Mother’s plea for help amid crisis

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This article was published 19/11/2016 (3027 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cynthia Genaille waits at her window every day for her daughter Brittany to come home. She never does.

Brittany Genaille was 26 when she was found dead Oct. 6 in a North End home after accidentally ingesting fentanyl, a synthetic drug that can be 100 times stronger than morphine, her mother told the Winnipeg Free Press.

“I’m sad. I’m upset. I’m still grieving. I’m still lonely. I miss her every day,” Genaille said, crying.

“I miss my baby so much. She’s my daughter that I’ll never get back.”

Fentanyl is a painkiller, but an illicit version of it is used to lace cocaine, heroin and other substances, often without a drug user’s knowledge. Genaille said Brittany likely thought she was taking methamphetamine and had no idea she ingested fentanyl.

“A lot of people think it’s meth that they’re taking. They’re not. I don’t want other people to die,” she said.

“She was a family person. She had five kids. She did everything with her kids. She gave her kids everything a spoiled kid (could get)… that’s how much she loved her kids.”

Her death is one of many in Canada’s opioid crisis.

Genaille said she had already lost Brittany once, when Child and Family Services took her away as a baby while Genaille dealt with alcoholism.

This time, she’s determined to prevent more people from losing their loved ones to fentanyl.

After Brittany’s death, Genaille launched a public Facebook page called “ppl against fentanyl” that has almost 500 members. On Saturday, she organized a rally at the Manitoba legislature to protest against the availability of street fentanyl.

About two dozen of Brittany’s friends, family members and supporters carried bright signs with slogans such as “Justice for Brittany” and “Fentanyl takes lives.” Some of the signs were written in bright purple and included drawings of doughnuts and chocolate — some of Brittany’s favourite things, a cousin said.

Abraham Lagimodiere pointed out photos of Brittany, the cousin he said was like a sister to him, on one of the signs.

“I was shocked. I didn’t believe it. I still don’t really believe it,” he said.

“I was raised with her pretty much. I saw her every day. She got caught up in drug addiction… never recovered.

“You don’t want to keep testing new drugs and digging a deeper hole. It’s not going to get anyone anywhere but in the ground. It’s not a good drug to get involved with.”

Sherry Isaac — a self-proclaimed advocate for drug awareness and education who has been vocal about the need for naloxone, a drug that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose — spoke to the small crowd at the rally.

“The pictures you see before you, that’s just only a glimpse of who these people were and who they are,” she said.

“I think we can all stand here and say f— fentanyl. This has to stop. We can make changes.

“All it takes is a voice. All it takes it that building right there,” she said, pointing at the legislature and emphasizing the need for increased government funding for harm-reduction programs.

The group ended the rally with a march down Memorial Boulevard. As they walked, they chanted “Justice for Brittany,” “Stop fentanyl” and “Get fentanyl off the streets.”

Genaille said she plans to hold similar rallies until justice is served for her daughter and everyone else affected by fentanyl. She urges anyone with loved ones who take drugs to speak up.

“I would tell them that if you know someone who’s on drugs — if you can sit down with them, one on one, have an intervention as soon as you can, before it’s too late,” she said.

“I want people out there to talk to their kids if they’re on drugs.”

danielle.doiron@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @dmdoiron