tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/kwantlen-polytechnic-university-2492/articles
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
2024-02-26T17:04:00Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219482
2024-02-26T17:04:00Z
2024-02-26T17:04:00Z
Writing is a technology that restructures thought — and in an AI age, universities need to teach it more
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577645/original/file-20240223-30-anxfss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=170%2C166%2C2824%2C1724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Today's undergraduates are plunged into a sea of texts, information and technology they have immense difficulty navigating, and artificial intelligence tools for writing aren't the solution. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.piqsels.com/en/public-domain-photo-frrbx">(Piqsels)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In an age <a href="https://theconversation.com/artificial-intelligence-is-getting-better-at-writing-and-universities-should-worry-about-plagiarism-160481">of AI-assisted writing</a>, is it important for university students to learn how to write? </p>
<p>We believe it is now more than ever. </p>
<p>In the writing classroom, students get the time and help they need to understand writing as not only a skill, but what the language scholar Walter J. Ong called a “<a href="https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/books/9789027277183-tsl.21.22ong">technology that restructures thought</a>.”</p>
<p>“Technology” is not simply iPhones or spreadsheets — it is about <a href="https://blog.oup.com/2014/04/writing-as-technology/">mediating our relationship with the world through the creation of tools</a>, and writing itself is arguably the most important tool for thinking that university students need to master.</p>
<p>Perhaps not surprisingly, not everyone agrees.</p>
<h2>Role of university writing courses</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2023/11/14/eliminate-required-first-year-writing-course-opinion">“Eliminate the Required First-Year Writing Course” </a> was the headline of a provocative article published in <em>Inside Higher Ed</em> in November.</p>
<p>In this article, a professor of writing studies, Melissa Nicolas of Washington State University, writes that while she has seen reason to question how efficient first-year composition courses are before now, “the advent of generative artificial intelligence is the final nail in the coffin.”</p>
<p>In her estimation, “learning to write and writing to learn are two distinct things.” First-year writing courses are “largely about learning to write, but AI can now do this for us. Writing to learn is much more complicated and is something that can only be done by the human mind.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person seen writing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577650/original/file-20240223-15016-9si2a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577650/original/file-20240223-15016-9si2a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577650/original/file-20240223-15016-9si2a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577650/original/file-20240223-15016-9si2a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=254&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577650/original/file-20240223-15016-9si2a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577650/original/file-20240223-15016-9si2a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577650/original/file-20240223-15016-9si2a3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=319&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Good writing’ reflects intellectual engagement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We take issue with this distinction. From the perspective of human learning and development, the grammatically correct prose produced by generative AI like ChatGPT is not “good writing” — even <a href="https://theconversation.com/chatgpts-greatest-achievement-might-just-be-its-ability-to-trick-us-into-thinking-that-its-honest-202694">if it is or seems factually correct</a> — if it does not reflect intellectual engagement with its subject matter. This is not to mention serious questions <a href="https://theconversation.com/unlike-with-academics-and-reporters-you-cant-check-when-chatgpts-telling-the-truth-198463">about the meaning of gaining insight</a> from digital data, issues surrounding data biases, and so on. </p>
<p>First-year composition and other writing courses are a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1179517">crucial part of the way university students are socialized into ways of communicating</a> that will benefit them far beyond their undergraduate years.</p>
<h2>Canadian versus American universities</h2>
<p>We propose another solution to the problem Nicolas raises of first-year composition courses being formulaic and outdated. Universities need to devote resources to expanding and improving writing programs, including first-year composition. </p>
<p>We especially need this in Canada, where, as <a href="https://summit.sfu.ca/item/36113">doctoral research carried out by one of the authors of this piece (Taylor Morphett) has shown,</a> first-year composition has traditionally been under-emphasized, and writing has only been taught in a piecemeal way.</p>
<p>When first-year composition courses began to develop at the end of the 19th century in the United States, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/377982">in Canada the focus was on the fine-tuning of literary taste and the reading of canonical British literature</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Students seen sitting at a round table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577658/original/file-20240223-16-anxfss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577658/original/file-20240223-16-anxfss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577658/original/file-20240223-16-anxfss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577658/original/file-20240223-16-anxfss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577658/original/file-20240223-16-anxfss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577658/original/file-20240223-16-anxfss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577658/original/file-20240223-16-anxfss.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Writing education is often seen by universities as a remedial skill, something students should already know how to do.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The philosophies of education and approaches to teaching that developed from this early time are still present today in Canada. Writing education is often seen by universities as a remedial skill, something students should already know how to do.</p>
<p>In reality, much more writing instruction is needed. Today’s undergraduates are plunged into a sea of <a href="https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2018.12.1.2">texts, information and technology they have immense difficulty navigating</a>, and ChatGPT has made it harder, not easier, for students to discern the credibility of sources.</p>
<h2>Writing programs in Canada</h2>
<p>In writing courses, students can begin to see the critical variety and power of one of our best technologies: the human act of writing, a system of finite resources but infinite combinations. They learn to think, synthesize, judge the credibility of sources and information and interact with an audience — none of which can be done by AI.</p>
<p>Thankfully, some universities have taken the lead in making writing a cornerstone of undergraduate education. For example, the University of Victoria has a <a href="https://www.uvic.ca/humanities/student-resources/writing-requirement/index.php">robust academic writing requirement</a> for all students, regardless of their field of study. At the University of Toronto Mississauga, <a href="https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/isup/our-courses/isp100-writing-university-and-beyond#takeisp100">first-year students take an innovative for-credit writing course</a> that takes a “<a href="https://writingaboutwriting.net/about/history-and-mission/">writing-about-writing</a>” approach. In this program, undergraduates study writing as an academic subject itself, not just a skill. They learn about the importance, complexity and socially situated nature of academic writing. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person seen writing with laptop open and pencil in hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577621/original/file-20240223-22-8ottxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577621/original/file-20240223-22-8ottxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577621/original/file-20240223-22-8ottxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577621/original/file-20240223-22-8ottxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577621/original/file-20240223-22-8ottxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577621/original/file-20240223-22-8ottxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577621/original/file-20240223-22-8ottxt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In writing courses, students can begin to see the critical variety and power of one of our best technologies: the human act of writing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-shot-of-a-girl-studying-in-the-library-9489766/">(Yaroslav Shuraev)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Needed at all universities</h2>
<p>All Canadian universities should make a beginning academic writing or communication course required for all undergraduates, along with discipline-specific upper-division writing courses focused on scholarly and professional genres in their fields. </p>
<p>Academic and professional writing is a second language for everyone: no one is born knowing how to properly cite sources or craft airtight business proposals. </p>
<p>We need dedicated writing programs to help students <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-intelligence-for-millennia-western-literature-has-suggested-it-may-be-a-liability-205913">understand and communicate complex concepts to a specific audience for a specific purpose</a> in rhetorically flexible ways, with an awareness of their responsibilities to a human community of readers.</p>
<h2>Skills and knowledge to make a difference</h2>
<p>Generative AI like ChatGPT cannot do this, because <a href="https://theconversation.com/gpt-3-new-ai-can-write-like-a-human-but-dont-mistake-that-for-thinking-neuroscientist-146082">it cannot know or “understand” anything</a>. Its <em>raison d'être</em> is to produce plausible strings of symbols in response to human prompts, based on data it has been trained upon.</p>
<p>We have knowledgeable and talented PhDs graduating in communication, applied linguistics, English, rhetoric and related fields whose expertise in these areas is sorely needed at institutions across the country. </p>
<p>If Canada wants to graduate domestic and international students with the skills and knowledge to make a difference in the world, we need to be training them in writing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219482/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joel Heng Hartse receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. He is also president of the Canadian Association for the Study of Discourse and Writing/Association Canadienne de Rédactologie.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Taylor Morphett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Undergraduate writing courses are about learning to think, synthesize and judge the credibility of sources — and interact with an audience.
