Since Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) cofounders Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum were charged with criminal possession in May—having created a Vancouver compassion club to save lives—many people in the North American harm reduction community and beyond have felt inspired to help. They’ve found an eclectic variety of ways, from barbecues to BDSM, to show solidarity and raise substantial funds for the legal defense.
Vancouver Downtown Eastside outreach worker Siobhan Fox is among them. “DULF had really gone above and beyond and had taken a risk by doing the compassion club. They’d effectively saved lives and now are being punished,” she told Filter. “When they put the call out [for donations for their legal fees] I finally felt like, ‘Okay, this is our chance as a community to step up and support them like they have supported others through their actions.’”
For Fox, the legal backlash the group is facing is unwarranted, particularly as more evidence has emerged demonstrating the efficacy of DULF’s compassion club model. ”Even [British Columbia Premier David Eby] has said, ‘They’re great people, doing great work and saving lives—but they broke the law.’ But sometimes, laws have to be broken for the greater good. There’s many laws over the course of history that haven’t been moral or ethical.”
DULF first began distributing small quantities of tested, labeled drugs to known Downtown Eastside community members in early 2020. It began largely as a demonstration, to show policymakers how to stop rising deaths associated with the adulterated street supply. But two years later, it had become an operational, low-barrier compassion club, offering a predictable supply of drugs to 47 members.
In August 2021, DULF sought a Section 56 exemption to Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA), which would have offered the compassion club similar legal protections to those currently afforded to supervised injection sites. Although the application was endorsed by Vancouver City Council, Vancouver Coastal Health and numerous policy experts, it was denied by Health Canada nearly a year later. DULF is currently challenging this decision in a judicial review.
Fox couldn’t wait. She put out a call for “artists, creators and makers” who could donate items or services for a silent auction.
When Nyx and Kalicum were arrested in October 2023, a group of community members moved to form the DULF Solidarity Committee. Shortly after charges were laid against the two on May 31, DULF put out a call for help fundraising for legal fees, and a subcommittee was formed to help facilitate and promote such efforts.
But Fox said she couldn’t wait a month for the fundraising committee’s first scheduled meeting. Just two days after DULF’s public request, she put out a call through friends and social media for “artists, creators and makers” who could donate items or services for a silent auction. She said the response was overwhelming.
The July event drew just shy of 50 individual donations of items—from singing lessons, to autographed children’s books, to handmade clothing and jewelry. A full-day tattooing session with local artist Makato Chi raised over $4,500.
In total, the event earned $10,345. For Fox, the success of the auction and the diverse reach of those involved underscores how personal DULF’s work is to so many people. “This isn’t just a Downtown Eastside issue, it’s an everybody issue.”
Individuals and organizations from across North America, and even as far away as Dublin, Ireland, have been finding their own ways to fundraise.
Just over the past several weeks, benefit concerts, auctions, family-friendly barbecues, raffles, and sales of everything from T-shirts to ceramics to hot sauce have all contributed to the cause.
At publication time, over $109,000 had been raised for DULF’s legal defense fund. That’s more than two-thirds of the group’s initial $150,000 goal—though a recent Instagram post suggests more may eventually be needed, as DULF plans to “challenge the constitutionality of the CDSA as applied to the compassion club.”
“This is all part of a wider battle. We have to be able to pick each other up in these seriously dangerous situations of state violence.”
Soma Snakeoil, a nonprofit co-founder and professional dominatrix, responded to the call from Los Angeles. Snakeoil is the executive director of the Sidewalk Project—run by people with lived and living experience, and dealing with housing, medical case management and other advocacy work for clients living in Skid Row and other marginalized areas in the city.
Snakeoil and her team at what she described as “probably the most radical harm reduction program in Los Angeles” have admired DULF’s work from afar. The Vancouver group is “one of the most important organizations in the world right now,” she told Filter.
Inspired by DULF’s work, she contributed her dominatrix services, a BDSM session that earned $400, to Fox’s silent auction.
“There are people throughout the world doing safe supply programs underground, but DULF is out there on fucking Vice,” Snakeoil said. “They’re not being quiet about their process or how they’re doing this. I just really look up to their courage to be that public and open about this cause.”
She believes it’s more important now than ever that international harm reduction communities stand up for DULF. When the group is “so visible, it’s easy to come for them,” she said. “But this is all part of a wider battle. We have to be able to pick each other up in these seriously dangerous situations of state violence.”
Snakeoil highlighted San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who recently passed a program making it easier to bus people experiencing homelessness out of the city. “It’s wild, because she’s saying the quiet part out loud. That’s sort of the temperature of the world in most places right now… Everyone’s out there fighting their own battles, but we need to have more solidarity on the international stage.”
Despite political attitudes shifting against harm reduction even in many reputedly progressive cities, DULF Solidarity Eastcoast member Campbell McClintock said that he’s heartened to see “tendrils” of North American communities banding together in support of DULF.
McClintock, who lives in Nova Scotia, has worked in housing support and outreach for the last four years. He was drawn to DULF’s cause because he sees the need for an accessible safe supply. “Being in a community like Kjipuktuk [Halifax], I know so many people who would benefit from this type of access,” he told Filter. “People have to jump through so many hoops to get either medication through a doctor that still doesn’t suit their needs, or turn to a potentially fatal illicit street supply.”
DULF Solidarity Eastcoast was founded in July by Montreal-based artist and library archivist Lucy Pauker, and their friend, Chavel Rappos. The core of the group is made up of about 10 members, connected mainly through the “anarchist, artist and punk music scenes” and mostly living in Halifax and Montreal.
The group has so far put on a barbecue and benefit concert in each city, together with online raffles. It’s so far raised over $9,000. It’s currently planning a third event, a rave and raffle in Halifax, for September 28.
“DULF really illustrates the power of doing something from the ground up. It’s seeing what the needs are of the people around you—and making something happen.”
“I don’t think any of us live in an area that is untouched by [the toxic drug supply crisis],” Pauker said, adding that they were pleasantly surprised to receive raffle donations from restaurant gift cards to massages, haircuts and zines.
“It’s been so heartening to see such a super-wide range of supporters,” Pauker said. “Often when you’re doing this kind of organizing it can be like pulling teeth, but we’ve had a really diverse group [wanting to get involved].”
Even though Pauker and McClintock live thousands of miles from Vancouver, they agree that if DULF’s legal battles go favorably, it could eventually help people far beyond BC.
“To me, DULF really illustrates the power of doing something from the ground up,” McClintock said. “It’s the power of not waiting on some big money funder to do something they approve of. It’s seeing what the needs are of the people around you—and making something happen.”
Top image is a screenshot of the silent auction organized by Siobhan Fox. Inset photograph of 2022 Vancouver rally for action on the overdose crisis by Maddi Dellplain.
Correction, August 20: This article has been edited to correct the date of September’s DULF Solidarity Eastcoast event in Halifax.
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