| Our Community News October 2026
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| SUHN Updates - October Meetings - October Webinars - Upcoming Events Resources & Research - Good News and Actions |
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| | Folks, the last two weeks have been a roller coaster. From the high of hearing the DULF verdict to the low of hearing about proposed regulatory changes to significantly restrict safer supply prescribing in Ontario… I know we are all feeling it! I’ve got to say though, that both events have brought us together. While it was more fun celebrating DULF’s verdict, I’ve been deeply moved by the solidarity, care, and action I have witnessed over the past week. People are really looking out for one another, and I’m reminded of the early days of SUHN - when we first were starting out as the National Safer Supply Community of Practice - and we were meeting regularly as truly interdisciplinary group: people with lived and living experience, nurses, physicians, pharmacists, researchers, people who work in public health and policy settings - all passionate about how care could improve for people who use drugs.
Those days were precious because for many people, they hadn’t had an opportunity to share a space with someone who was in such a different role. It’s not that people hadn’t worked in interdisciplinary settings before. But there was something unique about those conversations. Power was still present, of course, but there was more common ground and room for frank conversation. We got to learn about each other’s perspectives, what shapes how we each move through the world, and how we show up in relation to one another.
Since the pilot programs ended in March 2025, those opportunities to come together have become rare. There’s a lot more integration of people with lived and living experience in health care settings now, and that’s worth celebrating. But I’ve missed those shared spaces - especially bringing people from across Canada together.
As SUHN starts to rebuild, I think this moment, with all its highs and lows, is an invitation to reconnect and to make that kind of space again. To that end, I’ll be setting up some meetings over the next couple of months to talk about some issues that all of us are facing in communities across Canada. See October Meetings below for the list this month.
We also have 3 webinars in Octobers - all part of our Webinar Series about hospital based overdose prevention sites featuring the teams from Casey House (October 13th), Fraser Health (October 20th) and Royal Alexandra Hospital. (October 27th). More information below. You can register for the series here. If you missed the first two, you can find the recordings and related resources here. Stay tuned for our November line up!
Unfortunately, this week took an unexpected turn and we didn’t have time to pull together and do a quality check on our list of news articles and research publications. However, we decided today to start a Safer Supply Policy Tracking document, similar to what we did with the SCS closures. It’s mostly blank right now, but give us a few days to get it underway. It is a living document, and people can contribute by adding a comment.
In the next few days, we’ll add our October research publications to the SUHN Monthly Research Round Up document. You can find publications from August and September there now.
Finally, I’m excited to introduce you to our Steering Committee! We had our first meeting in September and we are excited to have such a great group of people to build SUHN! Below, you’ll find their names, roles, and locations. We’ll share their bios with you in our November newsletter.
Thank you for being part of this Community!
Rebecca Penn, SUHN Network Lead rebecca.penn@uwindsor.ca |
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| | Introducing the SUHN Steering Committee
Mary Aguirre, Public Health Nurse, Michigan, US Farihah Ali, Scientist, CAMH and CRISM-ON, Toronto, ON Rachel Avery, Occupational Therapist, North End CHC, Halifax, NS Kirsten Barnes, Advisor of Substance Use & Harm Reduction, Peel Public Health, ON Phoenix Beck, Peer Researcher, Writer, Photographer, Comedian, Vancouver, BC Matthew Bonn, Drug Culture Advisor, Halifax, NS Sacha Bragg, Opioid Research Communication & Project Liaison, Chiefs of Ontario London, ON Kayla DeMong, Community health worker, Saskatoon, SK Cathy Eisener, Public Health Nurse, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, ON Maddie Gold, Community worker, advocate, researcher, Toronto, ON Dylan Griffith, Community organizer, founder - Kootenay Insurrection for Safe Supply, BC. Ginger Sullivan, Nurse, Researcher, and Professor at MacEwan University. AB. Kendra-Jo Walz-Parker, Advocate and community support, Red Deer, AB.
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Tuesday October 13th - 1:30-4:30 pm ET - CPSO Meeting Debrief Drop-in
Date & time TBD: Safer Supply Prescriber Meeting. If you are a physician or nurse practitioner interested in meeting to discuss safer supply, please see fill out this form to provide your availability.
Thursday October 15th - 3 pm ET (12pm PT / 1pm MT / 2pm CT / 4pm AT / 4:30 NT) Outreach under surveillance This meeting is for people involved in outreach, harm reduction supply distribution, public health, and drug strategy groups to discuss the barriers people are experiencing when trying to connect with people and provide supplies in public areas. Please email me for an invitation: rebecca.penn@uwindsor.ca. |
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This Month at the Thursday Interdisciplinary Drop-in Meeting
9am PT/ 10am MT / 11am CT / 12pm ET / 1pm AT
SAME ZOOM LINK - EVERY WEEK |
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October 15th: Debrief the outcome of the Oct 13th CPSO meeting Our Ontario SUHN members are anxious to find out how the meeting will go. We don’t know what the outcome of that meeting will be, but we know we’ll need to talk about it.
