10/05/2026
In memory of the more than 151 Yukoners who have lost their lives to opioid overdoses since 2016, the Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG) and Blood Ties Four Directions Centre have placed 151 battery-powered tealight candles, a purple flower wreath, and a sign of names and messages from the community onto the steps of the territorial legislature on the day of the assembly's return. At Blood Ties' annual International Overdose Awareness Day on September 1st, community members were invited to write the names of lost loved ones on the sign. Each candle represents a community member who was lost too soon to the devastating toxic drug crisis in our territory, but we recognize the enormous effect of these deaths have also on family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and communities. We lost them too soon, and in their memory, we are calling on the Yukon Government to continue to support and provide live-saving harm reduction services.
