Taking back what's ours! – Episode 2: Canada

The global movement of people who use drugs has achieved exponential growth over the last four decades. Throughout the world drug user led advocacy has become a global phenomenon pushing to protect and defend the health and human rights of the drug using community and other people facing marginalisation in society.

In collaboration with the Rights Reporter Foundations (Drugreporter), we are very excited to share "Taking Back What's Ours!", a new documentary film series which captures the history and genesis of the global movement of people who use drugs. In this series you will meet activists undertaking critical work in their communities, and learn how they navigate this work within the context of criminalisation, stigmatisation and oppression.

The series is part of HIV2020 Online, running from July through October 2020. Starting on Monday, 6th of July 2020 we will be releasing one episode per week. The film has a total of 10 chapters and will cover countries in all regions of the world. You can join the conversation over social media by sharing the film each week with the hashtags #TakingBackWhatsOurs, #ReclaimTheResponse and #HIV2020.

In the second episode we explore the history of the movement in Canada, starting in the early 1990s with the formation of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) in response to the HIV crisis. The work of VANDU, the Toronto Drug Users Union, the Canadian Association of People who Use Drugs, and other drug user activist groups have contributed significant changes in how people who use drugs are treated and access harm reduction in Canada.