Joel Heng Hartse, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University
Taylor Morphett, Instructor, English, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/215106
2023-10-11T21:27:03Z
2023-10-11T21:27:03Z
It’s time to banish the notwithstanding clause, the slow killer of Canada’s rule of law
<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/its-time-to-banish-the-notwithstanding-clause-the-slow-killer-of-canadas-rule-of-law" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>I have written before that <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-hint-that-he-may-not-concede-election-is-americas-tipping-point-143124">the far-right populist nationalism of the sort that fuelled the events of Jan. 6, 2021 in the United States</a> and the so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/candice-bergens-nod-to-trump-is-a-sign-of-canadas-descent-but-the-charter-may-save-us-176785">“freedom convoy” of February 2022 in Canada</a> are not outlier events.</p>
<p>We live in a period in which the validity of constitutional norms and democratic consensus can no longer be presumed. </p>
<p>In the U.S., we’re watching a former and possible future president try to avoid criminal liability and win back his old office while ducking civil and regulatory liability at the same time. </p>
<p>Donald Trump as a president was anathema to the rule of law but inspired his followers. NATO allies <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/26/politics/europe-far-right-what-matters/index.html">like Italy</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/04/orban-hungary-far-right-international-cpac-conservative/">Hungary</a>, <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2023/6/2/23745973/trump-recep-tayyip-erdogan-authoritarian-conservatives-steven-roberts-column">Turkey</a> and now <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/01/pro-russian-ex-pm-fico-wins-slovak-election-needs-allies-for-government.html">Slovakia</a> have far-right governments that emulate the Trumpist model and traffic in conspiracy theories. </p>
<p>Even the largest European democracies, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/04/macron-wins-french-election-marine-le-pen/629666/">France</a> and <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/07/03/germany-afd-far-right-politics-populism-election/">Germany</a>, now have far-right parties that could one day form governments.</p>
<h2>Poilievre stokes outrage</h2>
<p>Canada is part of the mix too. Pierre Poilievre, the current opposition leader who’s vying to become prime minister, famously <a href="https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2023/04/05/Poilievre-Big-Bet-On-Convoy-Politics/">appeared with freedom convoy leaders</a>. He <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/pierre-poilievre-is-flirting-with-the-far-right-by-pushing-great-reset-conspiracy/article_43f2ddd2-5501-514d-8b50-921844a888bc.html">peddles conspiracies about the World Economic Forum and the “great reset</a>,” code for an alleged plot by globalist elites to impose a new socialist order on the unknowing masses.</p>
<p>In increasingly obvious ways, he brings the cultural politics of America’s Christian nationalist far right to Canada. <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/08/24/news/poilievres-base-gender-schools-children">The outrage on trans kids, pronouns in public schools and the cooked-up theory of “parental rights” is only the latest iteration</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-parental-rights-movement-gave-rise-to-the-1-million-march-4-children-213842">How the 'parental rights' movement gave rise to the 1 Million March 4 Children</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Not surprisingly, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pierre-poilievre-canada-conservatives-elect-right-wing-populist-vs-justin-trudeau/">mainstream media outlets in the U.S. have reported on Poilievre’s ascent as a sign that American far-right populism and alt-right culture is plainly seeping over the northern border</a>. However, if elected, a Poilievre government could not rely on the institutional supports available to a President Trump.</p>
<p>For instance, his government would not inherit a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/07/05/1109444617/the-supreme-court-conservative">U.S.-style Supreme Court dominated by conservative judges prepared to turn the clock back on social progress</a>. It would take decades of concerted effort by successive ultra-right conservative governments <a href="https://news.uoguelph.ca/2022/07/why-canadas-supreme-court-isnt-likely-to-go-rogue-like-its-u-s-counterpart/">to transform Canadian courts — and even then it might not work</a> <a href="https://theintercept.com/2022/05/10/roe-v-wade-federalist-society-religious-right/">as it has in the U.S.</a></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-canadas-supreme-court-isnt-likely-to-go-rogue-like-its-u-s-counterpart-186020">Why Canada's Supreme Court isn't likely to go rogue like its U.S. counterpart</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<hr>
<p>As much as he might try, a Prime Minister Poilievre would similarly be unable to rally rural voters around gun rights in the same way as Republican presidents because <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/canada-gun-ban-u-s-constitution-1711790">Canada does not have an equivalent to the Second Amendment</a>. </p>
<h2>Weaponizing Section 33</h2>
<p>However, if Poilievre or some other future Canadian leader wished to break with past tradition and takes steps toward a more authoritarian society, they could do so surprisingly easily <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art33.html#:%7E:text=33.,to%2015%20of%20this%20Charter.">using Section 33 or the “notwithstanding clause” of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms</a></p>
<p>Section 33 lives within the Constitution itself and can short-circuit social progress and shield legislation from constitutional review. Expanded usage of Section 33 is becoming increasingly normalized at the provincial level — Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/experts-consider-sask-jump-to-notwithstanding-clause-1.6984702">is vowing to use it to cement its new policy</a> that all youth under the age of 16 will have to get parental consent to use their chosen name and pronouns at school.</p>
<p>It could one day be used routinely at the federal level as well.</p>
<p>When asked to comment directly on any actual or potential uses of the notwithstanding clause, <a href="https://thewalrus.ca/the-notwithstanding-clause-is-it-time-for-canada-to-repeal-it/">Poilievre won’t weigh in</a>. However, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/charter-rights-notwithstanding-clause-constitution-1.6472317">he has a history playing politics with Section 33, and has suggested amending the Criminal Code, particularly on sensitive criminal justice matters like parole eligibility</a>. </p>
<p>There’s also the possibility Poilievre could openly encourage the notwithstanding clause’s use at the provincial level as a matter of “provincial rights,” as <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-lgbtq-pronouns-schools-1.6950029">he recently has on the topic of gender pronouns</a>.</p>
<h2>Thwarts other rights</h2>
<p>Section 33 is called the “notwithstanding clause” because it permits the federal Parliament or provincial legislatures to make laws “notwithstanding” the fundamental rights guaranteed by <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-12.html">Sections 2 and 7-15 of the Charter</a>. </p>
<p>Its increasingly routine use is alarming because these sections contain protections that guarantee the rule of law. Section 2, for example, contains a four-part guarantee of:</p>
<ol>
<li>Freedom of conscience and religion;</li>
<li>Freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press;</li>
<li>Freedom of peaceful assembly;</li>
<li>Freedom of association. </li>
</ol>
<p>Sections 7 to 15 cover an array of fundamental rights. They include:</p>
<p>— The rights to life, liberty and security of the person;</p>
<p>— The right against unreasonable search and seizure;</p>
<p>— The right against arbitrary arrest and detention;</p>
<p>— The right to legal counsel and bail upon arrest and detention;</p>
<p>— The right to a fair trial and the presumption of innocence;</p>
<p>— The right against cruel and unusual punishment;</p>
<p>— The right to an interpreter in a criminal trial and;</p>
<p>— The guarantee of equality.</p>
<p>Recent efforts at the provincial level hint at the ways Section 33 can be used to attack Section 2 and Section 15 rights in particular. <a href="https://theconversation.com/first-ontario-now-quebec-the-notwithstanding-threat-104379">This poses a grave threat to Canada’s social contract</a>. </p>
<p>If Poilievre’s Conservatives win the next federal election, will it result in the notwithstanding clause being employed even more often to avoid Charter reviews of contentious legislation?</p>
<p>Will it be used by a government led by a prime minister inclined to break convention — or perhaps, even more predictably, to encourage Conservative provincial premiers to use the clause to roll back the clock on human rights victories of the past? </p>
<h2>Along the same path as the U.S.?</h2>
<p>If that happens, it might lead Canada down a road similar to the one the U.S. is currently on. </p>
<p>It’s a path that respected international human rights organization, Freedom House, describes as a <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2022/global-expansion-authoritarian-rule/reversing-decline-democracy-united-states">“dramatic shift in Americans’ perceptions of acceptable political behaviour over the past several years, and an increased willingness to sacrifice democratic institutions for the sake of partisan gain.”</a></p>
<p>The only solution to the ominous threats posed by Section 33 is to amend Canada’s Constitution. While that wouldn’t require the unanimity of all provincial legislatures and Parliament, it would trigger the general amending formula under <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-13.html">Section 38 of the Charter</a>. </p>
<p>The formula requires the assent of Parliament and “resolutions of the legislative assemblies of at least two-thirds of the provinces that have … at least fifty per cent of the population of all the provinces.”</p>
