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First Annual Women’s Day March set for March 9 in Red Deer

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Friday, March 8, 2019 is International Women’s Day – a day to celebrate the achievements of women while calling for a more gender-balanced world.

To recognize Women’s Day, the Central Alberta Sexual Assault Support Centre (CASASC), Red Deer Welcoming and Inclusive Communities (WIC) and the Central Alberta Immigrant Women’s Association (CAIWA) will be teaming up for the first annual Women’s March Red Deer!

Take part on Saturday, March 9 in an empowering march designed to raise awareness and encourage women to be a visible force for positive change in their communities.

The event will start at 11 a.m. at CAIWA’s Club Café (5019 Ross Street) with a pre-gathering and smudge ceremony. The march will set off from the Café at 11:30 a.m., winding through the downtown core, returning by noon.

All are invited to attend the march – all cultures, abilities, ages, races and gender identities.

Following the march, a potluck lunch and sharing circle will be held. Attendees are welcome to bring food items to share with the group.

The purpose of the march is to not only bring awareness around International Women’s Day, but to connect a diverse group of women from the central Alberta region to create unity and solidarity in the community.

“The theme for Red Deer Women’s March is women healing communities,” said Sadia Khan, march organizer. “Women have always been the heart of healing communities, peace building and a visible force for positive change. We must equip and empower the women, especially the younger generation to be a catalyst for change.”

Attendees are encouraged to bring signage for the march that is empowering, inclusive and respectful. A poster making party will be held on March 3 for those who want to make a sign in advance in a collaborative setting.

The goal and messaging of the Red Deer Women’s March aligns with Women’s March Canada, on the principals that all people of all backgrounds – women and men, gender non-conforming people, indigenous and immigrants, of diverse faiths, abilities and ages – are all deserving of equality, justice, freedom and inclusion.

Organizers plan to make the march an annual event.

Event Details

What: First Annual Women’s March Red Deer
Where: CAIWA’s Club Café (5019 Ross Street, Red Deer)
When: Saturday, March 9, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Why: To bring awareness around women’s issues and in reflection of International Women’s Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

CASASC is a voluntary, non-profit organization serving the Central Alberta region under the direction of a community-based Board of Directors. CASASC educates, supports and empowers individuals, families and communities regarding all aspects of sexual abuse and sexual assault.

 

 

 

 

CAIWA aims to raise the level of awareness of immigrant women and their families in all aspects of Canadian life, and to assist them in achieving their full potential as members of Canadian society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Red Deer Welcoming & Inclusive Communities (WIC) Network  was established following a series of City-led community conversations on building a welcoming and inclusive community related to Indigenous People, immigrants and refugees, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, visible minorities, multi-faith, persons with disabilities, multi-generations, and gender equity; all aspects of diversity.

Community

SPARC Red Deer – Caring Adult Nominations open now!

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Red Deer community let’s give a round of applause to the incredible adults shaping the future of our kids. Whether they’re a coach, neighbour, teacher, mentor, instructor, or someone special, we want to know about them!

Tell us the inspiring story of how your nominee is helping kids grow up great. We will honour the first 100 local nominees for their outstanding contributions to youth development. It’s time to highlight those who consistently go above and beyond!

To nominate, visit Events (sparcreddeer.ca)

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Addictions

‘Harm Reduction’ is killing B.C.’s addicts. There’s got to be a better way

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Susan Martinuk 

B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy

Since 2016, more than 40,000 Canadians have died from opioid drug overdoses — almost as many as died during the Second World War.
Governments, health care professionals and addiction experts all acknowledge that widespread use of opioids has created a public health crisis in Canada. Yet they agree on virtually nothing else about this crisis, including its causes, possible remedies and whether addicts should be regarded as passive victims or accountable moral agents.

Fuelled by the deadly manufactured opioid fentanyl, Canada’s national drug overdose rate stood at 19.3 people per 100,000 in 2022, a shockingly high number when compared to the European Union’s rate of just 1.8. But national statistics hide considerable geographic variation. British Columbia and Alberta together account for only a quarter of Canada’s population yet nearly half of all opioid deaths. B.C.’s 2022 death rate of 45.2/100,000 is more than double the national average, with Alberta close behind at 33.3/100,00.

In response to the drug crisis, Canada’s two western-most provinces have taken markedly divergent approaches, and in doing so have created a natural experiment with national implications.

B.C. has emphasized harm reduction, which seeks to eliminate the damaging effects of illicit drugs without actually removing them from the equation. The strategy focuses on creating access to clean drugs and includes such measures as “safe” injection sites, needle exchange programs, crack-pipe giveaways and even drug-dispensing vending machines. The approach goes so far as to distribute drugs like heroin and cocaine free of charge in the hope addicts will no longer be tempted by potentially tainted street drugs and may eventually seek help.

But safe-supply policies create many unexpected consequences. A National Post investigation found, for example, that government-supplied hydromorphone pills handed out to addicts in Vancouver are often re-sold on the street to other addicts. The sellers then use the money to purchase a street drug that provides a better high — namely, fentanyl.

Doubling down on safe supply, B.C. recently decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. The resulting explosion of addicts using drugs in public spaces, including parks and playgrounds, recently led the province’s NDP government to attempt to backtrack on this policy — though for now that effort has been stymied by the courts.

According to Vancouver city councillor Brian Montague, “The stats tell us that harm reduction isn’t working.” In an interview, he calls decriminalization “a disaster” and proposes a policy shift that recognizes the connection between mental illness and addiction. The province, he says, needs “massive numbers of beds in treatment facilities that deal with both addictions and long-term mental health problems (plus) access to free counselling and housing.”

In fact, Montague’s wish is coming true — one province east, in Alberta. Since the United Conservative Party was elected in 2019, Alberta has been transforming its drug addiction policy away from harm reduction and towards publicly-funded treatment and recovery efforts.

Instead of offering safe-injection sites and free drugs, Alberta is building a network of 10 therapeutic communities across the province where patients can stay for up to a year, receiving therapy and medical treatment and developing skills that will enable them to build a life outside the drug culture. All for free. The province’s first two new recovery centres opened last year in Lethbridge and Red Deer. There are currently over 29,000 addiction treatment spaces in the province.

This treatment-based strategy is in large part the work of Marshall Smith, current chief of staff to Alberta’s premier and a former addict himself, whose life story is a testament to the importance of treatment and recovery.

The sharply contrasting policies of B.C. and Alberta allow a comparison of what works and what doesn’t. A first, tentative report card on this natural experiment was produced last year in a study from Stanford University’s network on addiction policy (SNAP). Noting “a lack of policy innovation in B.C.,” where harm reduction has become the dominant policy approach, the report argues that in fact “Alberta is currently experiencing a reduction in key addiction-related harms.” But it concludes that “Canada overall, and B.C. in particular, is not yet showing the progress that the public and those impacted by drug addiction deserve.”

The report is admittedly an early analysis of these two contrasting approaches. Most of Alberta’s recovery homes are still under construction, and B.C.’s decriminalization policy is only a year old. And since the report was published, opioid death rates have inched higher in both provinces.

Still, the early returns do seem to favour Alberta’s approach. That should be regarded as good news. Society certainly has an obligation to try to help drug users. But that duty must involve more than offering addicts free drugs. Addicted people need treatment so they can kick their potentially deadly habit and go on to live healthy, meaningful lives. Dignity comes from a life of purpose and self-control, not a government-funded fix.

Susan Martinuk is a senior fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of the 2021 book Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health Care Crisis. A longer version of this article recently appeared at C2CJournal.ca.

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