Park that car

Free Narcan kits welcomed on campus

A lifesaving skill, with the correct tools to do it

amir said contributor

After an eventful Dis-Orientation week, a different kind of first-aid kit was left on campus for students. Narcan kits are available for free at the University of Regina. Many consider this to be long overdue in the wake of the opioid crisis Canada is facing nationwide.

Narcan, which is one of the most popular brands of naloxone, was made available at the University of Regina for the first time during Dis-Orientation Week 2022. The introduction of the kits was accompanied by an in-person workshop on how to properly use them, which was facilitated by Regina Public Interest Research Group (RPIRG) board member Kale McLellan. The Narcan training description stated that “Saskatchewan has been experiencing a record number of opioid poisonings leading to hundreds of preventable deaths each year.”

Members of the campus community, like First Nations University student Alaska Bigeagle, welcome the arrival of Narcan kits on campus. As an Indigenous Social Work student with a background in harm reduction and community outreach, Bigeagle knows full well the importance of raising awareness about naloxone and making it accessible. “More people have died from the opioid crisis than COVID-19 in Canada. Growing up in Vancouver and working with Downtown Eastside’s vulnerable population, getting Narcan training is just the standard. I never realized how many people accidentally overdose. Harm reduction saves lives.”

Bigeagle currently works in harm reduction in inner-city Regina, where she continues to work with populations who are at risk of succumbing to Saskatchewan’s ever-growing overdose crisis. “Getting students trained in Narcan use is a great start. Education is important to abolishing the stigma surrounding drug use. People who use drugs are still people, and we must show them kindness and humility.”

Narcan kits are available for free at the offices of the University of Regina Students’ Union (URSU) and UR Pride on the second floor of the Riddell Centre. While reception has been positive overall among the campus community, controversy still exists around opioid usage and naloxone. Ariana Giroux, UR Pride’s Interim Executive Director, remains a firm proponent of the importance of naloxone.

“There’s still a lot of stigma around naloxone, around intravenous drug use, when realistically, people are going to use whether or not you look like a bad person carrying naloxone on you. […] It doesn’t matter whether they’re an intravenous drug user, let’s just

A far more useful resource than the provincial government putting up a billboard that says “Don’t do Drugs.”

Photo: Jeff Anderson via Flickr

save their life.”

While many view naloxone as unnecessary and unsafe, and some even believe it to encourage the use of opioids among the population, Giroux vehemently disagrees. “Narcan and naloxone should be a part of first aid training in the first place. It’s easy and completely safe. If you make a mistake or give somebody Narcan when they’re not actually in a lifeor-death situation, it’s still completely safe. There’s no real side effects, so why shouldn’t we all be trained and have that opportunity to save someone’s life? […] If you can save somebody from dying, isn’t that a good thing? There’s no reason not to have Narcan available for students on campus.”

Students who are interested in receiving their free Narcan kits on campus are encouraged to visit the URSU front desk or UR Pride. Training is easily accessible, with naloxone kits and training additionally being available for Saskatchewan residents at numerous health-based and community organizations across the province.

Student works around parking prices by hiking from off-campus area

Paved over and priced out

bodie robinson staff writer

Welcome back to campus. It’s been a traumatic two years. We’ve been through a lot, but thankfully things are becoming more normal – whatever that means. Inflation is at 7 per cent. It hasn’t been this bad in decades. Also, here’s a tuition hike of 3.5 per cent. And, if you’re an international student, thank you for keeping this university financially feasible. Your $10,000 tuition fees per semester certainly go a long way to balance the budget. It’s great to be back, isn’t it?

On top of inflation, tuition hikes, and runaway prices, students are also expected to pay what seem to be exorbitant prices for parking. If you want to park somewhere reasonably close on campus, expect to pay between $650 to $800 a year.

Rising costs of living, tuition hikes, inflation, and terrible wages make the prospect of attending university more and more untenable. The University of Regina’s Comprehensive Budget Plan for 2022-2023 states that the university is relying on increased enrolment to make up for the deficit – which is expected to be about $3.5 million this year. But if the university wants to increase enrolment, then why do more and more barriers to entry keep appearing?

Many students are expressing frustration at rising costs, especially related to parking. By this, I mean students are pissed off that they have to pay over $600 a year to rent a parking stall. $600 a year for a 120 square foot slab of concrete in the flattest part of the western hemisphere. What gives?

When prices get prohibitively high, human ingenuity comes to the fore: Kramer Boulevard and Centennial Street being constantly packed with cars, more and more people are trying to find ways to skip the parking pass and leave cars off-campus. Nico Sullivan, a first-year Nursing student, explained his experience parking, or lack of, on the campus. For Sullivan, driving his own car is more expensive, but better utilizes time out of his day.

“I have to drive to school,” said Sullivan. “It takes me 15 minutes to drive there. If I took the bus, it would take 40 minutes to an hour. One of the transit routes has two bus transfers; I just decided to drive.”

With high prices of parking passes, Sullivan cannot afford to park on campus. Getting onto campus turf requires a hike each time he needs to attend classes. “I park on a residential street and then I walk about 15 minutes to class on average,” explained Sullivan. “It depends on where I can get a parking spot.”

Sullivan will continue this trend into the winter. He said this trend will continue unless there is a cheaper option to park on campus. “The cheaper passes are about $55 a month, but that’s nearly half my monthly food budget,” said Sullivan. “The cheapest pass is about $153 a semester, but the lot is way out in the boonies. So why not just park in a residential area for free?”

Even before the pandemic hit and prices went up, Sullivan was still making the great hike through the residential area, past McDonald’s and through the intersection onto campus, because the price to park was too high.

