Latest news with #BloodTiesFourDirections
CBC
02-05-2025
- CBC
2 face weapons charges after incident that forced evacuation of 2 blocks around Whitehorse non-profit
RCMP in Whitehorse say they have arrested two women and recovered a replica firearm after an incident at the Blood Ties Four Directions building Wednesday night. The incident in question forced the evacuation of the building as well as homes and businesses within a two-block radius around it. Chief Supt. Lindsay Ellis, the commanding officer of Yukon M Division, said the arrest happened just after 11 p.m. and the investigation continues. Speaking to CBC Thursday morning, Ellis said police seized a firearm as well. Later in the day, Blood Ties Four Directions executive director Jill Aalhus said police informed them it was in fact a replica firearm that was seized. In a news release later on Thursday, RCMP said that they responded on Wednesday evening after receiving initial reports that a woman had entered the facility with a gun and was pointing it at people inside. Police said an emergency response team, police dog services and a crisis negotiation team then went to the area and tried to communicate with the woman inside, but received no response. Police eventually confirmed there were two people inside the building along with a firearm. Officers managed to enter the building to find two women "who remained uncooperative," the release states. The women were then arrested with help from police dog services and police recovered a replica firearm. The two women, aged 53 and 23, are each charged with pointing a firearm, carrying an imitation firearm for the purposes of committing an offence and uttering threats. Blood Ties Four Directions is a Whitehorse-based non-profit organization that runs a supervised consumption site in the city. In a Facebook post Wednesday night, the organization described the situation as a "serious safety incident". It wrote that no one was injured and the incident "was safely resolved with the support of emergency responders". It also said there has been inaccurate information circulating online about the incident. "In situations like this, it's especially important to rely on accurate information rather than rumours, which can cause unnecessary fear and confusion," the organization wrote. After the incident resolved, it said it was hoping to be able to resume offering services "as quickly as possible."
CBC
29-04-2025
- Health
- CBC
Blood Ties Four Directions issues toxic drug warning for the Yukon amid spike in overdoses
The organization that runs the Yukon's supervised consumption site says it's seeing an increase in overdoses as an unusual drug sample has showed up in Whitehorse. Jill Aalhus, the executive director of Blood Ties Four Directions said a spike in overdoses included some that happened at the supervised consumption site in downtown Whitehorse. Nobody died, but Aalhus said onsite drug testing revealed unknown substance that has advocates concerned. She spoke with Airplay host Dave White about the situation. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Are you able to say what you mean when you say an unusual sample? What we saw was a sample of what's referred to as down, which is an expected opioid sample in the Yukon and really all of Western Canada. All opioid samples are expected to be fentanyl, but what we see is a range of fentanyl concentrations from one per cent to 100 per cent. Often, the the opioid supply is also contaminated with other sedatives. Benzodiazepines are a common one. We also have seen more recently xylazine (a veterinary painkiller, sedative and muscle relaxant). In this case, it was an opioid sample that was contaminated with an unknown sedative. Sometimes there's limitations with our drug checking technology and we're not able to determine what that sedative is because we're comparing it to a library of samples. And with new drugs emerging and changes happening, it can be possible that there's substances, though we know sort of what class of drug it's in, but we don't have the library to compare it to, to know exactly what it is. So that was a huge concern for us. Do you test the drugs at the supervised consumption site before they're used? We have an FTIR spectrometer. It's essentially a machine that measures light waves, and it can give us a pretty good approximation of what's in someone's substance, up to four or five different components. It has limitations, but it's a really good tool for us to learn about the supply and give people information about what might be in the sample that they're using. If there's something in the sample that's concerning, do you advise them to not use it? Often people who are using the supervised consumption site are people who are heavily reliant on substances and have limited resources. If people do have an unusual sample without a regulated and very readily accessible safe supply, there's not always another option for them if they're in withdrawals. So we encourage people to, yes, surrender [drugs] to us if they'd like to, we can take them to the RCMP station. We have an exemption to do that. But often people are in a position where they do need to use. They've got no other option. And in those cases, we're really encouraging people to use at the supervised consumption site, carry naloxone, start with like a lower dose than they might be used to. I think a lot of the benefits of drug checking are to provide people with that information so that they can make the choices for themselves. If you're seeing something like this, then it's likely that it's fairly widespread in the Yukon. Is that fair to say? the folks who access our services know the patterns before us and often they'll come in and be the first people to alert us of a change in the supply. And sometimes we see that after there has been a police drug bust that's disrupted the supply and almost always really quickly and new supplier moves in. That might really change what's available. Sometimes it can take some time for those supplies to reach all corners of the Yukon. So we find that even though the people who are accessing our services often know about changes to the supply before we do, there are people who are not part of that same circle, people who maybe use less frequently, people in rural Yukon who might not be dialled into that same conversation. And so we really want to let those folks know. How do you feel about the fact that safe consumption sites became an issue in the federal election campaign? It's very concerning to us. There's definitely been a lot of misinformation that's been spread about supervised consumption sites, and proposals to shut these sites down are dangerous and deeply out of step with the evidence, community needs and public health best practices. Shutting down supervised consumption sites won't make drug use go away, it just makes it more deadly and often more public.
