'There's a lack of political will': Rally held to mark 1 month of Victoria mom's overdose marathons

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 Michalofsky 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 Michalofsky, 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.

“I wanted to feel angry,” says Michalofsky. “But actually, I was sad, because it seems like there’s a lack of political will somewhere in the system and I don’t know where it is.”

Though she didn’t feel much support from the government during her meeting, she did find plenty of it at Friday's rally.

Speakers from Moms Stop the Harm and the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition were on hand, along with B.C. Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau and Victoria’s newly elected Mayor Marianne Alto.

“Safe supply is critical,” Alto said to the crowd of supporters.

“It is the one thing we know that will stop people from dying immediately, while we look for all the other complex parts of what we need to do to make sure that people continue to live with their health issues, some of which are led by addiction.”

The new Victoria mayor says she will continue advocacy work on the issue that she started as a councillor, adding she will encourage the new city council to do the same.

Furstenau told the crowd she's frustrated by the NDP government’s seeming lack of motivation to take steps that could save lives.

“I am a mother and there is nothing worse – there is nothing worse than the loss of a child," Furstenau said, becoming emotional as she spoke.

"And every time it happens, we have to feel that pain, and that grief, and be committed to making the changes that need to happen.”

More than 1,500 lives have been lost to toxic drugs in B.C. since January, making overdose the number one cause of death for people aged 19 to 39 in the province.

Michalofsky says she and others demanding change are not going away and will continue to lobby the government for swift change to prevent more deaths.

“Like any grassroots movement, if we all come together and persist together, eventually we won’t be able to be ignored,” she said.

The hour-long rally ended with the marathoner and her supporters doing laps around the Ministry of Health building, vowing not to give up the fight until meaningful changes are made.