How an Indigenous Neighbourhood Patrol Is Fighting Overdoses in Winnipeg

After the body of 14-year-old Tina Fontaine was found in Winnipeg’s Red River in 2014, members of the community took action. The Bear Clan Patrol reformed in Winnipeg’s North End neighborhood and started to walk the streets at night. Nearly three years later, over 530 volunteers act as “boots on the ground,” focusing on harm reduction by handing out condoms, offering rides, diffusing violent confrontations, preventing opioid overdoses by administering naloxone, and protecting the vulnerable to “get that village feel back,” as co-founder James Favel says. They’re “Trying to inspire people to care more about one another.”