<p>Realistically, many provinces, including populous ones like Québec and Ontario, would never give up the power to override the Charter now guaranteed to them by Section 33 voluntarily. To actually amend the Constitution would require both Ontario and Québec to do just that — and they would need some incentive from the public.</p>
<p>That means it’s now up to voters to begin demanding that premiers stop using the nothwithstanding clause. Younger voters should also consider whether they want to inherit a Constitution that can be so easily shirked. </p>
<p>If they don’t, they should demand that their provincial and federal politicians consider a needed constitutional amendment. The failure to act now could be disastrous for the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215106/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey B. Meyers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The only solution to the ominous threats posed by the increasing use of the notwithstanding clause is to amend Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Jeffrey B. Meyers, Instructor, Legal Studies and Criminology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205254
2023-05-09T20:16:24Z
2023-05-09T20:16:24Z
Dismay over King Charles’s coronation raises questions about Canada’s ties to the monarchy
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525158/original/file-20230509-21-1iokjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5159%2C3413&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">King Charles and Queen Camilla stand on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after their coronation in London on May 6, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/dismay-over-king-charles-s-coronation-raises-questions-about-canada-s-ties-to-the-monarchy" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The coronation of King Charles was a cringe-inducing display of white European hereditary privilege and ostentation that angered many, both in the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/uk-republicans-call-for-saturdays-coronation-to-be-the-last">United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/uk-charles-coronation-royals-commonwealth-caribbean-africa-e450b996bc21b179cd3725789853676e">the Commonwealth</a>.</p>
<p>That anger, or in some cases simple apathy or collective eye-rolling, should not be ignored because the monarchy and the Crown are not merely symbols, they’re a massive expense. </p>
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<p>The cost of the coronation to the British taxpayer has been estimated at <a href="https://time.com/6275383/king-charles-iii-coronation-cost-taxpayers/">£100 million</a> (almost $170 million in Canadian dollars) — extremely costly in a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64450882">post-Brexit period of economic uncertainty and decline for the U.K.</a>.</p>
<p>Some of the vast private wealth and land holdings of the Royal Family are also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/series/cost-of-the-crown">connected directly to England’s role in colonization and the slave trade</a>. </p>
<p>Despite all this, the monarch remains the head of state for many Commonwealth countries, including Canada. </p>
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<img alt="An elderly man in a large crown adorned with jewels and purple velvet waves from an ornate golden horse-drawn carriage. An elderly woman in a similar crown sits beside him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525163/original/file-20230509-15-e6h1l2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">King Charles waves from a golden carriage following his coronation in London on May 6, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
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<h2>The U.S. style of republicanism</h2>
<p>While the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/4/20/america-isnt-just-a-failing-state-it-is-a-failed-experiment">American experiment in republicanism isn’t looking especially good</a> at the moment amid the shambles left by Donald Trump’s presidency, the country’s founders were correct in recognizing that democratic legitimacy and monarchical power cannot be easily reconciled.</p>
<p>In fact, their biggest mistake and that of subsequent generations may simply have been to permit the presidency to retain elements of absolute or unfettered power in the form of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/14/politics/what-is-executive-privilege-what-matters/index.html">executive privilege</a>. </p>
<p>From George W. Bush’s disastrous war on terror to the Trump administration’s outright repudiation of democratic norms, <a href="https://hls.harvard.edu/today/presidential-power-surges/">recent presidents have not hesitated to behave like kings</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/manhattan-grand-jury-votes-to-indict-donald-trump-showing-he-like-all-other-presidents-is-not-an-imperial-king-196451">Manhattan grand jury votes to indict Donald Trump, showing he, like all other presidents, is not an imperial king</a>
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<p>In Canada, we can benefit from both the lessons of the United States and the U.K. to avoid idealizing a republic with a powerful president and at the same time acknowledging that a traditional monarchy, even a purely symbolic or constitutional monarchy, is no alternative. </p>
<p>As I have argued before, each Commonwealth nation would have different legislative and constitutional processes to follow to sever ties with the British monarchy. Canada’s in particular would be complex and difficult, but not necessarily impossible.</p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-canada-cut-ties-to-the-monarchy-under-king-charles-its-possible-190894">Will Canada cut ties to the monarchy under King Charles? It's possible</a>
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<p>It would require unanimous consent of all provincial legislatures and the federal Parliament. In practice, this would probably not be possible without referendums in each province. Because of this, <a href="https://thewalrus.ca/ask-an-expert-what-would-it-take-to-leave-the-monarchy/">some leading constitutional lawyers in Canada regard the question as a non-starter</a>. </p>
<p>But if Canadians aren’t careful, they may one day find that events in the U.K. make the decision for us.</p>
<p>Here’s how. </p>
<h2>Different political systems</h2>
<p>Suppose <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/young-british-people-want-ditch-monarchy-poll-suggests-2021-05-20/">current British demographic trends and polling data</a> pan out and a decade or two from now a younger, more diverse British population loses patience with the monarchy. </p>
<p>Like Canada, the U.K. has a constitution and the monarchy is essential to it. But unlike Canada, the U.K.’s constitution is largely unwritten. Changing the British Constitution can at least theoretically be done by an ordinary act of Parliament and without the complexity of co-ordinating 10 sovereign legislatures. </p>
<p>Another difference? <a href="https://www.centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk/news-and-opinion/back-unitary-state">The U.K. is a unitary</a> and not a federal state. This means British parliament, unlike Canada’s, can unilaterally amend its constitution to address the status of the monarchy if it wishes. </p>
<p>Similarly in the U.K., any conventions around public consultation would also be arguably less complex and more straightforward than in Canada because of the British system of government. This could lead to a bizarre situation in which the British monarch ceases to be the British head of state but remains the Canadian one. </p>
<p>To my knowledge, this would be a completely uncharted territory and a constitutional crisis of the highest magnitude. </p>
<p>Rather than continuing to sit nervously on the sidelines observing America’s presidential system lurch from crisis to crisis, or celebrating the coronation of Britain’s new king as our own, Canada should learn from the errors of both the republican model and monarchical model and do something different. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People sit in an ornate ballroom drinking tea with two TV screens showing the coronation at the front of the room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525160/original/file-20230509-23-idwc3m.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">People gather to watch the coronation of King Charles in Edmonton on May 6, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson</span></span>
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<h2>Looking ahead</h2>
<p>We might start by recognizing forms of political association, governance and policymaking that are less European and owe more to Indigenous models. </p>
<p>Mary Simon, Canada’s governor general and the King’s representative in Canada — as well as first Indigenous person to occupy that colonial office — is correct when she says <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/governor-general-canada-monarchy-future-1.6831365">many Indigenous people look to the treaty relationship with the Crown, which predates Confederation itself, as part of their strategy of decolonization</a>. </p>
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<p>But it’s tough to reconcile a European hereditary monarchy with a Canada in which Indigenous people are attempting to take control over their own destiny.</p>
<p>Similarly, for many Canadians who immigrated to Canada from parts of the former British Empire in the Caribbean, Africa and India, finding the old colonial monarchy waiting for them here is no sign of dynamism.</p>
<p>It will be up to the current generation of Canadians to decide if now is the time to begin taking this question more seriously or whether to leave it to the United Kingdom to decide for us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey B. Meyers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Canadians should learn the lessons of the U.S. and the U.K. to avoid idealizing a republic with a powerful president and at the same time acknowledge that a constitutional monarchy is no alternative.
