Byron
Wood
(he/him)
​I come to this role as a result of my lived experience. For the past ten years I have been doing physical labour in mainly unionized workplaces. Before that I had a brief career as a registered nurse. When I was labeled with the diagnosis "Substance Use Disorder", my employer and professional college
subjected me to an incredibly harmful workplace substance use policy and pushed me out of the nursing profession. ​After connecting with other workers who have also been harmed by workplace substance use policies we began supporting each other and fighting for policy change. Together we created the non-profit organization Workers for Ethical Substance Use Policy Society (WESUP).
​I believe that workplaces should be safe and supportive, and all workers should be offered voluntary, confidential, substance use services that are based on harm reduction and health promotion. ​Workers' self-determination, bodily autonomy and human rights should be central to all workplace substance use policies. ​I am committed to using my position to fight for ethical workplace substance use policy, and the rights of workers who use drugs. I live on the unceded traditional territores of the xÊ·mÉ™θkÊ·É™ýÉ™m (Musqueam Indian Band), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish Nation), and sÉ™lilwÉ™taɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation).
Candy
Gorse
(she/her)
I completed a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree (UVIC, with distinction) and the BCIT Perioperative Nursing Specialty (with distinction) in 2004. My nursing career began in the Operating Room at BC Children’s Hospital. I have always been drawn to challenging, dynamic, fast-paced and team based work environments. I began working with the BC Transplant Society in 2006, which sparked an interest and passion in organ retrieval and organ transplant medicine. In the years that followed, I felt I was naturally drawn to trauma care, and organ transplant medicine. Caring for the patient from the emergency room, to the operating room, to the intensive care unit fascinates me. Career highlights include practicing on the Orthopedic Trauma Team at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH), being a member of the Lung and Liver Transplant teams in the OR at VGH, and independent post-mortem tissue retrieval for the Eye Bank of British Columbia. To increase my knowledge and scope on trauma and transplant medicine, I completed the BCIT Intensive Care Nursing Specialty (with distinction) in 2016 and began working in the ICU at Vancouver General Hospital. I’ve enjoyed and completed several physician trauma courses including the Definitive Surgical Trauma Care Course (VGH), the Advanced Trauma Life Support Course (VGH), and the nursing course EPICC in Trauma.​ My interest in WESUP and the values therein, arose from many varied life experiences. My particular focus is harm reduction through ethical substance use policy for the healthcare worker, peer support, and health promotion. Current health care worker’s struggle to navigate an old and archaic treatment system for which we seek change. Healthcare workers are exemplary in caring for patients, but sometimes fail in caring for themselves, and caring for each other. Stigma, fear of discipline, and discrimination often keep their voices quiet, and this contributes to barriers to fair healthcare access as a result.​ I am very excited to collaborate and fight for change, and to have the opportunity to collaborate and co-found "Workers for Ethical Substance Use Policy". I acknowledge with respect that I am living on the traditional, ancestral & unceded territories of the xÊ·mÉ™θkÊ·É™yÌ“É™m, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and sÉ™lÌ“ílwÉ™taɬ people.
Katrina Stephenson
I am the founder and CEO of Nurse 2 Nurse Peer Support. Over the last 15 years, I have focused my nursing career in the harm reduction field and caring for individuals challenged by Concurrent Disorders. I also have lived experiences, which support my ways of knowing. I have compassionately cared for both my patients' traumas and my own work related PTSD. In order for nurses to provide safe and holistic care, we need adequate supports from the government, insurance agencies, employers, regulatory bodies, unions and peers in order to create psychologically safe workplaces. As a Harm Reduction Nurse, I believe it is essential for us all to understand and care for people with mental health and substance use challenges in such a way to reduces stigma and discrimination. Storytelling is powerful in changing the negative climate surrounding many health conditions and disabilities.
Andrzej
Celinski
Residing in Toronto Ontario, Andrzej is a Drug Culture Specialist and cofounder of the Reclaim Collective. He has been active in harm reduction projects, advisory panels, research and working groups. He is a long-time member of the National Safer Supply Community of Practice
(NSS-CoP), has worked for the Dr. Peter Centre in Knowledge Translation and as an Editor for The Drug Hub. As well, Andrzej worked as Executive Administrator, Contract Manager and Stimulus Connect Liaison with the Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs (CAPUD). Andrzej has written chapters, articles, and op-eds for publications such as Filter, and presented on topics including Safe Supply, Peer Work, and Substance Use in the Trades, among other drug policy and harm reduction-related topics. He feels strongly about the need to end drug prohibition, establish greater access to safer supply, modernize education about “street” drugs and advocate for the implementation of decriminalization and legalization models globally. His York University Master’s in Environmental Studies (MES with Urban Planning Certification) graduate research is focused on drug use and the housing crisis. Andrzej’s passions include travelling, movies, reading, art, music, and a good conversation.
Meriah
Main
Meriah Main is an activist and artist based in Vancouver, BC. She has her bachelors degree in nursing and lived experience with the mental health system and oppressive and harmful workplace substance use policies.
She is an advocate for policies and practices that prioritize compassion, dignity and evidence-based approaches to address the overdose crisis and drug war.
Her commitment to social justice extends to disability justice and mental health liberation. As the co-founder of SPIRIT, a mental health organization providing a platform for people to share their experiences with involuntary treatment, and a graduate of Stand Up for Mental Health, a comedy program for individuals living with mental health conditions,
Meriah is committed to resisting oppressive systems and building new ones that centre the voices and experiences of those most marginalized.
