
B.C. First Nation at UN calling for government help in battling toxic drug crisis
Members of the Tsilhqot’in Nation were at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on Thursday calling for the British Columbia and Canadian governments to help expand support services in the battle against the toxic drug crisis.
Chief Francis Laceese said the crisis is a “continuation” of threats Indigenous Peoples have faced in the form of residential schools and the smallpox epidemic that devastated Indigenous communities in B.C. in the early 1860s.
“We weren’t supposed to be here anymore. The drug crisis is a continuation of this threat to our survival,” Laceese said of Canada’s residential schools, which separated more than 150,000 Indigenous children from their families.
“I think the government has to intervene, especially the Canadian government and British Columbia, to help us with this crisis,” he said.