Calling out to all our members! No matter where you live and what role you have, this is an opportunity to come together to talk about how the current climate is impacting the care that is provided to people who use drugs.
It’s important for all of us to hear from each other - healthcare providers, people with lived and living experience, social care providers, policy specialists, KT and researchers…. We are in this together but we don’t have many opportunities to talk together.
Click here to download an ics file to add to your calendar.
October 22nd: Stay tuned - we’ll announce on the NSS-CoP Google Group
October 29th: Book Club is BACK!
At our September Book Club meeting, we decided to read Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs by journalist Johanna Hari.
About the book: Through stories from around the world, the book challenges conventional ideas about substance use, addiction, criminalization, and the war on drugs while exploring the importance of compassion and human connection.
Everyone is welcome, whether or not you have read the book! We’ll introduce its central themes and create space for an open discussion.
How to access Chasing the Scream
Have a book you’d like to nominate for our next Book Club? Let us know!
Check the Google Group for what’s coming in November! |
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Wondering how hospital OPS work in practice? Hear directly from teams across Canada.
Join us for the our 5-part webinar series looking at hospital-based overdose prevention sites in Canada. In September, the team from the OPS at St. Paul’s talked about their model, implementation strategies, and how it’s working. We also had Dr. Ryan Herriot and Dr. Jess Wilder from Doctors for Safer Drug Policy discuss setting up unsanctioned sites on Vancouver Island and shared the toolkit that they developed.
This month, we have the team from Casey House in Toronto. They were the first OPS to open at an Ontario hospital, and the first indoor inhalation space in Ontario. Today, they are one of the few remaining SCS operating in Ontario.
Fraser Health (BC) operates several OPS, including a mobile service, ones located within supportive housing and shelters, and ones in two hospitals. Come learn about how they operate, what challenges they face, and how they rise to meet them.
Our series ends with a look a the experience of opening - and then having to close - North America’s first hospital based supervised consumption site, located in the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton. Find out what impact the SCS had, how they got it started, and how things are now that it’s gone.
Oct. 13th - 12pm ET - Casey House (Toronto)
Christene Stevens, Jen Bordin, and Vanessa Palmer
Oct. 20th - 1pm ET - Fraser Health (BC)
Jennifer Conway-Brown and Erin Gibson
Oct. 27th - 12pm ET - Royal Alexander Hospital (Edmonton)
Dr. Karine Meador, Dr. Sheri Klassen & Dr. Kathryn Dong
Register one time and come to any / all sessions. |
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| | | | Tracking (In)Justice: Substance use related deaths in custody in Ontario Resources & video. |
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| Fall Webinar Series: Hospital-based OPS. Session #2: Vancouver Island Unsanctioned OPS. Resources & video. |
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Webinars DPC. Neurodiversity in a harm reduction workplace. With Hannah Weinstein. When: Oct 19 at 11am PT / 2pm ET
Canoe Project. Webinar. Journeying Together. Leaders from Communities Alliances & Networks When: Wed. Oct. 14 at 11am PT / 2pm ET Register
Training and Education
Black Health Education Collaborative has a new project funded by Health Canada called FLOURISH (Fostering Learning Opportunities for Understanding and Reducing Inequities In Substance Use and Health in Black Communities), which provides its free access to: The Black Health Primer (BHP), a nationally recognized online course that equips health professionals and learners with knowledge and tools to address anti-Black racism in healthcare. It is available in English and French Six-Part Webinar Series coming this Winter, exploring anti-Black racism, stigma reduction, and culturally responsive substance use care, while building on learnings from the BHP. In-person Workshop option in select provinces (AB, ON, MB, QC, NS), which expands on applying anti-racist principles to substance use care for Black communities.
For more information and to register, click here
ODPRN. Rx Ready: An Introduction to Drug Policy, Regulation, and Research in Canada - Training modules about drug policy in Canada. This online training provides an introduction to drugs, drug policy, research methods, and patient-oriented research.
CATIE: Harm Reduction Fundamentals - self-directed learning
Conferences Break the Stigma: Build the Bridge. Maine Health substance use treatment conference October 21, 2026, 8:30 a.m.–4:15 p.m., Portland, Maine, with online participation.
CAEH. 2026. November 3-5. Winnipeg, Manitoba. Info.
Thunder Bay District Health Unit Harm Reduction Conference. Nov. 9-10th. Thunder Bay ON Info.
Newfoundland and Labrador Centre on Substance Use Conference - VIRTUAL and FREE. Nov. 12-13th. Registration.
CSAM. 2026. November 19-21. Calgary, Alberta. Info.
CAHR. 2027. April 15-18th. Montreal, Quebec. Info. (Stay tuned for request for abstract submissions).