Jeffrey B. Meyers, Instructor, Legal Studies and Criminology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/190894
2022-09-22T19:09:23Z
2022-09-22T19:09:23Z
Will Canada cut ties to the monarchy under King Charles? It’s possible
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485931/original/file-20220921-9210-mal6o3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C2807%2C1845&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">King Charles and Prince William arrive for Queen Elizabeth's committal service at Windsor Castle on Sept. 19, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, Pool)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The death of Queen Elizabeth, the reigning monarch of the British Empire, the Commonwealth and therefore Canada, does not create a constitutional crisis in our system of government. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/08/world/europe/charles-king-uk.html">It automatically triggered the ascension of King Charles</a>. </p>
<p>Canada, ostensibly an independent country since 1867, now has its first new monarch since 1952. But a lot has changed since then. </p>
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<img alt="A black and white photo shows a bald man in a suit holding up the design of the new Canadian flag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485929/original/file-20220921-14-1muoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485929/original/file-20220921-14-1muoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485929/original/file-20220921-14-1muoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485929/original/file-20220921-14-1muoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485929/original/file-20220921-14-1muoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485929/original/file-20220921-14-1muoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485929/original/file-20220921-14-1muoda.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The chairman of the House of Commons flag committee displays the single maple leaf flag design chosen by the committee in October 1964. THE CANADIAN PRESS.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS</span></span>
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<p>In 1982, <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/constitution-act-1982">Canada adopted a newly written Constitution</a> that included the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the recognition of <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/transparency/committees/inan-jan-28-2021/inan-section-35-consitution-act-1982-background-jan-28-2021.html">aboriginal treaty rights</a> and a home-grown means of amending the Constitution in Canada without the involvement of British parliament.</p>
<p>Canada also retired the old red ensign that included the Union Jack and <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/flag-canada-history.html">raised the red-and-white flag featuring the maple leaf in 1965</a>. Nonetheless, Canada remains a constitutional monarchy and not a constitutional republic despite these American-style moves toward independence.</p>
<h2>Loyal to the British monarchy</h2>
<p>Canada’s evolution as a modern state centred on its <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/crown">loyalty to the British Crown</a>, a clear alternative to the American experiment as a democratic republic nearly a century earlier. </p>
<p>The American Revolution was premised on an explicit, violent rejection of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/American-Revolution">Crown in favour of a presidential form of government</a>. Whatever its problems and failings, it was a great moment of human innovation.</p>
<p>But despite staying loyal to the Crown, Canada would begin to drift away from the old British model 100 years later.</p>
<p>The year 2022 is a possible inflection point as the long reigning and personally popular Queen Elizabeth is succeeded by her less popular eldest son.</p>
<p>For Americans, this may be a celebrity story first and foremost. But for Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and other citizens of Commonwealth countries, the monarchy is tied to their system of government, symbolic representation and identity. </p>
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<h2>Cutting ties in the Caribbean</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-59470843">The recent decision by the Caribbean island of Barbados</a> to abandon the monarchy and become a republic likely portends similar outcomes in <a href="https://www.thenational.scot/news/20198822.jamaica-british-monarchy-ditched-2025-marlene-malahoo-forte-says/">Jamaica</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/11/antigua-and-barbuda-republic-referendum-within-three-years-pm-queen-death">Antigua and Barbuda</a> and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/us-politics/article-queen-commonwealth-carribbean-monarchy/">elsewhere in the region</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/10/king-charles-britain-republicans-queen-death-ending-monarchy">Even in the U.K.,</a> support for the monarchy has been declining for decades, although the majority still support it. According to some sources, younger Britons in particular are <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/05/21/young-britons-are-turning-their-backs-monarchy">losing faith in the monarchy and leaning toward republicanism</a>. </p>
<p>Some commentators suggest with good reason that abandoning the monarchy in Canada would be <a href="https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2022/09/16/so-you-want-canada-to-abolish-the-monarchy-heres-why-thats-basically-impossible.html">all but impossible as a constitutional question, though all bets would obviously be off if the U.K. dumped the monarchy first</a>.</p>
<p>While the United States comes to grips with its authoritarian tendencies and the rise of white nationalism, Canada and other Commonwealth countries are increasingly focused on race relations, in particular the role of the Crown in relation to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/mar/23/british-royal-family-monarchy-historical-links-to-slavery">transatlantic slave trade</a>, imperialism and <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/indigenous-leaders-call-on-king-charles-iii-to-renounce-doctrine-of-discovery-1.6064497">the treatment of Indigenous Peoples</a>. </p>
<p>These issues all pertain to the historical role of the Crown and the British monarch in the fundamental legitimacy of our states and legal orders. Although Canada didn’t fight a revolutionary war for a republican form of government like the U.S. did, it’s moved closer to an American, republican model of government and further from the British one over the course of its legal, political and constitutional history.</p>
<h2>Breaks from the Crown</h2>
<p>Canada’s first break with the Crown occurred in 1867 when it became an independent dominion and adopted a division of powers between the founding provinces and the federal Parliament in Ottawa. The second major break was almost 100 years later, when it patriated <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/const/page-13.html#h-57">the Constitution</a> in 1982.</p>
<p>While it’s true Canada retained the British hereditary monarch as its head of state in both 1867 and 1982, that doesn’t mean it has to do the same in the 21st century.</p>
<p>Granted, Canada has not held a referendum on transitioning to a constitutional republic as <a href="https://www.aec.gov.au/elections/referendums/1999_referendum_reports_statistics/index.htm">Australia did in 1999</a> when citizens opted to maintain ties to the Crown. But the recent decision by Barbados to ditch the monarchy suggests that the global decolonization process is ongoing and that anti-imperial ideology has teeth across the region. </p>
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<p>Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders who are the descendants of slaves or Indigenous Peoples have likely been inspired by these developments. Those sentiments <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/queens-death-shines-spotlight-wrongs-suffered-by-indigenous-people-2022-09-18/">will only intensify now</a> that the popular Queen has died.</p>
<p>Canada’s particular reckoning with the role of the Catholic Church, the Church of England and the Crown itself <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9126671/king-charles-iii-responsibility-crown-role-residential-schools/">in residential schools and colonial genocide</a> makes the Royal Family’s attributes of continuity and tradition seem like strange reasons to keep them around.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-in-the-past-colonialism-is-rooted-in-the-present-157395">Not in the past: Colonialism is rooted in the present</a>
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<h2>Time to reflect on Canada’s future</h2>
<p>The death of Queen Elizabeth and the ascension of King Charles should present a moment of reflection for Canada, especially as Caribbean Commonwealth nations begin to abandon the monarchy.</p>
<p>The world admired the Queen. But whatever her personal qualities, it’s time to determine how the monarchy aligns with Canada’s current situation as an independent country and its aspirations for the future, especially if it wants to take itself seriously as a modern, 21st century nation focused on reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An elderly woman in a pink hat and floral dress, holding flowers, smiles as she boards a plane and is saluted by an RCMP officer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485950/original/file-20220921-15425-cyzxmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485950/original/file-20220921-15425-cyzxmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485950/original/file-20220921-15425-cyzxmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485950/original/file-20220921-15425-cyzxmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485950/original/file-20220921-15425-cyzxmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485950/original/file-20220921-15425-cyzxmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485950/original/file-20220921-15425-cyzxmy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Queen Elizabeth is saluted by an RCMP officer as she leaves Canada after her final visit to the country in July 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese</span></span>
