Northeast of Edmonton, residents of the Kehewin First Nation are rallying to save their community from addiction.
After attending too many funerals for young people, they’re taking action to combat drugs and alcohol.
“It’s a real pandemic here,” said Kokum Kathleen Dion.
“We’re just losing too many young lives. One after the other.”
The 53-year-old knows that pain personally. Her son Bradley Whitstone battled addiction for years.
“His first time he ever tried (crystal) meth he kept us up for three days. He was just young, he was what? 17?” she recalled.
Dion believes her son spiraled after his father’s death in 2022.
“It’s such a cheap, dirty drug and it’s so accessible. They’re all going for it,” explained Dion’s partner, Nick Daigle.
They say Bradley would tell his family he wasn’t using — but they knew otherwise.
“The dark circles around his eyes, his face was swelling. It just wasn’t him. I could tell there was something wrong. I knew he was sick, but he’s such a stubborn kid,” Dion said.
“You can’t force somebody to quit something that they’re addicted to. It has to be their choice. No matter how much I pressured my son, it was still the same.”
The substance abuse broke down his young body.
“The meth damaged his liver and kidneys so bad that the doctors were telling him he needed to be on dialysis,” said Daigle.
“Makes you aggressive, angry, hateful — it’s nuts what that drug does to you.”
In May after a decade of drug abuse, the 26-year-old died, leaving behind a four-year-old daughter.
“I wish I could change that day, but I can’t,” Dion said through tears.
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“It’s always towards nighttime she’s crying for her dad.”
The medical examiner recently confirmed what the mother already knew in her heart — her son died from a methamphetamine overdose.
“That drug is the devil… I just hate it. That’s all I can say, I hate it.”
Dion is now one of several residents of Kehewin Cree Nation now calling for change. It’s home to 1,400 members.
“We have to stop normalizing alcoholism and drug using. It’s been so overlooked for so long,” explained mother of four Brittany Mountain.
“When the kids are outside, it’s a concern of my own because we have people that are known drug users just walking through the yard, drunk people walking on the road and they’d sometimes yell at the kids and litter on our yard.”
She rallied other mothers and neighbours in taking action.
“We hear people talking all the time about wanting to make changes on the reserve, and nobody ever does anything about it. They complain a lot about it but they never have a resolution,” she said.
“Our elders and our children deserve to have a safe space to enjoy.”
She contacted band councillor Tyler Youngchief, who recently ran for his seat on a platform of combating drug use in Kehewin.
It’s an area he’s especially passionate about after the death of his niece Ryleigh Youngchief at the age of 35. Tyler says she was killed in a substance-fuelled attack.
After speaking with the RCMP about what they need to be able to make arrests, he’d taken a stab at drafting a bylaw outlawing drugs in Kehewin.
The councillor shared it with Mountain and her new Illicit Drugs and Alcohol Committee.
“I pushed them and I told them I would support them. I’ve been trying to get something going. So it’s good to see it’s coming from the people of the Nation,” Youngchief said.
An amended version of his bylaw was agreed to in-principle by the Chief and council.
“The bylaw basically states that we are a dry reserve. There’s no drugs or alcohol permitted within the reserve,” Mountain said.
It also lays out serious consequences for selling or abusing drugs or alcohol, stripping residents of housing privileges, community services and other resources.
“If you’re dealing with drug dealers, you shouldn’t be able to keep your home,” Youngchief said.
“It’s not to punish them. It’s to give them the push to snap out of it and change and look at the harm that they’re doing to our own band members.”
Youngchief is hopeful the bylaw will make drugs and alcohol less accessible in Kehewin, located about 25 kilometres south of Bonnyville.
“No matter what kind of drug or addiction there is, there’s always going to be some way to supply it. That’s just the unfortunate end of addictions. But if you can limit the interactions in your community, then you can help people get past it.”
Brittany Wright is another committee member. She spoke to Global News after attending the funeral of another young person.
Her motivation was simple: “We’re tired of seeing our people hurting and all the losses we’re experiencing,” she said. “We’re taking this serious now.”
“We want to protect our future generations, our youth, our children, our elders.”
She said their group is ready to lead by example, and crack down on the worst offenders.
“We have a list compiled of all the names. So as soon as the legal review team is done reviewing this bylaw, we’re going to take some action into it.”
With that process ongoing, it’s unclear exactly when the bylaw will take effect.
But for Dion, and other grieving mothers, it can’t happen soon enough. They don’t want any other families to endure what theirs already have.
“I just with sometimes I could bring (my son) back for a moment, and tell him how much I loved him.”
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