To honour International Overdose Awareness Day on Aug. 31, a march was held from Nanaimo's City Hall to St. Paul's Anglican Church on Friday, Aug. 29, raising awareness and providing support for those who lost a loved one to the drug toxicity crisis. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Jordan Davidson

in this together

‘More years of loss:’ International Overdose Awareness Day honours lives lost on the mid-Island

Aug 29, 2025 | 2:58 PM

NANAIMO — It’s a day of mourning and honouring those lost, while urging compassion, patience, and proper care for those still battling addiction.

Sunday, Aug. 31, marks International Overdose Awareness Day, with several events happening on the mid-Island leading up to it commemorating the solemn occasion and providing educational opportunities.

On Friday, Aug. 29, a gathering was held in front of Nanaimo’s City Hall, including Sue Fichtler with the group Moms Stop the Harm, who said if her 37-year-old son Evan had access to safe supply, he wouldn’t have died alone, locked in his bedroom in November 2022.

“In the coroner’s report, it tells that in his system there was fentanyl, carfentanil, para-fluorofentanyl, cocaine, meth, and benzos. That’s not what Evan would have chosen to take. If he’d have had safe supply, he would have been with us today.”

Fichtler said it took over two years and multiple phone calls for her to receive a copy of her son’s coroner’s report, where they listed his death as ‘carbon monoxide poisoning’ following a fire in his apartment, which she disputes.

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She said in the last year of her son’s decade-long struggle with addiction, he managed to detox at her house, which she said took “super-human strength”, and became a certified peer-support worker at a Parksville shelter prior to his passing.

“He did what he was supposed to do for the last year of his life. Evan…was an amazing human being.”

Sue Fichtler said if a safe supply of drugs were available for her son Evan, he would be alive today. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

A few dozen people from Moms Stop the Harm, the Nanaimo Area Network of Drug Users, organizing group members from Doctors for Safer Supply, and others marched from City Hall down to St. Paul’s Anglican Church on Chapel St. for a more formal gathering to commemorate the day.

Included in the group was former Nanaimo-Ladysmith MP Lisa Marie Barron and Nanaimo-Gabriola MLA Sheila Malcolmson.

“The overdose crisis hit here early and harder, before the rest of the province,” Malcolmson said. “…which means we got more years of loss, and also more years of people working so hard on the front-line to save lives and to support families and communities who have lost loved ones.”

Malcolmson added the recent debates amongst Nanaimo City Council on wanting to close the overdose prevention site on Dunsmuir St. next to City Hall were “such a step backwards.”

“We know 113,000 people have used the overdose prevention site here on Dunsmuir, and those would have uses that would have happened in the street otherwise. We know people don’t want to see public consumption of drugs, it’s illegal. We also know, driving drug use into the shadows and shaming people about it makes them more likely to die alone.”

The theme for this year is “One Big Family”, meant as a reminder that we are all connected.

Also happening on Friday from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. was an open event held at the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital (NRGH), with Naloxone training and other resources available.

Purple chairs have been set up at 18 Island Health locations across Vancouver Island this week, symbolizing a lost loved one and providing a peaceful space for reflection and remembrance.

They also shared the story of Nanaimo resident Gretchen Brown, who lost her 31-year-old son Hayden Cross four years ago to toxic drug poisoning.

Marchers carried a coffin to honour the more than 16,000 British Columbians who lost their lives to toxic drugs since it was declared a public health emergency in 2016. (Jordan Davidson/NanaimoNewsNOW)

The Oceanside Community Action Team, in partnership with Moms Stop the Harm, will host a similar event at Parksville Community Park on Sunday, Aug. 31, from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., which will include a candlelight vigil honouring lives lost.

Data from the BC Coroners Service shows 32 drug-related fatalities through the first six months of the year in Nanaimo, among 77 throughout the whole central Island region.

At the current pace, far fewer people will die compared to a particularly deadly 2023, when 217 people across the region lost their lives.

Island Health said deaths from unregulated drugs remain the leading cause of death for those ages 19-59 within the health authority, second only to cancer when it comes to overall potential years of life lost in the general population.

B.C.’s provincial government recently announced 1,600 nasal naloxone kits have been distributed to all public post-secondary institutions and First Nations mandated institutions, available free of charge on campus.

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