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<p>As a matter of constitutional law, unanimity of all provincial legislatures and both houses of federal Parliament would be required to remove the monarchy from its place at the heart of our formal and symbolic constitutional order.</p>
<p>It would also likely require a referendum in each province before any of the provincial legislatures or Parliament would take such a vote. </p>
<p>That would be difficult, and probably wouldn’t succeed on the first or even second try, but it’s hardly impossible. Opinion polls suggest that <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8774026/canada-royals-monarchy-queen-support-poll/">although a majority of Canadians admired the Queen, only about half are in any way committed to the monarchy as an institution</a>. </p>
<p>Younger, more diverse and Indigenous citizens may begin demanding a country in their own image, a country that belongs not only to those who settled it but to those there long before then — and those choosing to make it their home today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190894/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffrey B. Meyers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Whatever Queen Elizabeth’s personal qualities, it’s time to determine how the monarchy fits Canada’s current situation as an independent country and its aspirations for the future.
Jeffrey B. Meyers, Instructor, Criminology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/56412
2016-03-23T10:08:08Z
2016-03-23T10:08:08Z
Humanizing the heroin epidemic: a photo essay
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115497/original/image-20160317-30237-bequvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A nurse treats Johnny at Vancouver’s Crosstown Clinic before he self-injects his medication.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For over a year, I’ve been documenting the lives of three long-term drug users – Marie, Cheryl and Johnny – who are participating in Vancouver’s <a href="http://www.providencehealthcare.org/salome/about-us.html">heroin-assisted clinical study and program</a>.</p>
<p>In recent years, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/us/obituaries-shed-euphemisms-to-confront-heroins-toll.html?ref=topics&_r=2">heroin use in North America has exploded</a> into an “epidemic.” At the same time, policymakers and the public have clashed over how to properly treat this public health scourge. Many heroin users receive methadone and other forms of treatment. However, some of the most vulnerable addicts haven’t responded to medication and detox. </p>
<p>I spent weeks building a rapport and trust with Marie, Cheryl and Johnny, who’ve all been addicted to heroin for years. They’ve each repeatedly tried detox and methadone and have been unable to stop using heroin. </p>
<p>In a sense, heroin-assisted treatment, a science-based, compassionate approach, is their last resort.</p>
<p>Those involved in the program – often users who haven’t sufficiently responded to other forms of treatment – receive pharmacological heroin in a clinical setting. While these programs <a href="http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/news/2012/1">have long been recognized</a> as scientifically sound and cost-saving in countries like Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark, heroin-assisted treatment is only beginning to be offered in North America.</p>
<p>At first, the three subjects allowed me to take photos of them self-injecting their medication at Providence Health Care’s Crosstown Clinic in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Slowly, over a period of weeks and months, they let me document their lives outside the clinic.</p>
<p>While I hoped to inform the public about heroin-assisted treatment, I also wanted to see if I could create visual counter-narratives to challenge the dominant tropes of drug genre photography. </p>
<p>More than anything, I wanted to represent Marie, Cheryl and Johnny as human beings – and show that their drug use didn’t define who they were, even though that’s how heroin users are usually depicted by documentary and news photographers.</p>
<p>The best way to do this, I realized, was to show them the photographs I’d selected and give them the opportunity to respond. I included their words with each photograph in the series. </p>
<h2>‘Dark, seedy, secret worlds’</h2>
<p>Before beginning my project, I had explored the work of some of the most influential drug genre photographers, and found that most of them have consistently represented heroin users as exotic, primitive and dangerous to society.</p>
<p>“There is a tendency in drug photography to attempt to make images of dark, seedy, secret worlds,” <a href="http://bit.ly/1RuW1Jb">writes</a> criminologist John Fitzgerald. </p>
<p>This can have the effect of “<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/168892367/Hall-The-Spectacle-of-the-Other-Pdf1#scribd">othering</a>” the subjects – the idea that after looking at these kinds of images, viewers might look at drug users as outcasts.</p>
<p>Larry Clark’s 1971 photo work “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tulsa-Larry-Clark/dp/0802137482">Tulsa</a>” is considered an exemplar of documentary photography. Many view the series, which <a href="http://40.media.tumblr.com/5823b8af9220e0cebc6da89c11baddad/tumblr_nxo6z6Vy7E1uh3q1do1_1280.jpg">depicts teenagers</a> experimenting with drugs, sexuality and guns, as brutally honest and revealing.</p>
<p>Clark’s follow-up photo essay, “Teenage Lust,” published in 1983, also focused on drug users in a voyeuristic, unsettling and erotic way.</p>
<p>The problem with this approach is that it creates sensationalized images, which, in turn, influence the public’s thinking and policymakers’ decisions about how to treat drug users. </p>
<p>“For Clark the drug user is a modern primitive,” writes Fitzgerald. “Like the young boys who play with guns and explore their sexuality, Clark’s drug users plumb the depths of rapacious desire, so repressed and unexplored in the modern body. Clark’s lifework is to bring this primitive desire to light in a liberal artistic adventure.”</p>
<p>Clark wasn’t the only photographer to represent heroin users this way. Documentary photographer Eugene Richards’ 1994 book <em><a href="http://eugenerichards.com/cocaine-true-cocaine-blue/">Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue</a></em> focused on cocaine use in three inner-city neighborhoods. The book’s cover features <a href="http://static1.squarespace.com/static/55493d5be4b0e124643e4fa8/5553ce2fe4b0277cbe12e1af/5553d3dae4b0e11a7d12a46a/1435266863733/09_RIE1992010W00003-25-25A.jpg?format=750w">an extreme close-up</a> of a woman clenching a syringe between her teeth. </p>
<p>The image is arresting and also influenced the way many other photographers have depicted drug users to this day.</p>
<p>Photojournalists working for news agencies such as <a href="http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/harrisburg/79835-official-without-more-treatment-heroin-wont-be-last-drug-epidemic-for-pa">AP</a>, <a href="http://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/photo/drug-abuse-royalty-free-image/155441155">Getty Images</a> and <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/heroinindenver/ci_21721849/heroin-addicts-have-hard-time-turning-lives-around"><em>The Denver Post</em></a> have recently followed Richards’ example and composed images of drug users with syringes in their mouths. In most of these photos, the heroin users’ eyes are either partially or completely out of frame or hard to make out in detail.</p>
<p>It’s vital that photographers find more balanced ways of representing drug users, instead of reproducing the same types of stigmatizing images that have existed for decades. </p>
<p>Shocking images certainly provoke reactions. But it’s more important to offer context in order to spark discussions about solutions.</p>
<h2>Hearing from the heroin users</h2>
<p>In my own effort to produce and share balanced and humanizing images – and to reduce the possibility of misinterpretation and “othering” – I realized the images on their own couldn’t tell the full story. I needed a way to provide context for the viewer.</p>
<p>“The multitude of meanings in a photograph makes it risky, arguably even irresponsible, to trust raw images of marginalization, suffering, and addiction to an often judgmental public,” write Philippe Bourgois and Jeffrey Schonberg in their 2009 book <em><a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520254985">Righteous Dopefiend</a>.</em> “Letting a picture speak its thousand words can results in a thousand deceptions.”</p>
<p>After selecting my final images, I showed them to Marie, Cheryl and Johnny. I wanted to know if they thought the photos accurately represented them, if they thought anything was missing and what they would have done differently if they had taken the photos themselves.</p>
<p>Many of their responses were positive. They thought that in most of the images, I’d accurately represented them. And they had important suggestions. Most of all, they wanted to be seen in the photos as more than just drug users. </p>
<p>I’ve included their most telling comments alongside each of the photos in this story.</p>
<hr>
<h2>Marie</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115843/original/image-20160321-30921-129f8w3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115843/original/image-20160321-30921-129f8w3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115843/original/image-20160321-30921-129f8w3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115843/original/image-20160321-30921-129f8w3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115843/original/image-20160321-30921-129f8w3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115843/original/image-20160321-30921-129f8w3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115843/original/image-20160321-30921-129f8w3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115843/original/image-20160321-30921-129f8w3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">When Marie was a girl, she dreamed of becoming a professional dancer and auditioned for the National Ballet School of Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p><em>A needle in my arm is only ten percent of who I am. The other parts are going to the park and playing, having fun outside and watching children play. Being as much a part of as I can be in the community. I’m not just some dirty, mistrusting, drug addict from the skid row.</em></p>
