People First Radio & Media

09/03/2026

Rob Csernyik spoke with the program about his work covering the gambling beat, he's the author of A Losing Hand, a book exploring the issue of gambling related su***des in Canada. Head to our page for a link to the full interview.

08/31/2026

Rob Csernyik is an investigative journalist who lives in Atlantic Canada and covers the gambling beat. He’s the author of A Losing Hand, a new book that takes a look at the issue of gambling related su***des in Canada.

“ We have a very robust industry of legalized gambling, and yet we also have…a big preoccupation in this country when it comes to mental health and su***de prevention,” he said.

Csernyik says in the early days of legalized gambling in Canada, there were a number of stories in the media about gambling related su***des.

“ I would say, kind of early to mid two thousands, they mostly just petered out of the headlines. And it was obvious that this was not a topic that had disappeared,” he said.

In 2003, chief coroners across the country agreed to pay more attention to tracking gambling related su***des. Csernyik set out to explore the results of that decision.

“ I figured there would be a lot of very clear data, you know, twenty-plus years after the fact,” he said. “But in the end, the amount of data provided was quite minimal…and the numbers, quite frankly, weren’t large enough to really tell us a data story like that.”

“Instead, the bigger story ended up being, well, why has this fallen by the wayside? And why now, at a time when we should be able to look at the past and figure out how the new expansion of gambling might affect this issue, why is it that we can’t do that because we simply don’t have enough concrete info here in Canada?”

Csernyik says that record keeping in Canada is not adequate on the issue of gambling related su***des.

“ I would say quite confidently, we can say that as a nation, we are not keeping track of these deaths, and we do not understand the full scope of that human cost of the gambling industry.”

He says that as a society, there hasn’t been a reckoning on the issue of what we want government run or regulated gambling operations to be.

“One of the main questions that I think we haven’t grappled with is more or less what is a lottery corporation or what is an iGaming corporation?” He said. “What I mean when I ask this is what is the intent?”

He cites the example of cannabis in his home province of New Brunswick as providing a counterexample.

“There is now a provincially owned cannabis store, but they tend to be pretty discreet locations. And, they’re only open set hours, and there’s a lot of little protocols that they follow…it’s just sort of designed that way because they don’t want people to say overconsume. They don’t want a certain reputation around the industry. And I think that’s very different than what we see in the gambling industry because we haven’t really asked those questions.”

“I think a big part of it is would we rather see a gambling industry be, say run for the sake of having a legalized gambling option so that people who want to play have an option, it may not be a fancy option like in Las Vegas, but something serviceable where if they want to spend a little bit of money and have a bit of entertainment, and they’ll know that they’ll get that money back and that they can sort of feel, I guess, a bit safer doing it, than using an unregulated version.

But that is a very different kind of model than, say, you know, the heavily advertised iGaming industry where you have all of these big industry proponents, these big American companies, getting licenses for websites and everything. And I think that is a distinction that we probably should have thought about a lot more.”

Listen to the full interview:

Saint John based Csernyik is author of A Losing Hand

08/27/2026

The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction(CCSA) has shared a resource meant to help smaller Canadian cities address substance use harms.

“The Playbook for Action has over 50 evidence-based interventions that a community could draw from,” said Chandni Sondagar, a senior knowledge broker with the organization.

The playbook is a document outlining a number of municipally led interventions that communities could implement, along with examples from across Canada. The suggested measures range from workplace substance use policies, to support for opioid agonist therapy providers in communities.

While healthcare is a provincial issue, Sondagar says there are ways for municipalities to move the needle.

“ When we think about health, it doesn’t fall within the purview of municipalities. That largely sits within the provinces. But with that being said, that doesn’t mean that municipalities are powerless. They have a number of levers that they could be leaning on,” she said.

“It’s things like developing a community safety and well being plan, for example, or developing a substance use response strategy…this could also be things like offering community spaces to organizations that offer different services or social services and health supports, being able to bring together partners.”

The playbook is accompanied by an implementation guide, meant to help cities start down the road to taking action on the issue of substance use related harms.

“It essentially walks communities through this step-by-step process of…doing a community needs assessment, understanding what their local challenges are, what kind of assets and resources that they have and what their priorities are to then determine which of the interventions from this playbook their community could consider for implementation,” said Sondagar.

