Did 'Chilliwack Union of Drug Users' disappear, go underground, or become unnecessary?

The Wellness Centre now operates as an official overdose prevention site, meanwhile, a man charged at CUDU location downtown in 2021 has been on the lam for 11 months

Remember a few years ago when a tow-truck driver who later ran for mayor of Chilliwack drove around Chilliwack with a sign that said “Give ‘em all fentanyl”?

I'm sure anyone around at the time does. I wrote a column about Dave Rowan’s sign in 2017, about how it was a sad sentiment to be sharing publicly, but also how it made no sense because fentanyl is precisely what opioid-addicted individuals want. Give 'em all fentanyl? Yes please.

For a brief period of time, the Chilliwack Union of Drug Users (CUDU) were doing just that – distributing/selling fentanyl – out of a storefront location on Yale Road up until they were busted by the RCMP drug squad on March 19, 2021.

I didn't know CUDU was a thing until the RCMP raid.

CUDU is or was an offshoot of the B.C. and Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors (BCYADWS), which itself stems from VANDU, which might be more familiar to people, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

It was 25 years ago in journalism school in Vancouver when I first spoke to VANDU co-founder Ann Livingston. I spoke to her again on in 2021 about CUDU and how the VANDU model came to Chilliwack and about 10 other communities in B.C.

In August of 2020, amid a global pandemic and a worsening opioid crisis, the NDP government, specifically Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy, announced $10.5 million for “17 new supervised consumption services,” locations usually referred to as overdose prevention sites (OPS).

But nothing ever came of that for places like the north or the Kootenays or the Eastern Fraser Valley. So while CUDU was not a government sanctioned OPS, it was acting like one to fill a need, Livingston told me.

CUDU was operating on the front lines of preventing the inevitable deaths that come day after day in an opioid crisis, with an uncertain drug supply, and governments at all levels too timid to address the issue.

“I don’t think it’s acceptable to keep counting dead bodies,” Livingston said.

And while CUDU was acting like an OPS, it was never an official one.

“When we have drug users who come inside we are not sending them outside to use their drugs. Drug users use drugs. They use them pretty frequently and so we know we can’t let people die in our bathroom or be a nuisance to our neighbours. So, yes, we have a place to facilitate safe drug use for the members of our group.”

Phew, there, she admitted it.

But so what? Livingston is unapologetic about the work she tried to do in Chilliwack, albeit with a manager who was not quite adhering to the BCYADWS program, which included democracy among members.

Of course, this is now what is happening at the Chilliwack Wellness Centre on Trethewey Avenue, which operates as a shelter, they check drugs, and are an official OPS, according to Fraser Health. The location is in what was the office of The Chilliwack Times where I worked for a decade. The irony is not lost on me that there are people ingesting fentanyl right now where I used to sit and file stories and op-eds such as this one about the toxic drug crisis.

I don't know how good a job they are doing in this location, but I recently talked to the mother of an addicted, street-entrenched young man who refers to it as the 'Hellness Centre.' She's not impressed.

Drug users use drugs

If society cares about minimizing death, safe consumption sites are essential, particularly if a safe supply of drugs is not being provided, Livingston says.

“Substance use disorder is diagnosable and they won’t get on with the treatment. You couple this with homelessness and the criminalization. Everyone’s got a criminal record. They are harassed and pushed around by police.”

Livingston says there other models and not even new ones. In the 1980s in Rotterdam a priest kept finding dead bodies out front of his place of worship. Eventually he said, OK, come inside, at least you can save each other.

“So there is a house dealer so that is kind of doing a safe supply,” she said. “The drugs are so contaminated.”

Livingston is tired of not only the moralizing from some politicians, but also the blindness to the finances of dealing with people at the end of their rope.

“If any taxpayer wants to be resentful, preventing illness saves a lot of money. It’s $1,500 a night in hospital, $200 a night in a prison, and about $25 a day for decent housing.”

If it hadn't been for COVID, Livingston said they would have been “humming along” taking care of people, holding 12-step meetings, helping people get better and get beyond drug use all while staying safe if they continue with drug use.

I asked her in 2021 if CUDU would close after the bust announced by an RCMP press release.

“Oh hell no, we are not closing, really? If a cop gets busted do they close the whole police force?”

That was then. But if they are still operating, they must be doing it in a more clandestine way. Or maybe because of The Wellness Centre they realized they were unnecessary.

As Livingston put it, at CUDU a house dealer doing was providing a safe supply. I guess that would be Scott Tonks. He and Cynthia Jacqueline Duguay were charged with trafficking in a controlled substance and Tonks was charged with two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking. He pleaded guilty to one count of possession in September 2023.

Tonks was scheduled for sentencing almost a year ago, on July 2, 2024, but he didn't show up. A warrant was issued for his arrest at that court appearance.

Nine months later, the Chilliwack RCMP issued a news release about Tonks' status on the lam, still wanted. Police don't announce when a warrant has been satisfied, but I checked in with new Chilliwack RCMP media relations officer Sgt. Alexandra Mulvihill today (June 16, 2025) and confirmed that Tonks has not been arrested and the warrants are still active.

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Paul J. Henderson
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