Sault families share their grief on Overdose Awareness Day

A Sault Ste. Marie event for Overdose Awareness Day featured families sharing stories of loss. SOYA, a local group, hosted the gathering. Cory Nordstrom reports

The Sault Ste. Marie community gathered Sunday to mark International Overdose Awareness Day, an event with which attendees wished they had no personal connection.

The event was hosted by Save Our Young Adults (SOYA), a non-profit community hub and support group.

‘We are family’: A theme of unity and support

This year’s event was held under the theme We Are Family. SOYA founder Connie Raynor-Elliott emphasized the critical need for communal support.

“The whole thing about this is support, right?” she said.

“There’s a lot of people crying, a lot of tears. They need to know that they’re not alone because they are not alone. There’s so many of us and I’m grateful that we’re able to have this event.”

A family’s grief: Remembering Justice Breathat

Among the dozens of attendees was the Breathat family, who lost their son and brother, Justice, to an overdose in 2023. He was 26 years old. His father, Chris, shared his grief with CTV News.

“It’s hard. I watched him take his first breath. I’m the one that found him. He didn’t want to die. Life’s not the same anymore,” he said.

The family brought a poster board chronicling Justice’s life in photographs, a practice Chris said “helps a lot.”

“Looking at pictures of his smile, and just how close we were -- it’s special,” added Justice’s sister, Erin.

Finding solace in shared experience

Erin said the yearly gathering provides comfort amidst the pain.

“So many people have passed away from overdoses,” she said.

“It’s sad, but it’s also comforting knowing that there’s other families that have gone through exactly what we’ve gone through and people that are still going through it, what we’ve gone through.”

Following the conclusion of the event at the Memorial Wall, attendees moved to a nearby pavilion where organizations working in addictions and mental health were stationed to explain their services.

Raynor-Elliott stressed the importance of this outreach.

“The education is so, so important. Like, you know, like harm reduction, drug testing. It’s just the education is what’s going to what’s going to save us,” she said.

“The actual agencies, we’re all joining forces like we’re all on the same page that, you know, let’s save lives and let’s talk about it.”

Booths included representatives from Algoma Public Health and the Breton House Rehabilitation Centre.

National overdose response service offers lifeline

Brandon Crack, a line operator with the National Overdose Response Service (NORS), was on hand to explain his organization’s role as a nationwide supervised consumption service.

“We have people calling in to use drugs while on the phone. We sit on a phone call for 40 minutes,” he said.

“So the first 20 minutes, you are able to use the drugs while on the phone, and then the other 20, we sit there and we make sure that, if something happens and we’re able to call for help.”

Crack said operators collect crucial information before a session begins, including the type of drug being used, the caller’s location, and an emergency contact to dispatch 911 if the caller becomes unresponsive.

He said the service is having a significant impact.

“Within the last five years of NORS being open, we’ve had over 22,000 calls, and have saved 240 people from a possible overdose death.”

Local crisis underscores urgency of event

The event was held against a backdrop of a severe local opioid crisis. Raynor-Elliott said since the beginning of 2024, the Algoma District has led or been near the top for opioid death rates in Ontario.

While she expressed relief that the area’s ranking has recently declined, she affirmed a commitment to continuing this positive trend.

Her ultimate hope for the future remains clear, she told CTV News.