Harm Reduction International. 2027. May 9-12th. Belfast, Ireland. Call for submissions - deadline October 9th, 2026.
College on Problems of Drug Dependence - CPDD - Toronto - June 26-30/27 |
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| | RESOURCES CMHA Briefing Room - Resource for Ontario Municipal Candidates
Yellowhead Institute. 2026. Report: Acting Indian: Reflections on Status, Citizenship & Belonging - see their website for additional resources and fact sheets.
ONWA. 7 Grandfather Teachings Cora McGuire-Cyrette discusses the importance of bravery in leadership positions in both a personal and professional capacity.
Toronto Drug Checking Service. Report - Sept 19 - October 2, 2026 The Daily — Opioid and stimulant consumption patterns in select Canadian cities, January 2024 to March 2026
RESEARCH Lam, N., Grant-Nunn, L., Ying, L. et al. Access to supervised consumption services in the emergency department: patient characteristics and outcomes. Can J Emerg Med (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43678-026-01272-6
Presley, B., Quinn, L., Davidson, S. et al. “Whatever time they show up is the right time”: a Canada-wide qualitative analysis of client, provider, and administrator perspectives on person-centered and equitable substance use disorder care. Harm Reduct J (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-026-01542-7
Ali, F., Prashad, C.D., Chellew Paternostro, S. et al. Mental health, housing stability, and health care access as determinants of substance use outcomes: a step-level analysis in a harm reduction–oriented clinical setting in Toronto, Canada. BMC Public Health (2026). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-29499-z
Dryden RP, Pijl EM. Moral foundations and attitudes towards supervised consumption services: a regional moderation study. Harm Reduct J. 2026 Jul 8;23(1):158. doi: 10.1186/s12954-026-01500-3. |
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| | WESUP granted intervenor status in BC Bill 21 appeal The BC Court of Appeal has granted Workers for Ethical Substance Use Policy (WESUP) permission to intervene in the appeal challenging BC’s Bill 21, the Legal Professions Act. WESUP is a grassroots, peer-led organization that supports workers harmed by workplace substance use policies and advocates for approaches grounded in human rights and harm reduction. While the appeal is largely about how lawyers are regulated, WESUP is concerned about provisions that could tie an addiction diagnosis to a lawyer’s professional fitness and lead to mandated treatment. Intervenor status gives WESUP a chance to bring workers’ lived experience and a harm reduction perspective before the Court. The appeal itself has yet to be decided.
BC Supreme Court finds drug law unconstitutional and stays DULF founders’ trafficking charges Canadian drug-policy ruling — September 29, 2026 The Court found that section 5(2) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act violated the Section 7 and Section 15 Charter rights of DULF co-founders Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx and people who use drugs. The declaration of invalidity is suspended for six months to allow a legislative response. The ruling recognized that DULF’s non-medicalized compassion club reduced toxic-drug harms without negatively affecting community safety. This is a major Canadian development for safer supply, drug-user-led services and the constitutional limits of prohibition. The Crown may appeal.
Mayoral Candidate Report Cards for Victoria & Nanaimo Doctors for Safer Drug Policy put a set of community-sourced questions to all the municipal candidates in Nanaimo and Victoria, covering a range of issues: harm reduction, voluntary treatment for substance use disorders, and the way municipal tools - including police and bylaw - are employed against our unhoused neighbours. They graded the candidates based on their responses and did not take into account any other factors related to their candidacy. They had great engagement with the report cards. You can see the report cards here:
Corrections Canada to distribute safer-snorting and safer-smoking supplies in federal prisons Service announcement — implementation begins October 13, 2026 Correctional Service Canada confirmed plans to provide paper straws, foil and drug-testing strips for fentanyl, benzodiazepines and xylazine through prison health services. The supplies are intended to reduce injuries, infectious-disease transmission and other harms associated with sharing improvised equipment. This is a notable expansion of route-specific harm reduction in Canadian prisons, where access remains highly constrained.
ACTIONS Amnesty Intl: Urge the Government to Invest in Community-Led Harm Reduction Ontario has passed two dangerous laws – Bill 6 and Bill 223 – that will make the toxic drug crisis even deadlier, while doing nothing to address its root causes.
DULF Legal Sustainer Donor Program
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| | Come to our Thursday Interdisciplinary Drop-in Meeting. Thursdays at 9am PT / 10am MT / 11am CT / 12pm ET / 1pm AT / 1:30 NT Co-organized and co-facilitated by Reclaim Collective Same Zoom link every week
Join the Google Group to post messages, ask questions, share ideas directly with other members Stay tuned for more upcoming meetings Get involved! We are a tiny team - 1.3FTE! We always need some extra hands to help facilitate webinars, track news and research publications, and more! Host a workshop or webinar! Have something you want to share with the Network? Share news, resources, events in the newsletter!
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