Join us on Wednesday, December 9th, as the AVA Webinar Series presents Gendered Harm, Coercion, and Care: Examining the Impacts of SCS Closures and Mandatory Treatment in Alberta, featuring Emily Berg and Danielle English from the Inner City Health and Wellness Program.
Wednesday, December 9, 2026
12 – 1:30pm MST
As drug policy across Canada shifts away from harm reduction toward abstinence-based, carceral care, women and gender-diverse individuals who use drugs face escalating, distinct risks. This webinar explores the gendered implications of Alberta’s evolving addiction policy landscape, pulling examples from Supervised Consumption Services (SCS) closures (e.g., Calgary, Lethbridge, Royal Alexandra Hospital), Bill 53 (the Compassionate Intervention Act), and lived-experience.
About the Speakers
Emily Berg is a PhD student in Public Health at the University of Alberta. Her research looks at how involuntary drug treatment policies in Alberta impact people who use drugs and healthcare providers, through the lens of feminist bioethics and Mad Studies. In her work with the Queer Trans Health Collective and MacEwan University, she has contributed to projects examining how drug policy, harm reduction, and substance use uniquely affect gender-diverse communities. Shaped by her own family experiences with substance use, mental health, and loss, Emily is passionate about community-led research that pushes back against harm and paternalism in healthcare.
Danielle English is a harm reductionist and advocate who grounds her advocacy in her own lived experience with substance use disorder and being a woman with a disability. Low barrier, mutual aid funded, frontline, grass roots initiatives are the focus of her work. She believes in the power of community care and has over 5+ years experience in frontline outreach, peer support, research and health equity.