Thousands of dollars each semester go into attending classes, and students are still getting gouged by the high costs of parking. Parking tickets continue to leave students’ wallets a little bit lighter. The Carillon has reached out to Parking Services for a response, and expects to receive one by next issue.

Did we forget James Smith Cree Nation?

bodie robinson staff writer

On September 4, everyone in Saskatchewan learned the name James Smith Cree Nation (JSCN), and a few days later it was overshadowed by the death of only one woman who died at peace in her home.

JSCN is located about 200 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon. It has a population of approximately 2,500 people. On that September morning, JSCN became ground zero to one of the worst mass-killings in Canadian history. Around 6 a.m., the RCMP was notified of multiple stabbings on the reserve. Shortly afterward, similar calls came from a settler village named Weldon, only 25 kilometres from JSCN. A couple hours later, the RCMP declared a civil emergency for the whole of Saskatchewan. The suspects had access to a vehicle. By noon, they were believed to be in Regina.

The suspects were two brothers: Damien and Myles Sanderson. It is alleged by the RCMP that Myles, 32, committed all the murders. Damien, 31, acted as an accomplice – a reluctant accomplice, his

family claims – but his role in the killing spree is still unclear.

On September 5, Damien was found dead in a field on JSCN. It is likely that he never left the reserve. Damien appeared to have died from wounds that were not self-inflicted. In other words, he may have been murdered too. On September 7, Myles was found driving north of Saskatoon. Police arrested him, but soon after he died in custody. The cause of death appears to have been a drug overdose, but it is still inconclusive.

Myles Sanderson is accused of killing 10 people and injuring 18 more. There were 13 crime scenes in total. All of the victims except one were from JSCN. The one exception was a male victim who lived in Weldon.

Myles Sanderson had a long history of violence, crime, and substance abuse. In total, Sanderson had 59 convictions for assault, assault with a weapon, assaulting a police officer, uttering threats, and robbery. Sanderson’s parole documents indicate that he began abusing drugs and alcohol in his early teens. The parole documents further claim that Sanderson became rageful, violent, and erratic when under the influence of alcohol and drugs. He also had a significant history of domestic abuse, especially toward his common-law spouse, Vanessa Burns.

In an interview with Damien Sanderson’s wife, Skye Sanderson, she claimed that Damien frequently felt intimidated and coerced by his brother, Myles. In the months prior to the murder spree, both Damien and Skye were thinking of seeking help for their own drug and alcohol

abuse. But, when Myles began turning up at Damien’s house on JSCN this summer, the brothers began another cycle of abuse in their relationship. They began abusing cocaine and crack together. Their conditions quickly deteriorated, with Myles becoming increasingly erratic, threatening, and violent.

The motive for the mass-killing is still ambiguous. We may never know. Perhaps the motive is itself unknowable. Myles Sanderson was clearly a deeply troubled man. Judging by reports from those who knew him, and his persistent alcohol and drug abuse, it seems that Sanderson’s mental health was always in very bad condition.

Skye Sanderson claims that the brothers had been on a drug and alcohol binge before the murders began. Perhaps Myles Sanderson’s mind had become fragmented, disorganized, and full of blind rage. The motive may remain unclear, but the context of this tragedy is readily apparent.

In an interview with Global News, Skye Sanderson stated she contacted the RCMP the day before the murders began. She told the RCMP that Myles and Damien were drunk and high, and that they had stolen her car. She stated that the only way to prevent the brothers from doing something “stupid” was to put them under arrest for the time being. The RCMP located Skye’s car, but they didn’t find the brothers – until it was too late.

The RCMP were warned about the brothers. Myles was also a fugitive. He had broken his parole months before and he had multiple warrants out for his arrest. Myles had a long history of violence and substance abuse. Specifically, he had a long

history of domestic abuse. In fact, Sanderson spent two years in jail for stabbing his father-in-law in 2015.

Remember that domestic abuse is a strong predictor for future violence. The signs were there. The writing was on the wall. Of course, this could have been prevented. But this calamity was the culmination of many smaller tragedies: the mental health crisis, failure of law enforcement, intergenerational trauma, substance abuse, colonial violence, and so on.

The name JSCN seemed to drop out of the news as quickly as it had appeared. Thousands of kilometres away, in a Scottish castle, a 96-year-old woman was dying. Queen Elizabeth II’s last public statement addressed the JSCN mass-stabbing. On September 7, the queen wrote “I would like to extend my condolences to those who have lost loved ones in the attacks that occurred this past weekend in Saskatchewan. My thoughts and prayers are with those recovering from injuries and grieving such horrific losses.”

The queen’s death, unsurprisingly, quickly drowned out news about the tragedy at JSCN. If anything, the sudden shift in media attention is an apt analogy. The heinous violence at JSCN was quickly forgotten. The royal drama in the imperial capital flooded the newspapers, at the expense of Indigenous people still suffering from colonial violence. Would the news cycle have looked different if the victims were White? If the murder spree had occurred in Regina or Saskatoon, would the senseless violence feel more immediate, more tragic?

The juxtaposition of the two events

exposes the Canadian condition. Our attention shifted so suddenly. For a moment, those people who are so often overlooked, forgotten, and despised came to the fore. The tragedy at JSCN reminded us that there is still much healing and reconciliation left to do. Just as quickly, the people of JSCN were trampled again by images and fanfare celebrating the queen’s life – a pure symbol of settler-colonialism if there ever was one.

A shift in perspective show where priorities truly lie.

Photo: wikiImages via pixabay and Mariakray via pixabay manipulated by Lee Lim.

““I would like to extend my condolences to those who have lost loved ones in the attacks that occurred this past weekend in Saskatchewan. My thoughts and prayers are with those recovering from injuries, and grieving such horrific losses.” – Queen Elizabeth II