She says this is a complex issue, which municipalities are on the front lines of.

“What I really want to reiterate is that communities aren’t powerless. There are levers that they can be pulling on, and the playbook and guide can be a great resource as they embark on their process to understand what a response looks like. And here at CCSA, we’re more than happy to support. So if communities do want to learn more, I do encourage you to reach out to us,” she said.

“We’d be more than happy to have a conversation to see what we could do to support your community.”

Listen:
https://vancouverislandmentalhealthsociety.org/podcast/national-organization-offers-playbook-for-small-cities-to-address-substance-use-harms/

See the playbook:
https://www.ccsa.ca/en/playbook-action-practical-interventions-small-cities-can-use-tackle-canadas-substance-use-crisis

"Communities aren't powerless" says CCSA knowledge broker

08/23/2026

Peers Victoria Resources Society recently marked its 30th anniversary. The organization helps s*x workers in the capital region.

"S*x workers in our area often can encounter stigma when accessing health and social support," said Executive Director Leigh Elliot. "So folks may not feel comfortable disclosing the work that they do, which can limit the sort of help that they're able to receive, or when they disclose the work that they do, they may experience stigma or discrimination from healthcare or social service supports."

Elliot says the organization has a street outreach nurse and they offer free counselling and housing supports, among other programming.

Peers is also offering a program to support non-English speaking s*x workers in the Victoria area. Ray Ray, one of the team members helping run that program, says the target population may not know how to navigate the health system in Canada, and that Peers can help them access healthcare support.

" We provide culturally safe referrals for healthcare and also mental health support, including translation assistance."

Elliot says s*x workers face higher rates of violence than other populations.

"That's primarily because of stigma and because folks feel like they can target s*x workers, and that they won't speak out about it. S*x workers are also less likely to disclose or to go to authorities if they do experience violence because of stigma and discrimination."

She says she feels there are many misconceptions about s*x work in the general public.

" I think when we look at media, s*x work is depicted a certain way. So I think that people think of it as street-based work. They think of it as the most precarious, as people being forced into these types of situations," she said.

"S*x work is a huge spectrum. We encounter folks who are only working online, who are only working indoors, and then we encounter the opposite...The majority of s*x workers, I would say, are not actually in that small precarity of work of being street-based and working outside, however, the majority of the folks that we support are, and that's because they're coming to us for those pieces that you mentioned around the social determinants of health. Like, they are looking to meet their basic needs. They are looking for support around housing, and we do see a lot of intersections when it comes to that."

Listen to the full interview:

Organization offers variety of programming in the capital region

08/20/2026

From June:

A UBC law prof argues that homelessness in Canada is governed by a patchwork of municipal bylaws.

Alexandra Flynn is co-author of The Bylaw State, a book that explores municipal government responses to homeless encampments from a legal perspective.

Flynn says that the idea for the book came when she and coauthor Joe Hermer were working on a project around encampments with the Federal Housing Advocate.

“We couldn’t really find anything about the legal aspect of bylaws and what it meant for unhoused people,” said Flynn. “And so we sat down to tell the story of bylaws and how they’ve come to be the way in which homelessness is governed in Canada.”

Flynn says Canada’s existing legal framework on housing creates a vaccuum.

“In Canada, we don’t have a very good housing framework, like a legal framework for who’s responsible for housing,” she said.

“Most other issues, there’s a government that’s listed in the constitution, and that’s the government that you would turn to to be accountable. And so housing is one of those areas where nobody really wants to be accountable, because it costs money, and it’s complicated.”

Flynn says that ultimately if people become homeless and are forced into public space, it becomes a de facto municipal issue.

“Municipalities oversee public space. And so, you know, parks are not meant to be slept in, and there’s bylaws that are written that say that you can’t be here overnight, or you can’t pitch a tent, you can’t use this space in a certain way, and those are the bylaws that end up being used to remove people from those public spaces.”

She says the courts end up being an important player in the situation as well.

“Municipalities will basically look for an injunction to remove people from encampments. And so they go to court, and they argue why this is necessary. Sometimes they don’t even go to court, but if they do, they argue why it’s necessary,” she said.

“And increasingly, homeless people with their lawyers and advocates will argue that the use of that injunction or the attempt that the city’s trying to do…violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and specifically Section 7, the right to life, liberty, and security of the person.”

