‘I don’t want it anymore’: Harm reduction advocate returning honour from city after overdose prevention site decision

A prominent harm reduction and recovery advocate says he will return a proclamation granted to him by the City of Vancouver.

A harm reduction advocate whose life was repeatedly saved at Vancouver overdose prevention sites says he is returning an honour bestowed on him by Mayor Ken Sim.

The move comes after a tense council meeting during which Sim and his ABC majority voted to “use all tools available” to stop Vancouver Coastal Health from opening the doors of a site downtown.

• Related: Vancouver council votes to fight downtown overdose prevention site

In 2024, Guy Felicella was recognized by the mayor for his advocacy work and May 29 was declared a day in his honour. Felicella was recognized for his advocacy work on both harm reduction and recovery, and for sharing his story of survival and recovery from addiction in order to raise awareness and effect change.

“As much as that proclamation meant to me then, I don’t want it anymore,” Felicella said, in a statement.

“Mayor Sim and his ABC majority have demonstrated that they do not understand what it takes to recover from toxic illicit drugs, or the work required to save lives. That proclamation is not worth the paper it’s printed on. That’s why I’ll be returning it to city hall.”

Previous iterations of an overdose prevention site in the area, which the health authority has said recorded the second-highest number of toxic drug deaths in the city last year, have closed in large part to concern over street disorder, open drug use, and a perceived decrease in public safety.

Sim’s motion to council was announced at a news conference Tuesday morning and tabled as urgent business at that day’s meeting. That meant, as some non-ABC councillors pointed out, there was not an opportunity for speakers to sign up to address the matter. Several attempts to have the motion taken off the table or referred to a future meeting failed.

One of the reasons cited for the motion was a lack of notice to council from the health authority about its plans, and a lack of consultation. Issues with the site’s previous location, including a spike in calls to police, were also raised.

“I do want to be very clear here, Vancouver will not support solutions that failed both the people struggling with addiction and the communities around them. We’ve already seen what happens when facilities are placed without proper planning, oversight or accountability,” the mayor said introducing the motion.

“Continuing to rely on piecemeal measures like this without scale in treatment and recovery options is not good enough.”

• Related: Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim vows to use ‘all tools’ to block overdose prevention site

Felicella took issue, in particular, with Sim and his council colleagues saying overdose prevention sites in the neighbourhood have failed and that opening this one would be doubling down on an unsuccessful experiment.

“I’m shocked at their ignorance. When we reverse an overdose, we are not expecting a different result; we are expecting the same one every time: that the person survives and avoids permanent brain injury. It’s the best we can do in the face of the deadly mix of chemicals in Vancouver’s illicit drug supply,” Felicella said.

“I’ve said it many times: supervised consumption saved my life and recovery gave me my life back. We need both, and it’s insulting to me and thousands of other people whose lives have been saved to say these sites have ‘failed.’”

Vancouver Coastal Health, in a statement announcing the new location for the site, said it has been visited 149,603 times since 2021, and staff have responded to 480 overdoses.

No deaths have been recorded.

Chief Medical Health Officer Patricia Daly said 94 people died from toxic drugs in the area that will be served by the OPS last year, and that the deceased lived in the neighbourhood.

“Vancouver City Centre has one of the highest rates of death in the province. It’s higher than many other places like Prince George, Surrey and Victoria. All those places have overdose prevention sites,” she said.

“There’s a clear need.”

On the matter of consultation, Daly described the health authority’s efforts as extensive but acknowledged there is opposition in the neighbourhood and said she is open to a conversation with the mayor.

As for what she thinks of the motion?

“I hope the mayor would not consider it appropriate to try and prevent us from delivering on an essential health service,” Daly said.

“But I’m more than happy to talk to the mayor to address any concerns that he and council may have about the site.”

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Martin MacMahon