A prominent harm reduction and recovery advocate says he’s returning an honour bestowed upon him by Vancouver’s mayor amid a political battle over a proposed overdose prevention site (OPS) in the city’s downtown core.
Two years ago, Mayor Ken Sim proclaimed May 29, 2024, as “Guy Felicella Day,” citing Felicella’s education and advocacy work on harm reduction and recovery amid the toxic drug crisis.
But after Sim announced his intention to try and block Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) from reopening the Thomus Donaghy OPS at a new downtown site, Felicella says the mayor’s words and actions don’t match up and that he’s giving the proclamation back.
“This award is disingenuous and doesn’t mean anything any more,” Felicella told CBC News on Wednesday.
“I don’t like being made a prop.”
An OPS is a legally approved facility in which trained staff watch drug users consume illicit substances to help prevent overdoses.
Felicella has become a prominent voice in the B.C. drug policy debate, sharing his own story of addiction and recovery as a public speaker and as a peer clinical advisor with the B.C. Centre for Substance Use.
He has frequently argued that he would not have survived the toxic drug supply long enough to enter recovery without access to supervised consumption services.
He accused Sim and his ABC slate of councillors of spreading misinformation, and said they’ve shown they don’t understand what it takes to recover from drug addiction.
“I mean Ken Sim saying [overdose prevention sites] are a failed experiment, which is absolutely incorrect … they’ve saved countless lives,” he said.
“Tell that failed experiment to my three kids that you met at city hall.”
Sim declined an interview request, instead issuing a written statement.
“Regardless of [Felicella’s] decision to return the proclamation, we remain grateful for his past work,” the statement reads. “However, he is free to do what he wishes with his copy of the proclamation.”
The statement adds that Sim is pushing for a change in provincial health policy that delivers involuntary treatment beds and more recovery services.
Why VCH says an overdose prevention site is needed in downtown Vancouver
The presence of an overdose prevention site in downtown Vancouver has been a flashpoint for years, with some neighbours and businesses arguing it has been a magnet for crime and street disorder.
The facility first opened at the intersections of Seymour and Helmcken streets in 2021, but the city opted not to renew its lease three years later, with city councillors citing concerns about public safety and people congregating outside.
The site later reopened on Howe Street, a location that closed earlier this year, and on Tuesday VCH announced it had secured a new site at 900 Helmcken St.
Sim called the planned facility the latest in a string of “failed OPS sites” that were forced to shut down after complaints.
On Tuesday, Sim and his council majority passed a motion directing staff to use “every tool available” to block the site.
Backlash over relocated overdose prevention site
“People need real treatment and real recovery options, and that’s not what this place is,” Sim said, arguing overdose prevention services should be located in St. Paul’s Hospital.
The health authority says the hospital doesn’t have space and will be relocating to its new campus in the False Creek flats in less than a year.
Speaking with CBC’s The Early Edition on Wednesday, VCH chief medical health officer Dr. Patricia Daly said there is a clear need for the facility.
Daly said toxic drugs killed 94 people in the neighbourhood last year.
“We put these services where the evidence tells us they are needed. So this particular neighbourhood, Vancouver city centre, has the second highest rate of overdose death in our region,” she said.
“This will actually reduce the number of people consuming substances in public,” she added.
Daly said the site has reversed nearly 500 overdoses over the course of nearly 150,000 visits, and that the health authority is required by a provincial ministerial order to open overdose prevention services where the numbers warrant it.
Felicella said if the city does block the facility, it will result in more people consuming drugs in public and more deaths and brain injuries from overdoses.
