 This brings us to the end of the opening ceremony of the International Harm Reduction Conference. I'd like to bring up the second photo. I opened my presentation with a photo and I also wanted to close with a photo because when I talked at the beginning about the harm reduction community being a big family and we come together to embrace and to renew acquaintances and to talk about the future, we also come together to remember our family members who are dear. For those of you who don't know this picture, I'm sure you have similar pictures of other people in your mind. This is a man named Rafi Bailian who was one of my mentors in harm reduction back in the early and mid 90s. A friend to many people here in this room both in Canada in the U.S. and internationally. Rafi was a political prisoner in Canada as a young man came out to become one of the leading harm reduction advocates and drug user advocates in the country. I worked with Rafi very closely as I say back in the early and mid 90s when I worked for an organization called PASAN, the prisoners with HIV support action network, still the only NGO in Canada specializing exclusively in providing harm reduction and advocacy and support for people in conflict with the law. Rafi and I did prison outreach together and as someone who'd done a reasonably long federal sentence he was very well respected con in the system and I've always said that my ability as a prison worker to actually work effectively in prisons was not only because Rafi taught me how to carry myself in prison but it's also because Rafi vouched for me with the people who mattered inside and he's had a lasting legacy on me personally and one of the things I was looking forward to so much with this conference was actually thanking him for that but sadly just in February this year Rafi died of an accidental overdose while attending a harm reduction conference in Vancouver and I know after that I received emails from so many people across Canada asking that we say something about Rafi and so it's about him but I think it's about all of the people we know we saw the anguish and the anger and the memories that have come back even in just this opening session when we begin to talk about the war on drugs the casualties in the war on drugs the overdose crisis the hiv epidemics the criminal actors slaughtering people in the streets and I think Lee spoke more eloquently than I ever could I wanted to thank Rafi personally at this conference but I think the best thanks that I can give him and that we can give him is that we all take care of ourselves at this conference take care of ourselves take care of each other like a family does look out for each other and I'd like to thank you all so much for coming and lending yourselves to this conference to being part of this big family I'd like to invite you all to join us in the reception we're going to have a reception where a chance we can recreate and renew those bonds a chance to see the great museum of drug policy exhibit which has been put in place um and a chance to as I say remember the people who are with us the last time we got together whether that was locally nationally internationally who are no longer with us at this particular time and remember that their memories and their strength and their spirit has to keep moving our work forward thank you very much thank you to all of the speakers thank you to Sardalia for the opening prayer and thank you all for coming