An Aug. 21 protest for homelessness rights at Tom Davies Square was focused on what many would consider a basic need: publicly accessible washroom facilities.
Currently, while there are bathrooms and shower facilities available downtown at the Samaritan Centre from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., and a toilet at the downtown bus station and the downtown library, there are restrictions, including time limits.
There appears to be no other bathroom in the downtown core available without purchasing an item, said protest organizer and former outreach worker, Brittany Laurie.
For many, using services inside of a set time period each day, like at the Samaritan Centre, can be difficult, she said. The physical side effects of opioids or the treatment medications, naloxone and suboxone, can cause extreme constipation and often upwards of half an hour needed to pass what is often “baseball-sized” feces.
Because bathrooms are not easily available, said Laurie, people who are homeless are often forced to urinate or defecate in public.
That’s not to mention the There are also the effects on people who are menstruating.
“How are you supposed to change each day,?” said Laurie, referring to menstrual products. “How are you supposed to do that if you've got to go behind a tree? You've got no access to toilet paper, you're going in alleyways and doorways. How are you supposed to feel like a human being? It's impossible.”
It’s about making life a little easier for those who could be in the grips of an addiction, something that Laurie has experienced.
Now in recovery for five years and seven months, she told Sudbury.com that there were many times during her addiction to opioids that she wanted to stop, but the physical addiction would take over her desire to leave the drug behind her.
“What a lot of people don't understand is that it’s not so much a mental addiction, but a physical one,” said Laurie. “For years, I didn't want to do the drug anymore. I was done with it, mentally; but the physical hold that opiates have on you is compared to nothing.”
Laurie said that compared to other forms of pain she’s experienced, such as childbirth, kidney stones and gallbladder surgery, “I would take any of those things over opiate withdrawal.”
She spoke of her body hurting like it was burned, “Your hair hurts, your eyelashes hurt, your eyeballs hurt. You were throwing up and pooping yourself at the same time.”
She said seizures are also common during withdrawal. “How are you supposed to do all of that when you live in a tent in minus 40?”
“Everybody deserves to have their voice heard. Everybody deserves dignity, and everybody deserves respect,” said Laurie.
Roland Periard was also at the protest. Periard volunteers with Freed from Need and Sudbury’s Centre for Transitional Care, and spent much of his life, from ages 13 to 28, involved with a gang and living on the street.
Now, he takes what he learned and tries to help others in his community that could be in a similar situation. He told Sudbury.com that more organizations in the city should work together, and more than anything, should put action behind their words.
Periard told Sudbury.com that it's been the people he has surrounded himself with since he went into recovery, his community of Sudbury, that has helped him feel loved and supported, to feel like a person with worth, and entitled to even basic hygiene.
“I experienced a lot of trauma throughout my life, mostly childhood trauma, through my teens and through addictions I've seen some pretty scary stuff and I've put myself in some pretty dangerous situations,” he said. “I was using at that time and it clouded my judgment, and I made those poor choices. But I'm grateful for those choices, because it made me who I am today.”
Laurie said that though it seems like a small thing, - the chance to use a bathroom - it is the mundane aspects of daily life, taken for granted, that can make someone feel whole again, and potentially, with the desire to change something about their situation.
All because they had the chance to wash, to use a toilet, and to feel they are of worth to their community.
Jenny Lamothe covers vulnerable and marginalized communities for Sudbury.com.
