REGINA — When Emile Gariepy arrives at work each day at Regina’s Wâhkôhtowin Harm Reduction Centre he doesn’t see the homeless or addicts — he sees people. Gariepy manages the operations of the centre’s safe consumption site and serves as one of only two full-time paramedics in the province dedicated to providing harm reduction services to clients. “The people who visit our centre each day use drugs,” says Gariepy, “and yes, they’re addicted. Many of them are living on the street. But they are people first.”
Gariepy’s empathy has an authenticity rooted in his personal history. His journey to working at Wâhkôhtowin Harm Reduction Centre began long before he earned his credential as a primary care paramedic at Saskatchewan Polytechnic. Going back to childhood, Gariepy experienced the family trauma common to many of the people he now serves.
“I don’t mind talking about my past,” says Gariepy, when asked about his career pathway. “I went through addiction for a long time and was homeless for six years. I was on drugs from about age 14. It wasn’t an easy life.”
Gariepy, who was born in Ontario but moved around as part of a military family, found himself in Regina at 12, pulled from an abusive family situation by his mother, who dropped him with relatives. “It was a rude shock,” recalls Gariepy. “I needed to be away from my dad but moving from Vancouver Island to Regina wasn’t easy. My life became a pattern of trauma moving into addiction—it’s a common story.”
Gariepy was soon hopping freight trains and moving from place to place, living an increasingly tough existence. “It wasn’t until I found out I was going to be a father that I really felt motivated to get my act together,” he says. An overdose at the tail end of his addiction was the final push he needed. “It was extremely traumatic,” he remembers. “In the hospital I said, ‘I’m never going to do drugs again.’”
Gariepy explains that one of the toughest parts of getting sober is erasing friends: “I knew I didn’t want to go back to that life but it’s hard leaving people behind. Your friends on the street are like your family—they might rob you blind but at the same time they’re there with you through all the hard stuff, too. I spent three months in the woods with my actual family when I started recovery and it gave me the space I needed to help break the cycle.”
As he got his feet under him, Gariepy enrolled in the Adult 10 program at Sask Polytech (then know as SIAST) where he found a new support network of faculty and staff. “Some of them have stuck with me forever,” he says. “I had an English teacher who went above and beyond, really helping me and other students through a lot. I had some learning challenges and my instructors went out of their way to help me, giving me extra time when I needed it.”
Gariepy worked in construction for a few years upon completion. “I got tired of it and turned to the military to look for a more career-oriented job,” he says. “The Canadian Forces recruitment office told me I’d have to take an aptitude test if I wanted to become a weapons engineer technician and advised me to study for it. I didn’t and I flunked it. I knew I needed more education so I returned to Sask Polytech to do my Adult 12.”
After finishing his high school equivalency, Gariepy met with a career counsellor at Regina campus to assess his strengths and interests. She questioned whether he really wanted a military career and suggested the field of paramedicine, which could lead to a stable career with less travel to take him far from his daughter.
Gariepy enrolled in the Primary Care Paramedic program at Regina campus. “It was really challenging taking such an intensive course,” he remembers. “My whole life up until that point I was considered a failure, a dropout and not a good person. But I got good marks and kept doing better. The instructors at Sask Polytech are great. The paramedic program is fast paced and the work can be stressful—not for someone who can’t take the heat. They believed in me, though, and I realized I could do it.”
Gariepy graduated in 2017 and began full-time work on an ambulance, honing the skills he now uses every day to save lives. Four years into his new career he got a call from a social worker with the news that a mutual friend was planning to open a harm reduction site. They connected and Gariepy decided to join him. Together, they opened the Wâhkôhtowin Centre—Canada’s only Indigenous-led harm reduction and safe consumption site. “We’re a little different,” explains Gariepy. “We help prevent overdoses by supporting people who use drugs under the observation of a primary care paramedic. I have seven part-time paramedics to help staff the centre on weekends. We focus on harm reduction but we’re also there as a resource to help people learn and recover when they’re ready.”
“People often say they don’t understand what the point of safe consumption sites are,” he adds. “I tell them, ‘We’re not enabling people. We’re providing them with a seatbelt so they’re a little safer than using alone.’ What people don’t see is that one day, the person who comes in to use might be having that day where they decide to make a change.”
When asked if he has concerns about exposing himself to a way of life he worked so hard to pull himself away from, Gariepy doesn’t waver. “I know what it feels like to wake up feeling rotten,” he says, “and I also know what it feels like to wake up feeling good again. I enjoy being a positive role model for my daughter.”
“Society needs to look at the root causes of addiction. Mental health plays a huge role and I have come a long way in figuring out what I needed to get my own mental health in a good state. I have dealt with my own family trauma. My dad has also been sober for a long time now and I’ve forgiven him. But I had to fix my own situation first.”
Gariepy notes that satisfying work can substantially benefit mental health and wellness. “When you wake up in the morning and you are excited to go to work, you’ve found the right career,” he says. “This isn’t just a job to me or a paycheck, it’s a purpose. This is wholesome work that makes me feel good. I love this place. I can’t imagine it not being a part of my life.”
“How many times can most people say they’ve saved a life?” Gariepy asks. “Being a paramedic is a rewarding career—particularly in the field of harm reduction. There’s a diversity and unpredictability in what every day will look like. That’s exciting and brings me happiness.”
“This work, though, it’s not easy. We can’t get funding to stay open as late as we know we need to, and seeing people suffer or losing them takes a toll. We have to keep changing people’s minds—convincing them that what we’re doing here is important.”
Gariepy likes change—chalking it up to a restless nature and his ADHD—and although he doesn’t know where life and his career will take him next, he knows he’ll always be connected to Wâhkôhtowin, the centre he has helped build from the ground up. Most important is his connection with the people. “I know them,” Gariepy says. “I know them as people, and I care about them.”
To learn more about Sask Polytech's Primary Care Paramedic program, visit our website: Primary Care Paramedic (saskpolytech.ca)
To learn more about Adult 10 and 12 at Sask Polytech, visit our website: Literacy and Adult Education (saskpolytech.ca)
— Submitted by Sask Polytech Media Relations
