Early June (between the 3rd and the 5th)

Narcan Incident-Downtown Edmonton

The below account has not been edited other than for anonymity's sake of the community partners. This account is a personal reflection based on lived experience and opinions. It is shared for the purpose of documentation, awareness, and critique of institutional practices. This story is not intended to incite harm or harassment toward any individual. Names and identifying details have been omitted or altered where appropriate to respect privacy and safety. All incidents are allegations not proven in a court of law, and the Archive does not investigate or vouch for the veracity of reported incidents.

From the Archivist Incident Overview:
As an Indigenous two-spirit emergency responder, I witnessed firsthand how systemic neglect and hostility by police endangers, and devalues, Indigenous lives in the ongoing opioid crisis.

It wasn't your typical police violence, but in the face of the opioid epidemic, I feel this story is important. My name will remain anonymous, but I am an Indigenous two-spirit person in my early 20's. I work in an emergency response capacity (non- police, EMS or fire) and have a decent amount of medical training for my job. I can't say what I do, or I'll loose my job but let's just say my job has something to do with water safety. I have a decent amount of medical training. I was attending Edmonton's drag fest with my Auntie and we were walking back to the festival after getting dinner. I looked up past the statue of our colonizer, Winston churchill and saw the torsos of police crowded around *something* - I decided to go and investigate . My suspicions were correct, there was a mid- forties indigenous man actively experiencing a drug poisoning. He was blue. He was making the snoring sounds. I stated my name and certifications and let the officers know I would now be assisting this person. I asked if they had initiated EMS, which thankfully they had but they had only provided one dose of intranasal naloxone nearly 5 minutes prior and were not engaging in any other resuscitation efforts. I threw my gloves on and began preparing an IM naloxone injection while encouraging the man to take breaths and placing him in a position where it would be easier for him to breathe. The officers attempted to stop me from performing my efforts, stated I was "heated" and needed to "calm down" , told me they "dealt with this everyday" and that narcan takes 5 minutes to work. (First of all, so do I and no, no it doesn't, the intervals are 2 minutes between doses ) . The officers proceeded to continue to verbally harrass me until Edmonton Fire arrived on scene. They then, tried to get my name to write a report, I refused as per my rights.

I don't think people realize. These officers aren't here to help. They really aren't. They are here to commit genocide. Police services across Canada are trained using IDF protocol. The goal of every police force is STILL to wipe out Indigenous people. These officers weren't unintentionally unhelpful. They WANTED this man to die

Peace Officer (e.g. Transit or Community Standards officers)

Churchill square

Anonomous.