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<p><em>I don’t have to be in alleys [injecting heroin] anymore, like I used to be. I’m in a safe environment, no risk of getting or transmitting any infections, and my health is taken care of.</em></p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115846/original/image-20160321-30946-radajv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115846/original/image-20160321-30946-radajv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115846/original/image-20160321-30946-radajv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115846/original/image-20160321-30946-radajv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115846/original/image-20160321-30946-radajv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115846/original/image-20160321-30946-radajv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115846/original/image-20160321-30946-radajv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115846/original/image-20160321-30946-radajv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marie crosses Vancouver by bus with her cat to try to find her mother, whom she hasn’t seen in two years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p><em>I’m caring for my pet whom I’ve have taken on the bus…I’m not selfish…. I don’t just think of me and my addiction. That was me, on the bus, going to see my Mom. I was going overnight so I had to take my cat with me. There’s more to my life than addiction… Like my cat. Like my family. Like taking time out to remember where and who I truly am. And where I come from.</em></p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115849/original/image-20160321-30946-1rawsmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115849/original/image-20160321-30946-1rawsmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115849/original/image-20160321-30946-1rawsmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115849/original/image-20160321-30946-1rawsmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115849/original/image-20160321-30946-1rawsmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115849/original/image-20160321-30946-1rawsmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115849/original/image-20160321-30946-1rawsmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115849/original/image-20160321-30946-1rawsmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marie’s cat tried to escape from its carrier bag several times during the trip.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p><em>People looking at this photo might possibly see that I’m being cruel. Which is not what I want them to see. I wasn’t trying to hurt her. She looks very scared and sad there. She looks alone. And I don’t like that because she’s not. I wasn’t trying to hurt her. I wanted her to meet my mom.</em></p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115852/original/image-20160321-30906-1otlggs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115852/original/image-20160321-30906-1otlggs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115852/original/image-20160321-30906-1otlggs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115852/original/image-20160321-30906-1otlggs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115852/original/image-20160321-30906-1otlggs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115852/original/image-20160321-30906-1otlggs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115852/original/image-20160321-30906-1otlggs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marie approaches an apartment building where she thinks her mother may live. She hasn’t seen her mother in over two years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p><em>People seeing this photo could think anything . They could think that I’m going to see a drug dealer, they could think basically whatever they want, but that’s not what it is. I was going to see my Mom. [I wish viewers could see] my face, the smile on my face that I’m happy to see her. The excitement that I had because it was the first time I had seen her in a while.</em></p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115850/original/image-20160321-30912-4nq679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115850/original/image-20160321-30912-4nq679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115850/original/image-20160321-30912-4nq679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115850/original/image-20160321-30912-4nq679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115850/original/image-20160321-30912-4nq679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115850/original/image-20160321-30912-4nq679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115850/original/image-20160321-30912-4nq679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115850/original/image-20160321-30912-4nq679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marie searches for her mother’s name on an apartment intercom system.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p><em>I look confused, maybe a little freaked out or something. I don’t like [the photo]. I wish it weren’t so close up. Maybe it’s a harsh truth, I don’t know.</em></p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115853/original/image-20160321-30946-1r8lo5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115853/original/image-20160321-30946-1r8lo5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115853/original/image-20160321-30946-1r8lo5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115853/original/image-20160321-30946-1r8lo5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115853/original/image-20160321-30946-1r8lo5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115853/original/image-20160321-30946-1r8lo5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115853/original/image-20160321-30946-1r8lo5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115853/original/image-20160321-30946-1r8lo5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marie relaxes in her room in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p><em>People seeing this photo might see somebody who’s happy, somebody who isn’t so dark or depressed…somebody who’s carefree and playful, and likes to enjoy herself. I do that all the time. I’m always like that… With a smile on my face, I try to always be happy. Which is really hard sometimes but yeah… It’s me.</em></p>
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<h2>Johnny</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115497/original/image-20160317-30237-bequvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115497/original/image-20160317-30237-bequvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115497/original/image-20160317-30237-bequvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115497/original/image-20160317-30237-bequvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115497/original/image-20160317-30237-bequvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115497/original/image-20160317-30237-bequvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115497/original/image-20160317-30237-bequvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115497/original/image-20160317-30237-bequvt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A nurse treats Johnny at Vancouver’s Crosstown Clinic before he self-injects his medication.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p><em>I would like it if maybe they’d let me comb my hair, instead of looking like a real hardcore junkie here. I didn’t realize my hair looked so bad when I take my shirt off.</em> </p>
<p><em>The reason why I take my shirt off is because I muscle the dope, I don’t IV it, because the reason why I do the dope is different from why a lot of other people do it. They do it to get high, I do it to help with some pain issues I have. I don’t want people thinking, “You know, these guys are going in there taking our tax dollars and doing heroin and getting high, look at them. You know, they’re nothing but detriments to society.” Well, I’ll tell ya, it’s saving my life.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115856/original/image-20160321-30906-mby7si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115856/original/image-20160321-30906-mby7si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115856/original/image-20160321-30906-mby7si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115856/original/image-20160321-30906-mby7si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115856/original/image-20160321-30906-mby7si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115856/original/image-20160321-30906-mby7si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115856/original/image-20160321-30906-mby7si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115856/original/image-20160321-30906-mby7si.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tattoos on Johnny’s back.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>I have a love for animals, especially cats. I had a cat in my life for the last year-and-a-half…well, no, the last eight months. And the more time I spent with humans, the more I love my cat.</em></p>
<p><em>I’m not much on being a show off, that’s why I put [the Siberian tiger tattoo] on my back… It’s something I’ve always wanted to do … and I managed to do that.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115857/original/image-20160321-30921-1y8jj1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115857/original/image-20160321-30921-1y8jj1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115857/original/image-20160321-30921-1y8jj1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115857/original/image-20160321-30921-1y8jj1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115857/original/image-20160321-30921-1y8jj1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115857/original/image-20160321-30921-1y8jj1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115857/original/image-20160321-30921-1y8jj1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115857/original/image-20160321-30921-1y8jj1f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Johnny collects cans at a Vancouver food court.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>In this photo I’m trying not to break the law and grab some bottles and cash them in. So I can basically eat and have food. What’s missing is the security guards who usually hassle me. And, they have no reason to because I’m not hurting or stealing from them.</em></p>