Certain cases establish limits on what municipalities are allowed to do, such as the 2008 case Victoria v. Adams, which was substantively upheld on appeal the following year.

“ That’s the case that set this framework of municipalities cannot remove people at night if there’s not enough accessible shelter space,” said Flynn.

She says that because courts are deciding on the facts of individual cases, we don’t have clear and specific rules for all municipalities about what they are supposed to do to address homelessness.

Flynn says the framework of municipal bylaws can be de-humanizing for people experiencing homelessness.

“The biggest thing that I heard from unhoused people myself was, ‘treat us like human beings,'” she said.

“I think doing that changes everything. Like, bylaws are meant to regulate spaces. They regulate things like what is garbage, you know? What is a blight that shouldn’t be there in public space? And homeless people are treated in the same category.”

Flynn argues that all levels of government need to address the causes and consequences of homelessness.

“I would say we have to confront the fact in Canada that we have created this situation of a housing and homelessness humanitarian crisis. We have done this through our governments, through our decisions around how much we tax, what our priorities are, and, and we have to make different decisions around it.”

“What’s my perfect alternative view? It’s to recognize that this is a terrible crisis, that the legal framework that we have right now doesn’t seem designed to fix it, but increasingly courts are going to say, ‘this is the government’s job to do it, and we’re going to force them to.'”

Listen:

A UBC law prof argues that homelessness in Canada is governed by a ...

08/13/2026

In June, Cory Herzog-Fequet spoke with the program about the intersection between boredom, homelessness, and substance use

Listen:

After a decade of work with vulnerable populations, Cory Herzog-Feq...

08/12/2026

In May, retired judge Philip Seagram spoke with the show about a cross-Canada charity busking tour he undertook in 2022.

Listen:
https://vancouverislandmentalhealthsociety.org/podcast/retired-judge-turned-busker-shares-stories-from-cross-canada-tour/

08/11/2026

Earlier this year the program spoke with a number of indie musicians from coastal B.C. about the interplay between mental health and life in the industry.

Listen:

Independent musicians from around coastal B.C. speak about mental h...

08/09/2026

When it opened in 1921, the Weyburn Mental Hospital was hailed as the last and largest asylum in the British Commonwealth. Managing Madness co-author Erika Dyck writes that in the beginning, it was a symbol of both progress and a bygone era, embodying a set of contradictions from the outset.

Dyck is a Canada Research Chair in the History of Health and Social Justice, and a history professor at the University of Saskatchewan. She spoke with the program about the history of the mental hospital in Weyburn, which was demolished in 2009.

Included in the conversation are the institution’s early decades, Tommy Douglas’ Weyburn connection, forays into psychedelic assisted therapy in the 1950s, and eventual de-institutionalization.

Listen:

People First Radio · Episode

08/05/2026

This week People First Radio revisits a conversation with 'Street Dr. Jill' on her work as a social media influencer on topics related to health and homelessness.

Dr. Jill Wiwcharuk has been practicing medicine for 15 years, largely working with people living on the streets. Since December, she’s added a new dimension to her work, social media influencer.

Wiwcharuk posts under the handle streetdrjill.

“Having done this work for 15 years, you realize there’s just so many misconceptions that the public has about people that are homeless” she said.

“One of the biggest things is how do I help people understand that this is not a personal failure issue? You know, being unhoused is not a personal failure issue.”

Wiwcharuk says she’s seen her work make an impact.

“ There was one follower from Australia who reached out to me. She is raising her niece because her sister has an opioid use disorder, an addiction, and is not able to parent her. And this woman said, ‘You know, I lost compassion for my sister. I was angry at her. I just felt like it was her fault. She needed to make the choice to stop,'” Wiwcharuk said.

“She said that my reels have helped her reframe how she saw addiction, and it made a whole paradigm shift for her, and it gave her her sister back. So, you know, she was able to have more compassion for her sister and repair their relationship, and then support her sister in a different way… it’s not uncommon that we’re getting messages like that, and that feels really important.”

Listen to the full interview to learn more about Wiwcharuk’s work in street medicine, as well as her work on social media.

Dr. Jill Wiwcharuk has been practicing medicine for 15 years, large...