Looking deep into Canada’s opioid crisis: InFocus

You usually find Karyn Pugliese chasing down politicians on Parliament Hill.

But for the past few months, she’s been digging into Canada’s opioid crisis.

This week on APTN News InFocus, Pugliese and associate producer Raven Brascoupe join me for a behind-the-scenes look at their ongoing investigation.

“You could explore this from the crime issue, like the gangs and the selling of drugs,” Pugliese said. “I wanted to explore it as a medical issue. Because of the stats, First Nations seem to be more vulnerable to opioid addiction–and we ask, why? It could be because of things that we know, like historic trauma from residential schools, the child welfare system; that could very well be true.

“But are there other things as well?”

After interning for APTN News in Ottawa, Brascoupe jumped on the opportunity to join the project.

“Coming on as a new journalist on such a big topic, I’m pretty grateful for it,” Brascoupe said. “[From] living with the lived experience to getting to research it and talk with Karyn every day about it, what we know, what we’re learning, has been really good.”

Over the past few months, the duo has connected with people across the country with firsthand addiction experience. They’ve been on the ground with frontline workers and on the phone with leaders to find out what is and isn’t working.

“What I’m hearing from frontline workers is that there are two values to safe supply. One is that it does save lives because you can watch and prevent an overdose right there,” Pugliese said. “Now, we have people in Ottawa walking down the streets, trying to find people who are using. They’re being chased out of the downtown area so it’s harder to find out where people are gathering.”

“Manitoba is doing quite an incredible job. I was talking to one chief from Manto Sipi Cree Nation, Chief Yellowback,” Brascoupe said. “They have FNSOs, First Nation Safety Officers. They set up checkpoints, and they check people who come in to make sure they’re not bringing illicit drugs or alcohol. And there’s a bylaw they worked on so they could implement these laws.”

Through their investigative reporting, Pugliese and Brascoupe hope to cut through the noise and start having real conversations about how to move forward.

“I don’t know that we’re going to come out of this and say there’s a solution. But I know there is a lot of debate about what path to take,” Pugliese said. “I wanted to better understand how to separate political arguments that are purely political and ideological from the health science.”

Have a story for this project? Reach out to Karyn at [email protected] or Raven at [email protected].