<p><em>I’m also helping the environment because 80 percent of these bottles end up going to the landfill or the garbage. It’s not good for our ecosystem.</em> </p>
<p><em>At this point in my life, I feel like I could come home at night and look in the mirror and not feel guilt or shame for what I was doing out there. Because I’m not stealing from anybody or hurting anybody.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115858/original/image-20160321-30926-1elcepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115858/original/image-20160321-30926-1elcepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115858/original/image-20160321-30926-1elcepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115858/original/image-20160321-30926-1elcepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115858/original/image-20160321-30926-1elcepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115858/original/image-20160321-30926-1elcepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115858/original/image-20160321-30926-1elcepi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Johnny collects cans at a Vancouver food court.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>People looking at this photo will see a fella who looks very intense. He looks tired. He’s out trying to make an honest dollar. He’s not proud of what he’s doing. But he’s doing what he has to, in order to survive. At the point where I’m at in my life, I think it’s a 100 percent accurate description of where my life is at. You can see the weariness, the life, the trials and tribulations I’ve been through.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115860/original/image-20160321-30906-frwdny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115860/original/image-20160321-30906-frwdny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115860/original/image-20160321-30906-frwdny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115860/original/image-20160321-30906-frwdny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115860/original/image-20160321-30906-frwdny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115860/original/image-20160321-30906-frwdny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115860/original/image-20160321-30906-frwdny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115860/original/image-20160321-30906-frwdny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Johnny shops in a store where he used to shoplift before starting heroin-assisted treatment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>I used to go into the shops and shoplift. I shoplifted quite a bit of food from this shop to feed my drug addictions, and that’s one thing you don’t see in this picture right now. I came and stole from this place and yet, a year later, I’m welcome to come in that store because I made an immense change and do not steal in there now. I come in and buy food like any other individual, and it makes me so proud to be able to do that.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115861/original/image-20160321-30921-li9eto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115861/original/image-20160321-30921-li9eto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115861/original/image-20160321-30921-li9eto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115861/original/image-20160321-30921-li9eto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115861/original/image-20160321-30921-li9eto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115861/original/image-20160321-30921-li9eto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115861/original/image-20160321-30921-li9eto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115861/original/image-20160321-30921-li9eto.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Johnny pauses in front of a tourist shop in Vancouver’s Gastown neighborhood where he used to shoplift to support his heroin addiction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>You can see the intenseness in my face. It looks like I’m thinking deep about something and it’s just a feeling of gratitude of being happy and being alive… I hope people get out of this photograph that it’s never too late. And what I’ve been through in my life. We always have a chance as long as we stay positive in the moment. Live in the moment.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115864/original/image-20160321-30926-y46azi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115864/original/image-20160321-30926-y46azi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115864/original/image-20160321-30926-y46azi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115864/original/image-20160321-30926-y46azi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115864/original/image-20160321-30926-y46azi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115864/original/image-20160321-30926-y46azi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115864/original/image-20160321-30926-y46azi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115864/original/image-20160321-30926-y46azi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jade figurines in a window of a tourist shop in Vancouver’s Gastown neighborhood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>These are some nice carvings. If you look close enough, done in jade. Very nice done little pieces and very expensive little pieces.</em> </p>
<p><em>This photo represents a point in my life when I needed money to do dope. These were the things I would steal to feed my drug addiction. And they were small enough, and easy enough to steal that I would do it. And I had no problem doing it. I never once got caught stealing and grabbing these pieces of ornaments. I would go into the store and take about five minutes. Five minutes of work would keep me unsick for approximately two or three days.</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>Cheryl</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115865/original/image-20160321-30941-10b6opv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115865/original/image-20160321-30941-10b6opv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115865/original/image-20160321-30941-10b6opv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115865/original/image-20160321-30941-10b6opv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115865/original/image-20160321-30941-10b6opv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115865/original/image-20160321-30941-10b6opv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115865/original/image-20160321-30941-10b6opv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115865/original/image-20160321-30941-10b6opv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cheryl returns to an alley in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside where she lived for several years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>People viewing this photo might see some young girl, downtown, in a back alley. Looks like it’s a rough alley. A young girl, maybe she’s strung out, or maybe she’s determined to find drugs or who knows what they see in this photo. They just see a young girl smiling and looking down the alley.</em></p>
<p><em>Yeah, it shows all of me. I just hope the people see me in this photo – that I’m a striving, struggling drug addict. That I’m trying to better my life.</em> </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115866/original/image-20160321-30946-f2o9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115866/original/image-20160321-30946-f2o9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115866/original/image-20160321-30946-f2o9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115866/original/image-20160321-30946-f2o9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115866/original/image-20160321-30946-f2o9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115866/original/image-20160321-30946-f2o9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115866/original/image-20160321-30946-f2o9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115866/original/image-20160321-30946-f2o9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cheryl self-injects her medication at Providence Healthcare’s Crosstown Clinic in Vancouver.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>I want to show the people that this place is where we get our injections for our heroin opiate program, just show them that we need these places so heroin addicts can get off the streets. Heroin can be contaminated with many different poisons out there that can severely give us infections, because they put hog dewormer in the heroin on the streets. The clinical heroin here, there’s no bad chemicals or poisons in the drug. It helps us through the day, takes our aches and pains away, everything that heroin used to do.</em></p>
