 91 to find out the percentage of deaths that are Indigenous? Suddenly, the “its not just an indigenous problem” suddenly really really rings hollow and Dr TailFeathers gave us the proof!
Suddenly the Bourgue, Manning (SCS) numbers (conjob) are what they are 100% BS! So Lethbridge has a problem because the Blood cannot look after its own Members. The members leave and go to Lethbridge where it is expected (whitey) care for their problem! Lethbridge is expected to suffer the crime, thefts, and just smile and give the Addict “Respect”. Whitey gets to feed, clothe, house, and provide clean needles and soon clean drugs, for the Nation within a Nations People and suddenly that makes them “Residents? Didn’t whitey decide to treat your children once before, how did that go, UncleBuck?
You can not solve a problem unless you identify it for what it is. You and others can pussyfoot around the issue and pretend its not an indigenous problem and of course we will continue not to solve the problem! We can do the “Partnership BS and OKI stuff, but the bottom line is, Lethbridge has a problem because the Nation within a Nation avoids doing there job so they can have WHITEY do their job for them!
Dr Tailfeathers did herself no favor by identifying how many people died that were indigenous. I know why she did it, it was to try to deflect and allude to a Lethbridge Failure but what she really did was identify its an Indigenous issue and she has no clue how to solve it, even though the solution is obvious, so deflects!
Open an SCS in all communities within Blood/Kainai and perhaps she can stop reporting big numbers and not blame someone else for HER Failures!
The Sage Clan is trying to get the Homeless in both Parks to “come back to the Blood, why would they bother if they were not Blood Members UncleBuck? So with the Sage Clan trying to move the Blood Members back to the Blood, and Mothers on the Blood screaming that the Blood Leaders are not doing there job, suddenly Dr TailFeathers decides its Lethbridges Fault to try to protect her position!
What I am tired of is people not facing the issue and doing THERE PART in solving the problem. Instead, the appearance is, if we do little to nothing for our people, maybe whitey will solve the problem for us?
Why does this matter, I have no doubt in 10 years from now some Tribe Leader will stand up and say it was Whitey’s fault that so many Indigenous Addicts died because “they did not do enough”, when it was their negligence not whitey’s!
I am a card carrying Metis, so does that make me a Racist when I am Indigenous and white, and say these things? Or am I calling a Spade a Spade in the hopes that you “Socially Acceptable, Politically Correct”, get a brain and stop making excuses?
Also note that Buck said, “There was an SCS on the Blood Reserve that opened before the SCS in Lethbridge did, and closed months before the one in Lethbridge. It was closed from lack of use.
This is the a classic example of lying by omission to try and prove an assertion. In this case, the assertion that the “scs didn’t attract addicts”
By stating that hardly any addicts used the reserve’s scs, Buck is trying to imply that the addicts didn’t want it, so there is no reason they would be attracted to the Lethbridge scs (thus seemingly proving Buck’s assertion that the Lethbridge scs didn’t attract addicts from the reserve). All that might true depending on the reason the reserve addicts didn’t use their scs, but of course, Buck deliberately omitted the reason, because the reason goes against Buck’s assertion.
According to the Kainai nation themselves, the addicts didn’t use their scs because of fear and stigma, not because they didn’t want to use it. However, there was no stigma, and no need for fear at the Lethbridge scs. In fact, the Lethbridge scs offered free snacks, party packs, and free drug paraphernalia. The icing on the cake, is that the Lethbrddge scs had numerous dealers right outside of their door. All of these perks came with no fear and no repercussions (which is the direct opposite of the reserve’s scs).
So ya, the assertion that the Lethbridge scs didn’t attract addicts from the reserve is ludicrous on many levels. So ludicrous that only someone with an extreme bias would state such a thing. Someone like an ex-scs employee. Cough-Buck-Cough.
Something does not add up and I am becoming extremely p*ssed off again. So lets see the real numbers that Dr TailFeathers published and compare her RANT to actual numbers.
Go Here https://www.alberta.ca/substance-use-surveillance-data.aspx#jumplinks-4
Click the top link which is First Nations
Select the top report which is current year 2021
Open the PDF
Go to Page 9
There were 94 deaths when the report was made up. So the 91 increased by 3 while the report was being finalized
There were 13 deaths in Lethbridge during the period that she says that the reason there were 91 deaths of Blood Members is the Lethbridge SCS closed down?
Yet when you look at the 2019 report when the SCS was open
by following the same links only selecting the second report down instead of the top one and scroll down to page 9 of that report it states that 16 died that were FN
So what exactly is she talking about? SCS was closed 13 died in Lethbridge
SCS was open and 16 died in Lethbridge that year. So how has it got ANYTHING to do with Lethbridge other then to deflect from the fact she cannot read her own reports and needs a scapegoat?
Not sure if these links will work for you but these are the opened PDF files using the links above.
2021 report Pg 9 says 13 died in Lethbridge of her “94”
Alberta Opioid Response Surveillance Report: First Nations People in Alberta (June 2021)
2019 report Pg9 says 16 died in Lethbridge when SCS is open
https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/38768870-bab0-4d11-af5c-032f8e8a0ebb/resource/1aca4307-4c68-4f31-80c4-5ddf73c0abe7/download/health-alberta-opioid-response-surveillance-report-first-nations-people-2019-12.pdf