Human rights complaint filed against Regina-based Street Worker’s Advocacy Project

A former resident of the Raising Hope Moving Families Forward program, run by the Street Worker’s Advocacy Project (SWAP), has filed a Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (SHRC) complaint against SWAP alleging discrimination against her disability.

Twenty-seven-year-old Shelby Curtis alleges that in September 2020, she was denied re-entry into Raising Hope in part because she defended her desire to use cannabis as a form of harm reduction.

The program, which Curtis first accessed in 2019, provides housing to new and expectant mothers who suffer from substance use disorder.

“I kind of just stuck to myself and I went more and more and more downhill,” Curtis told Global News of the months following the alleged denial of services.

“It went to the point of me losing my house. I got evicted in March of this year. it caused me to lose my baby at one point for a month.

“I was using all the time again. I just wasn’t being my authentic self, not at all.”

Now, months later, Curtis said she’s found stable housing and is on the road to recovery “after seven years of using street drugs”.

But she said the road to this point hasn’t been easy.

In her submission to the SHRC, Curtis detailed how during her first experience with Raising Hope, which began in September 2019 shortly before her second daughter was born, she sought out a cannabis prescription after initially being prescribed dextroamphetamine to help her cope with ongoing urges to use.

“I felt very triggered by this pharmaceutical drug because it is also a stimulant, very addictive, and chemically similar to crystal meth,” she wrote in the submission.

“I was terrified and felt like I was going to have a full blown relapse.”

She said that she was then put in contact with a Regina doctor who prescribed her cannabis on the basis of using it for harm reduction. She said it was very effective towards that goal.

“I felt so relieved because I already knew that THC really helped me to stay away from harder drugs. It definitely keeps me on track. It literally helps me be more clear minded,” wrote Curtis of how cannabis helps her cope with substance use disorder.

“I can talk to myself. I can actually be in the moment. It’s not just my subconscious running wild and living my days for me. I can slow down my thoughts. I can tell myself that everything’s going to be okay.”

Curtis said that at the time, her prescription was approved by then-Raising Hope manager Wendy Lavalley. Shortly later, Curtis said she “felt so healthy and strong,” she decided to leave the program.

She said, though, that the “next six months were rocky” and that decided she again needed help to cope with her substance use disorder. That’s when she reached back out to Raising Hope.

She said that during her application process in September of 2020, she was told by the new Raising Hope program manager, Danica Escobar, that the program now has a policy banning the use of THC by residents.

Regardless, she said that she left the intake believing she was going to again be accepted.

“I felt very relieved that I was being accepted back into the program,” Curtis wrote.

After the meeting, she emailed current SWAP executive director Barb Lawrence, who took the position after Curtis’ first Raising Hope stint concluded, regarding her cannabis prescription.

She requested a meeting, explaining “that THC provided the least harmful side effects and had the most benefits” for her but said she didn’t hear back.

“I felt like another loser drug addict that did not even deserve a response. I felt pathetic and undeserving,” Curtis wrote, adding that a fellow former resident of Raising Hope also emailed Lawrence without answer.

She said that a few days after her intake meeting, she was informed by Escobar that she would not be allowed back into the program because her daughter had become to old to meet the program criteria, and because she had been away for over four months.

Curtis said, though, that she knows of at least two other Raising Hope residents who weren’t pregnant and did not have a child under four months old.

“I felt like I had been totally blindsided and misled and that it was easy to do that to me because I was just another drug addict that no-one cares about,” Curtis wrote, emphasizing her belief that her desire to use cannabis contributed to her denial.

“It is well-known that SWAP’s Executive Director, Barb Lawrence is absolutely against medicinal cannabis. It is confusing because they support and allow the use of methadone as harm reduction medication but will not allow cannabis.”

Global News attempted to contact SWAP Executive Director Barb Lawrence, who is the named respondent in the complaint, for a response but has not yet heard back.

According to its 211 Saskatchewan listing, the Raising Hope Moving Families Forward program “offers housing, programming and various supports 24 hours/day, 7 days/week for pregnant or early post partum women who struggle with substance abuse issues as well as a number of other issues including homelessness or substandard/dangerous housing, Child Protection concerns or prior involvement, and domestic violence.”

Eligibility, according to the webpage, includes “pregnant or early post-partum women with substance abuse issues and possibly other issues including child protection concerns or prior involvement, substandard/dangerous housing or homelessness, domestic violence.”

Section 12 of Saskatchewan’s human rights code reads in part that “no person shall, on the basis of a prohibited ground, discriminate against a person or class of persons with respect to any accommodation, service or facility to which the public is customarily admitted or that is offered to the public.”

The complaint has been formally accepted by the SHRC and the complaint process is now underway.

This past March, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Social Services, which contracts and provides funding to SWAP, contracted advisory firm MNP to complete a third-party program and board governance review of the non-profit. The review was announced amid calls for the removal of SWAP managers from a group of former employees as well as the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations.

A ministry spokesperson said Wednesday that the review was completed in June 2021 and “provided guidance around policies, procedures and practices; management and workplace culture; and board oversight.”

“The ministry is working closely with SWAP’s board and leadership on ways the organization can continue to strengthen their Raising Hope Moving Families Forward program for the benefit of the vulnerable families they serve,” said Assistant Deputy Minister Tobie Eberhardt.

“The ministry is looking forward to continuing our work with SWAP. They are a unique community-based organization with many board members having lived experience, bringing that perspective to the work they do to serve difficult to reach families with complex challenges.

“As the ministry and SWAP move forward with next steps, we are keeping the needs of the families being served by Raising Hope at the forefront of our decision-making.”

Eberhardt declined to comment on the SHRC complaint.

The first step in the human rights complaint process involves mediation directed by the SHRC.

If a resolution is not reached, the SHRC can undertake an investigation, after which the matter can be referred to the Court of Queen’s Bench for final hearing.

Regardless of the outcome of the complaint, Curtis said she hopes speaking up can help improve conditions at Raising Hope for other residents.

“I would never go back there, I wouldn’t, but I want to see everything changed for women in the future because nobody deserves to go through that.”