<p><em>In other places of the world, they had this study and it’s helped them, that’s why they brought it to Canada, here to [British Columbia]. And for us, the people who are in it, we’re so lucky and should be so grateful to have such a great program.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115867/original/image-20160321-30935-j8vqhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115867/original/image-20160321-30935-j8vqhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115867/original/image-20160321-30935-j8vqhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115867/original/image-20160321-30935-j8vqhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115867/original/image-20160321-30935-j8vqhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115867/original/image-20160321-30935-j8vqhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115867/original/image-20160321-30935-j8vqhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115867/original/image-20160321-30935-j8vqhm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cheryl cries in the yard of a church where her father’s funeral was held.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>I hope the people see through this documentary all the points, all the emotions and desires, needs, and wants that we need, that you can help us down the road be able to successfully show our governments that people need the extra bit of help because we can’t do it on our own.</em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115868/original/image-20160321-30935-1fpvs9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115868/original/image-20160321-30935-1fpvs9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115868/original/image-20160321-30935-1fpvs9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115868/original/image-20160321-30935-1fpvs9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115868/original/image-20160321-30935-1fpvs9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115868/original/image-20160321-30935-1fpvs9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115868/original/image-20160321-30935-1fpvs9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115868/original/image-20160321-30935-1fpvs9k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cheryl prepares to use drugs in in her apartment in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p><em>We need for you people to see that we’re not stereotyped monsters. We’re people just like you, just with an addiction. Something that we do a little bit more than others… When you look at this, take it with a grain of salt, because it could be your own daughter, it could be your own son out there doing exactly what I’m doing, but they had the door closed.</em></p>
<p><em>A drug addict’s world is not just the drugs, it’s how they get them, what you gotta do to get them. Sex trade, you know. Stealing, killing, whatever it might take just to get that extra dollar to get that extra fix so you can feel numb for the rest of the day. Not necessarily it’s always that, but in my life, I just want you to know that I’m struggling and I need that extra help.</em> </p>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115871/original/image-20160321-30946-clppoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115871/original/image-20160321-30946-clppoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115871/original/image-20160321-30946-clppoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115871/original/image-20160321-30946-clppoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115871/original/image-20160321-30946-clppoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115871/original/image-20160321-30946-clppoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115871/original/image-20160321-30946-clppoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115871/original/image-20160321-30946-clppoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cheryl paints her nails prior to a court appearance for a sexual assault she experienced.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p><em>I think the people will see a young girl having a cigarette out in the rain, painting her fingernails, enjoying the weather. Really studying, “Oh, come on, get the last bit of that nail polish out of the bottle.” I am just on the outside in the rain. I’m content. I’m puffing on my cigarette.</em></p>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115872/original/image-20160321-30912-g1psm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115872/original/image-20160321-30912-g1psm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115872/original/image-20160321-30912-g1psm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115872/original/image-20160321-30912-g1psm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115872/original/image-20160321-30912-g1psm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115872/original/image-20160321-30912-g1psm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115872/original/image-20160321-30912-g1psm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115872/original/image-20160321-30912-g1psm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cheryl paints her nails prior to a court appearance for a sexual assault she experienced.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p><em>Well, now people will see that I have a band aid on my hand. They might think she has a cut on her hand, that’s why she’s having difficulties painting her fingernails and getting that nail polish out of the jar.</em></p>
<p><em>I’m sure there’s hundreds of photos that could show my life different. But my life today is a recovering heroin addict. I’m 124 pounds. I used weigh 97 pounds. There’s so many good things, and positive ways of looking at my life. If a picture could show all that emotion in one? That would be great, but it won’t and that’s all that my voice could tell you.</em></p>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115873/original/image-20160321-30939-fzy9s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115873/original/image-20160321-30939-fzy9s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115873/original/image-20160321-30939-fzy9s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115873/original/image-20160321-30939-fzy9s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115873/original/image-20160321-30939-fzy9s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115873/original/image-20160321-30939-fzy9s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115873/original/image-20160321-30939-fzy9s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115873/original/image-20160321-30939-fzy9s9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Cheryl self-injects drugs in her apartment in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© Aaron Goodman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p><em>I think that people see a girl looking in the mirror, looking in fear, like what is she doing with the needle in her neck, sticking in her neck, that’s a pretty dangerous site to be injecting. But that’s the reality of that picture. It’s me being all strung out on dope, trying to get that shot into me, and it’s filled with blood and I’m trying to plug it into my vein cause I need that drug that’s in there so I can get off and get high, numb whatever pain I’m going through in that moment.</em></p>
<p><em>I was all fucked up on drugs that day, yeah. It shows my emotion, my fear, my determination. [I wish the photo had] maybe a little bit more light… Just to show it’s hard to inject into your neck like that. Just to show the picture more. To see what kind of struggle it is to inject in your neck. And to show maybe just a little bit more emotion to the people just to show what and why I’m doing that to myself.</em> </p>
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<h2>Postscript: depicting the lives of users</h2>
<p>Throughout the project, I’d spoken with the subjects about the purpose of the photo essay – to challenge the stereotypes of drug genre photography and to help spread awareness about heroin-assisted treatment. </p>
<p>I often explained to them that their photos would likely be published on the Internet – that police, future employers and others could learn they are heroin users. Despite the risks, the three subjects reiterated that they wanted to take part in the project because they, too, wanted to tell others about heroin-assisted treatment. </p>
<p>I’d been told that after enrolling in the heroin-assisted treatment study, some participants had reconnected with family members, found stable housing and gotten jobs. I hoped that I’d be able to take photos of Marie, Cheryl and Johnny in these types of settings. </p>
<p>However, I quickly learned that this wouldn’t be easy. Two of the three subjects didn’t engage in many other activities beyond self-injecting at the Crosstown clinic three times a day. Outside the clinic, much of their time was spent acquiring and using drugs. </p>
<p>This meant the moments I was able to capture ended up being far less varied than I’d anticipated. </p>
<p>Still, there were revealing moments, like when I managed to photograph Marie traveled across the city by bus to try to find her mother. It was Thanksgiving and she hadn’t seen her mother in over two years. I thought these particular photos might help the viewer understand Marie in a new way: even if people weren’t able to fully understand the depth of Marie’s suffering or the roots of her addiction, everyone knows what it’s like to want to spend the holidays with loved ones.</p>
<p>The greatest challenge I faced was determining how to document two of the subjects’ ongoing drug use outside of the heroin-assisted treatment study. I simply couldn’t ignore it because it was a major part of their day-to-day lives. Marie and Cheryl told me that since the study was double-blind, they might not have been receiving the right medication – or high enough doses – to suppress their need to use other drugs. This doesn’t mean heroin-assisted treatment doesn’t work. </p>
<p>When the time came to choose the final photographs, I deliberately left out images that I suspected could be viewed as the most sensational or degrading. </p>
<p>My photo of Cheryl, lit by a candle and injecting drugs into her neck in front of a mirror in her apartment may not appear any less shocking than other drug genre photographers’ images of injection scenes. </p>
<p>However, Cheryl’s own words that accompany the photo provide critical context for the viewer. She explains that she was compelled to buy street drugs and inject into her neck – even though she knew the drugs could be contaminated and possibly kill her – because she was desperate to do whatever she could to feel well, even if this meant risking her life.</p>
<p>In order to see Cheryl as more than a drug user, the viewer needs to know this.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56412/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This work was supported by a Katalyst Grant at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, B.C. where Aaron is a faculty member in the Journalism and Communication Studies department.</span></em></p>
Hoping to avoid the pitfalls and tropes of drug genre photography, documentary photographer Aaron Goodman spent a year following three addicts enrolled in a heroin-assisted treatment program.
Aaron Goodman, Faculty, Journalism and Communication Studies, Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.