The pandemic period and the measures linked to COVID-19 have weakened the homeless: many people have lost their bearings and started using stronger drugs, summarized an experienced street worker during the public inquiry into the death of Raphaël Napa André, found lifeless in a chemical toilet in 2021.
What there is to know
Raphaël Napa André, a man from the Innu community of Matimekush-Lac John, was found lifeless in a chemical toilet in January 2021, a case that shook and moved the population.
Quebec was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and a curfew was in effect at the time of his death.
The coroner’s public inquiry aimed at shedding light on the death of the 51-year-old man began this week at the Longueuil courthouse.
“I think it’s been chaos since then,” said Jonathan Lebire, coordinator at the PAQ 2 shelter, referring to the pandemic.
His testimony was heard Tuesday as part of the coroner’s public inquiry into the death of Raphaël Napa André, in order to explain the circumstances of the death of the homeless Innu man, found lifeless in a chemical toilet in January 2021.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
It was in this chemical toilet at the corner of rue Milton and avenue du Parc that Raphaël Napa André was found lifeless.
“A lot of indigenous street people I know have started using crack or other hard drugs instead of drinking alcohol during curfew,” Mr. Lebire told coroner Me Stéphanie Gamache.
According to the street worker, drug dealers took advantage of the fact that, during the pandemic, convenience stores closed earlier. This caused street drinkers to migrate to drugs. This phenomenon could partly explain the greater circulation of hard drugs on the streets post-pandemic.
However, he clarified that he did not know if this was the case for Raphaël Napa André, whom he knew.
Homelessness and drug use are much more visible since the pandemic, he said. Substance users living on the streets had moved into certain unoccupied spaces during confinement.
“After COVID, people consumed [encore] in the streets, in the subways. »
When you’re in survival mode on the street, you have your routine. You know where to beg, where to eat. COVID turned everything upside down for people who wanted to survive.
Jonathan Lebire
The street worker also mentioned the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), a government assistance program put in place during the pandemic. “When the CERB arrived, people on the street got together to apply for CERB,” he observed. People experiencing homelessness therefore raised some money. Which, according to him, could explain why many started using more hard drugs.
Closed shelter
La Porte Ouverte (The Open Door) was the refuge of choice for Raphaël Napa André, who lived with a chronic alcohol problem. There were his habits, according to John Tessier. The witness was coordinator of the place in 2021.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE FAMILY
Raphaël Napa André
The center had to close for three weeks due to a COVID-19 outbreak. The users of the resource were transferred to the Chrome Hotel, but many did not set foot there during this hiatus.
When it reopened, Public Health gave directives to those responsible for La Porte Ouverte: the shelter must now close its doors at 9 p.m. instead of being accessible all night as usual. This is why Raphaël Napa André had to leave the place the evening of his death. The employees of La Porte Ouverte, reluctantly, asked him to leave.
John Tessier had always been against this directive, he said during his testimony before the coroner. “He didn’t understand why he had to leave, because before, he could stay and sleep. He thought he was being thrown out. But it had nothing to do with us, we were being asked to close. »
I knew there were going to be consequences. Oddly enough, after Raphaël died, we were allowed to reopen [la nuit].
John Tessier
Shelter workers called a taxi so that Raphaël Napa André could spend the night in another resource. However, he refused to take this taxi, said John Tessier. The 51-year-old Innu therefore took refuge in a chemical toilet that evening.
His death could be attributed to hypothermia, according to testimony from forensic pathologists on Tuesday. The victim also had a high concentration of alcohol in his blood.
The public inquiry chaired by Me Stéphanie Gamache continues this Wednesday and should last two weeks. The coroner mentioned several times during the hearings that the exercise aimed to clarify the circumstances of the death of Raphaël Napa André. “This is not an investigation into homelessness in its entirety,” she told witnesses.