TSSU Membership Mobilization Committee (MMC) stands firmly behind Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum, co-founders of the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF), whose homes were raided and who have been arrested by Vancouver Police. DULF’s evidence-based approach to harm reduction is saving lives in the face of the ongoing drug poisoning crisis. Instead of supporting DULF’s mission through meaningful legislation, municipal, provincial, and federal governments are hindering their important work and are abandoning people who use drugs, refusing them basic rights to dignity, autonomy and life itself.

Canada is in the midst of an overdose crisis, disproportionately affecting Indigenous people and members of the working class. Instead of centring compassion and harm reduction, the government is continuing its criminalization and harassment of people who use drugs, causing irrevocable harm to the community. Drug user-led collectives, such as the Compassion Club run by DULF, give life-saving benefits to users such as safe supply and a monitored consumption site. DULF’s Compassion Club reduces overdoses and hospitalizations, and reduces members' reliance on unsafe supply. The arrest of Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum is another act of repression and violence against activists who take direct action against the drug poisoning crisis. This is especially worrying in light of the death of activist Jerry Martin earlier this year, after his arrest and subsequent barring from access to his support community by the VPD.

We call for the release of Eris and Jeremy, a stop to the repression faced by DULF through the VPD, and for meaningful policy that tackles the drug poisoning crisis by centring harm reduction and compassion.