Controversy on social media has been ongoing after a decision by Williams Lake council to have discussions with Interior Health on safe consumption.
On Oct. 7, Coun. Scott Nelson posted a video asking for the public to give their feedback on whether or not area residents would want to see a "safe injection site" in the community after a motion was brought forward by council to look at discussing a safe consumption site with Interior Health.
This was in response to a presentation by Cianna O'Connor asking council to take steps to address the number of drugs deaths in the community and citing her childhood friend's death due to an overdose.
Her presentation was made at the Oct. 1 committee of the whole meeting, which Nelson did not attend, and council put forward a recommendation to vote on at their Oct. 8 council meeting to discuss the potential for a safe consumption site with Interior Health.
While the city does not have jurisdiction over the province in regards to a safe consumption site, council members were moved to see how they could work with the province to address the number of deaths in the community. The city would only have say on the land use within the city limits and the province does have the power to overrule the municipality due to the province declaring toxic drug deaths a public health emergency.
The recommendation passed, with all of council present voting in favour of moving ahead with discussions, except Coun. Nelson, who was not present at the committee of the whole presentation by O'Connor but voted against the motion to discuss with Interior Health the possibility of supervised consumption to prevent further deaths.
He then posted a video on Oct. 10, questioning the decision by council to enter discussions aimed at preventing more overdose deaths.
"We're getting a safe injection site in Williams Lake, I voted against it," he said in the video, shaking his head.
However, the city would not be the lead on establishing any type of safe use site for illicit drugs.
On Oct. 23, Nelson then posted another video after he had made a notice of motion while he was acting mayor for the Oct. 22 regular council meeting, pulling back the decision to begin the discussions with Interior Health.
In his Oct. 23 video, Nelson suggested the online petition started by Cianna O'Connor requesting the establishment of a safe use site in Williams Lake was being signed by outsiders.
"All my leftist buddies from Willy Wonka Land to Idaho that don't even live in Williams Lake or the surrounding areas are signing these petitions and raising money to try and create an awareness behind a community that they don't even live in," said Nelson in the video.
Coun. Jazmyn Lyons responded to the controversy she was seeing on her own social media page.
"I'm so incredibly disappointed in some of the comments I'm seeing towards the possibility of a safe consumption site," she said, adding while there are many things people don't want to see, however some things are still necessary.
"Is a safe consumption site the answer? No. Is it a bandaid? Yes. But It's a hell of a lot better than doing nothing while we hope and fight for a treatment centre," she said.
Fellow Coun. Joan Flaspohler then shared Lyons' post.
At the time of writing, O'Connor said of the 440 signatures on the petition, 147 signatures in support of a safe injection site, or about 31 per cent, are from Williams Lake and surrounding area, 24.6 per cent are from other parts of B.C. Signatures from other provinces make up another almost 39 per cent and just under one per cent are international, with a handful of signatures being invalid.
O'Connor said while no signatures were received from Idaho or Sweden, both places referenced in Nelson's video, the one per cent from outside of Canada came from Australia, Germany and California. She said she knows at least some of the signatures from outside B.C. are relatives of those who have died in Williams Lake due to illicit drug use.
Online response has been ongoing and social media posts have been going up on a number of community pages, calling for people to have their say and to write to council in opposition or to show support for having a safe consumption site in the community.
A report issued by the B.C. Coroner's Office at the end of October gave the death rate per 100,000 due to unregulated drugs in the Cariboo-Chilcotin as 49.1 for 2023 and 73 for 2022.
City council engaged in another discussion on their motion to have discussions with Interior Health at their Nov. 5 regular council meeting at city hall.
Note: Overdose prevention, safe consumption sites "provide a place where people who use drugs can be safely monitored and treated if they overdose" according to the Interior Health website.
