A group of indigenous women led a smudge ceremony behind Portage Place Shopping Centre in an effort to combat addiction and drug trafficking in the neighbourhood.
Indigenous activists with the Urban Warrior Alliance have maintained a presence outside the back doors at the mall for several days this week. They say they’re responding to calls from the community to take action against drug dealers, who they say have made coming to the mall a difficult ordeal for some.
“It was born out of tragic circumstances,” said Jennifer Spence-Clarke, who led the smudge ceremony on Sunday. “In the last few weeks, we’ve had a number of people who have died of suspected fentanyl overdoses.”
She said many people reported being accosted to buy drugs when walking through the mall.
Over the past several days, members of the group have been directly confronting drug dealers and by Saturday, they said no one was selling drugs behind the mall.
For Sunday’s action, Spence-Clarke said she wanted to find a way to combat the problem in a spiritual way. “So, this initiative to smudge the area is to feed the spirit of the area and to promote healing. And to combat the spirit of addiction that has got hold of our people.”
Spence-Clarke doesn’t think their actions will prevent the drug dealers from ever returning to the spot, but she said she has seen a difference in the people who live in the area.
“If even one person is compelled to not use any substances and stays clean for even one day, that’s a victory for somebody, it’s a victory for us as a community. I had a man come up and tell me yesterday he had been clean for 11 days. So this tells me this is working.”
The group says plans to move to various locations, offering smudges and combatting drug trafficking in different areas around the city.
CTV News has reached out to Portage Place, but has yet to receive a response.
