Overdose activist challenges Vancouver byelection candidates to visit injection site

The organizer who spearheaded Vancouver’s pop-up injection site is challenging candidates in Vancouver’s upcoming city council byelection to come down and visit the site.

Sarah Blyth with the Overdose Prevention Society says as of yet, she’s not seen any of the three declared candidates for council at the facility.

She says without actually seeing conditions and meeting the people — those fighting addiction, and those fighting to save them — politicians can do little more than pay lip service to the problem.

“I think if you’re in politics and one of the biggest issues is the crisis where people are dying in all of our different communities, the biggest thing is get down and talking to the people one-on-one and just seeing how it’s affecting the community and what you can do to change things,” Blyth said.

WATCH: Trudeau pledges to fight opioid crisis after tour of DTES

1:41 Trudeau pledges to fight opioid crisis after tour of DTES

So far, the Green Party has nominated community activist Pete Fry, and the OneCity party has nominated former City of Vancouver homeless advocate Judy Graves. Homeless activist Jean Swanson is running as an independent, but may yet earn the endorsement of COPE.

“I want to see all of them. I want them to learn how to use narcan, I want them to see our heroes in action, I want them to see what the people are going through. It’s very unbelievable and surreal. So they need to have a very good grasp of that in order to talk about it in council meetings. ”

Blyth added that she’d like to see an all candidates debate specifically focused on the overdose crisis, which she said should be among the top issues facing candidates this fall.

Vancouver is holding the October 14 byelection to fill the council vacancy left by Vision Vancouver Councillor Geoff Meggs when he resigned to become Premier John Horgan’s chief of staff.

The byelection nomination period officially opens on Tuesday.

NPA Park Commissioner Sarah Kirby-Yung announced last week she would not seek her party’s nomination, while Vision Vancouver says it will unveil it’s candidate by early September.