 I'd like to welcome to the stage now, Nazli from the International Center on Science and Drug Policy. We gave out some awards at the beginning of the conference, and the International Center on Science and Drug Policy has started a very special new award that we're very honored to have it being given for the first time here today, and Nazli can tell you some more about it. Okay, hello everybody. So, as mentioned, my name's Nazli Maxuti, and I am with the International Center for Science and Drug Policy. The ICSDP is committed to improving community health and safety by conducting research and outreach on best practices in drug policy while working collaboratively with government stakeholders and affected communities to guide effective and evidence-based responses to substance use. So at this year's conference, we are launching the Brooklyn McNeil Ray of Hope Award. Yay! To honor the best scientific abstract in the area of drug policy. The aim of this award is to encourage high-quality scientific research to support evidence-based advocacy efforts in drug policy reform, and the ICSDP will continue to sponsor this award at every subsequent harm reduction international conference. The award is named after Brooklyn Ray McNeil, a vocal harm reduction activist from Toronto, Canada. Brooklyn was a prominent advocate for safer injection sites and a vital support in the lives of many people who use drugs in Toronto. Her life was cut short as a result of an opioid overdose in June 2016. It is hoped that this new award in her memory will encourage the kind of high-quality scientific research that is needed to advocate for drug policy reform and the provision of adequate harm reduction services. With this, countless more avoidable deaths would be avoided. I would now like to invite Brooklyn's sister, mom, and dad, Maddie, Thea, and Dean to make some remarks about Brooklyn. Thank you. It's with great sadness, but with also greater sense of pride and honour that we are standing here today celebrating my daughter Brooklyn's legacy. Many thanks to all who are involved in making this award happen. We would especially like to thank Dr. Dan Wiebe and Nazalee Magzoudi. I hope he said it right. For acknowledging Brooklyn's achievements and sponsoring this award and also Dr. Dan Kass for his hard work with understanding Brooklyn and the care for Brooklyn. It's deeply appreciated. We would also like to thank the families and friends that have taken the time out of their day and their lives to attend this most memorable event. Brooklyn's Aunt Lisa, Massaro, Uncle Clo, Gamaj, Cousin Simone from Montreal, Larry St. Croix, a dear friend from Napanee, and also Olympia Tripis, a friend from Toronto who has taken on where Brooklyn has left off. May she get all the support she needs in carrying the torch in this fight for the misunderstood society of people in this world. Thank you. My sister Brooklyn was a beautiful and intelligent child. Her inquisitive, artistic, talented, and fearless spirit began to emerge young in life. Brooklyn embraced everything she did with the very best she had to offer. She possessed a corkiness about her that was endearing along with a unique fashion sense in which she stayed true to expressing who she was as opposed to making impressions on others. She was multi-talented in art, especially in visual art, music, and writing. We'll forever cherish Brooklyn's memory with her legacy of artistry and creativity in the vast number of artworks, writings, and recordings she has left behind. Being gifted with the sensitive, compassionate nature and learning hard lessons early in life as she battled mental health and addiction issues helped fuel Brooklyn's drive in advocating for those less fortunate. This became a predominant focus and force in her life. Brooklyn was an advanced peer worker in Toronto, Ontario. Whether on shift or in her personal life, she was a leader and role model in the homeless youth community and a harm reduction advocate. The peer work Brooklyn did with these young people came from a place of lived experience. She was an excellent support and source of inspiration to her peers in many ways that social workers aren't. She gave the people not the logical non-judgmental help they needed when she was in desperate need of it herself. She was so beautifully selfless, this being proven by her big impact on people and all the lives that she saved with her knowledge on harm reduction. This was recounted in endless Facebook messages and testimonials. Brooklyn did so much, there was nothing she couldn't do or didn't want to learn. She did kit making and street outreach every week and taught others how to do it. She offered workshops across three shelters and was increasingly being asked to share her story and advice as a public speaker. She was delivering a whole new workshop almost every week. Some of the topics were overdose prevention, drug awareness, and relapse prevention. She also talked to service providers about improving support and education of youth around their sexual health. She was working hard to live what she had learned and to share it with others in a similar position. She had started attending Toronto Harm Reduction Alliance meetings. The first time she went, there was no one there that she knew, so she was nervous, but she went anyway. She had stuff to say at that meeting and didn't hold back impressing long-time harm reduction activists in the room. She was asked to give a deputation on safe injection sites in front of the Toronto Board of Health on March 21 of last year. She had the last word and left quite an impression. Two weeks prior to the bill being passed on safe injection sites, Brooklyn accidentally overdosed in an alley all alone at the tender age of 22. If what she was fighting for was already in effect, she would not have died this way. Throughout all of Brooklyn's trials and gifts she brought into our world, our family never stopped believing