Activists will be staging an eye catching demonstration in Vancouver’s Oppenheimer Park on Friday with hopes of keeping the spotlight on B.C.’s deadly overdose crisis.
Hammered into the grass at the park will be 2,224 wooden crosses, many of them painted with names of overdose victims.
“We decided to count the number of confirmed overdose deaths over the last three years in B.C. and use that as our platform, up until the last Coroners Report, I believe that number has increased,” said Nesa, one of the front line workers involved in the installation.
Nesa says the event is called “20 years of murder,” a name she says her group drew from what they see as inaction on the part of the federal government.
“If drug prohibition wasn’t an active legislation within Canada, folks would have been more supported in accessing uncontaminated substances and practicing self-determination,” she said.
“This is a call to the federal government, even beyond the boundaries of Vancouver proper, we are noticing that there is a lack of service and support but that’s not to speak ill of the services that have come up in Surrey.”
The event starts at 11 a.m. on Friday.