'There's a lack of political will': Rally held to mark 1 month of Victoria mom's overdose marathons
CTV
A rally was held outside the Ministry of Health building in Victoria Friday to bringing awareness to the overdose crisis in the province.
Around 75 to 100 people were on hand, holding signs, waving to honking cars and displaying photographs of people who lost their lives to toxic drug overdoses.
The rally marked one month since Jessica Michalowski began running a marathon a day around the ministry building, demanding the government to do more to stop overdose deaths in B.C.
The grieving mother, who lost her 25-year-old son Aubrey to a fentanyl overdose in August, wants to see a safe drug supply program put in place, something she believes would have saved her son’s life.
She began her daily 42-kilometre run to get the government’s attention, vowing not to stop until she got a meeting with top politicians.
On Nov. 3, she finally got that meeting with Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Sheila Malcolmson and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
According to Michalowski, she came away from the meeting no further ahead and none the wiser.
“The minister and the doctor were sympathetic and they acknowledged that, although they have done some things, not enough is being done,” she said, adding that Henry admitted that changes were moving at a glacial speed.
The meeting was void of any real concrete plans to deal with the opioid crisis, says the marathon mom, and no promises were made.
