Sahtu leaders gather in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., to address ongoing drug crisis

Leaders from around the Sahtu region gathered in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., this week to discuss the impacts of the drug crisis and to work together to find solutions. 

Speaking to CBC News on Tuesday ahead of the two-day meeting, Valerie Gordon with Sahtu Secretariat Incorporated said leaders hoped to put together an action plan to address the ongoing drug crisis in the region. 

The Sahtu Secretariat has secured federal funding to support these efforts, Gordon said, adding that the meeting would be an opportunity for health workers to share what has worked and what hasn't in their communities, and to determine the best path forward. 

"The last couple of years have seen the real uptick in the drugs situation and it's going to crisis level — and Fort Good Hope has seen a lot of it in the last couple of months," Gordon said. "We need to pull the communities together. We need to start talking about how we're going to handle the crisis."

Last month, RCMP charged an 18-year-old Quebec man with murder in connection with a death in Fort Good Hope, and said the accused is part of the drug trade. Police also last month seized drugs and a hand gun after a luxury vehicle was stopped on the winter road between Norman Wells and Fort Good Hope.

"It's been really hard to watch," Gordon said. "I live in Yellowknife, but I have family here. I'm related to everybody and it's been hard to watch what's going on. And the lack of capacity has been really apparent. We need to bring more wellness people into the community."

Sahtu residents looking for solutions

Délı̨nę resident Samantha Kenny lost her sister due to the drug crisis. She wants to raise awareness of the issue and also be a part of the solution.

"It's becoming so normal and I'm so worried about the youth that are growing up in this. It's a harsher reality for our youth…. And it's so sad to see all the loss that we are experiencing right now. And it really hurts my soul and my spirit."

Kenny says her sister died while receiving treatment in Calgary. 

"I think my sister really needed to connect with the land and I feel like she would have really benefited from like, on-the-land programs or not being sent out. That's not how it should have been dealt with," Kenny said.

Kenny thinks leaders should "stray away from Western-ized ways of healing" to address the drug crisis.

"I think we need to kind of go back to traditions," she said.

Jada Jackson from Fort Good Hope attended the meeting this week. She recently recovered from her own addiction. 

She says she came back to the community to start her healing journey in 2020 after she overdosed in Edmonton.

"That was an experience that I didn't want to go through again. And I realized that for the first time in my life, I wanted to live."

After two years in recovery Jackson says she took a job as a victim services worker, but the mental stress from the work caused her to relapse. That's when she admitted herself to Renascent, an addiction treatment centre in Toronto. She says the decision changed her life.

"If I never asked for help and still thought that I could do it on my own, I would not be successful. Today, I'm going on 20 months clean and sober from drugs and alcohol. I now live in Toronto. I'm trying to get an education now so I can help other addicts in the future."

Jackson says that to help those in her community who are struggling, leaders need to look at the root cause of the drug crisis.

"Where is all this hurt and pain coming from?" Jackson asked.

"A lot of it comes through the intergenerational trauma of residential schools…. Being able to have that knowledge now helps me understand a little. It helped me on my journey."

Jackson says the N.W.T. needs more resources to deal with the crisis, including community treatment centres, support groups and better education.

"I hope that the leaders are willing to listen, not just what we need, but what we need as a whole to heal from not just this disease, this addiction — it's more than that. It goes deeper. We need to go deeper."