Watch this new video series on how the opioid overdose crisis and Canada’s toxic drug supply impact people in the trades and construction sectors. A guest article by the co-producer of the films, Lorna Thomas, from Moms Stop the Harm.
My name is Lorna Thomas, and I am Co-Founder of a non-profit organization in Canada called Moms Stop the Harm. We promote harm reduction and advocate for drug policy reform at all levels of government. It is devastating that 52,000 Canadians have died from the toxic, unregulated drug supply. These were all preventable deaths, had our governments implemented proven harm reduction initiatives.
We now have more than 4,000 Moms Stop the Harm members, most of whom have lost loved ones. I am one of them—our son Alex died a substance-related death. Together with my co-founders, Petra Schulz and Leslie McBain, we saw the need for grief support and created our sister organization, Healing Hearts Canada.
Professionally, I am a filmmaker. My son was a welder before he died a drug-related death at age 24, and his story inspired me to co-produce a film about the relationship between men in the trades and substance use. I co-produced this video series called Building Hope: Substance Use in the Trades, with partial funding from our federal health agency, Health Canada.
The videos offer information on how to stay safer during the drug-poisoning era. The main film is 8 minutes long, and there are five one-minute snapshot films featuring four workers we interviewed, each with lived experience in the trades and in substance use. The links are below—I hope you find the films meaningful.
The main film
There are also 1-minute spotlight videos featuring each of the four men:
Trevor Botkin
Kale Moth
Daniel Snyder
Rob Tournour
Lorna Thomas