in and loving her through it all. It is hoped that her untimely death as a result of a drug overdose will serve to inspire our society to disperse with judgment and instead continue to work towards greater awareness and understanding of these vast and complex issues. It seems unfathomable that once so young should depart so early. However, it seems that as short as Brooklyn's time was with us, we can take comfort in knowing that her soul may now rest in peace, knowing that the answer to her question, what is my purpose, was at least in part answered. I picked Brooklyn up from school one day when she was only five years old. As she was climbing into the car, she asked me, Mom, what's my purpose, what's life all about? Why are some people so mean in this world? She had me stumped, lost for words. I was speechless, thinking at the same time, why are you asking me such heavy questions at such a young age? I hadn't really put much thought into what purpose in life was as of yet. I just went with life and whatever had to deliver. I just had fun and lived. I realized from then on she was an old soul, thinking very hard about so many things in life that others just took for granted. It was continually on her mind throughout her growing years and periodically the question would pop up again and again, what was her purpose? I often gave Brooklyn inspirational cards throughout her life and hoped that the words written inside soothed her and gave her a better understanding about what life is really all about. I found this in Brooklyn's belongings just recently, a card that I had sent her a while. She was in Toronto. It was written by Dr. Wayne Dwyer's and it was about finding your purpose. Finding your purpose. You come into this world with absolutely nothing. You will leave this physical world with exactly the same. All of your accusations and achievements can't go with you. Therefore the only thing you can do with your life is give it away. You'll find yourself feeling purposeful if you can find a way to always be in the service of others. Purpose is about serving. It's about taking the focus off of you and your self-interest and serving others in some way. You draw because you love to draw, but you draw to make others happy. You play the guitar and sing because your heart directs you to, but playing the guitar and singing are in the service of others. You love to write because you love to express yourself in words, but those words will help inspire readers. If you don't know your purpose, you'll continue to seek it throughout the various stages of your life. This will bring you back to a realization that it doesn't matter what you do as long as you're able to give. In order to fully give and be of service and ultimately feel purposeful, you must be able to say yes when you ask yourself, do I really possess what it is that I wish to give away? Although work and life was taken away at a very young age, I hope that she will take comfort in knowing that her soul should now rest in peace and the answers to her questions I feel have been answered. I really believe that Brooklyn was not meant to be on this earth for a long time, and I think she knew that herself, so that's why she felt that there was a sense of urgency to want to know the answers to her questions at such a young age. Brooklyn chose an experience living the life of the less fortunate in order to help understand their hardships. This is the only way she could truly help and feel their pain. I hope she's very proud of herself and all that she has accomplished in such a short period of time. Brooklyn has let the world know why she was put on this earth. Thank you. Thank you so much for your strength and those beautiful words that were truly touching. I know they resonated with a lot of people in this room who have lost others as well, so thank you. Thank you to the award winner. So all abstracts accepted to the research conference track at this conference were considered for the award. The winner will receive a waiver to publish in the peer-reviewed Open Access Harm Reduction Journal, as well as $750 Canadian. So to announce the winner, Elaine Heshka. Elaine Heshka is an assistant professor at the University of Alberta School of Public Health and a principal investigator of the Canadian Harm Reduction Policy Project, the first comprehensive national analysis of provincial and territorial harm reduction policymaking. Using an innovative comparative analysis approach, her winning abstract reports research findings from this project and finds that Canadian policies define harm reduction inconsistently, focus primarily on preventing blood-borne infections and rarely address overdose or the needs of key populations. Heshka and her colleagues conclude that provincial and territorial harm reduction policies are rarely aligned with international best practices and that strengthening and expanding policies remains an important task for promoting consistent access to harm reduction services across Canada. This research is generating timely data on the state of provincial and territorial harm reduction policies and supporting efforts to achieve expanded and equitable access to harm reduction services across Canada. I encourage you, all of you, to take a look at this research, which will feature in the Harm Reduction Journal in the near future. So congratulations to Elaine. Wow. On the spot. Okay. Yeah, totally on the spot. I just want to say thank you so much for this incredible honour. And I don't think there's much else to say. I want to quickly acknowledge my co-authors, my colleague, Julene Anderson Barron, who presented this work because I wasn't able to attend earlier this week and I just think, you know, we have to end the war on drugs, right? Like, ultimately, people are dying and we have to end the suffering and I think I'm glad to see that we're ending on this note of hope that we can do that, so thank you. Thank you. Thanks very much.