Toronto wellness conference includes Wiikwemkoong couple who battled addictions

By Sam Laskaris

TORONTO – A couple from Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory that has overcome their addictions are now assisting others and were featured at a Toronto wellness conference.

Lindsay Trudeau and her partner Roland Pheasant spoke at the First Nations Community Wellness Conference. The three-day event, which concluded Aug. 21, was organized by the Chiefs of Ontario and held at the Fairmont Royal York.

Trudeau and Pheasant were panelists on a workshop titled Healing Through Community and Culture – Lived Experience as Medicine. The workshop featured five panelists who discussed the hardships they encountered in life and how they managed to overcome them.

Pheasant was the first panelist to share his story.

“I’ve been addicted to opiates the majority of my adult life,” he said. “And it took me a long time to turn my life around. When I did, everything changed for the better. I couldn’t believe that life could be so good.”

Pheasant and Trudeau have been together since 2019. Shortly after that, they decided to stop drinking and doing drugs.

Pheasant told conference attendees about the moment the couple decided to get clean. While partying with others in their house, he said Trudeau woke up and told all the guests to leave, while announcing she wanted to get sober.

He then asked Trudeau to throw away a liquor bottle in the house.

“She did that,” he said. “And from there, we never looked back.”

Trudeau went to rehab and the couple gave up selling drugs to feed their addictions. She said she realized they were living terrible lives and were both often overdosing.

“We were saving each other’s lives,” she said. “And then we decided to get sober together. It wasn’t easy.”

They found peace being outdoors.

“We resorted to the land and we were out there for a couple of months,” Trudeau said. “And it was the best place to be, the best place to heal.”

Trudeau said her healing has continued.

“My life now is amazing,” she added. “There was a point in time where I didn’t even want to be here at all. And I’m so grateful for everything that’s happened. You know, all of the work that I’ve been doing on myself from seeing a therapist. I’ve taken somatic therapy and I’ve done acupuncture.”

She also expressed gratitude for those who were keen to help her during her darkest times.

“I am thankful that I was able to experience the love that I did despite everything and how I grew up,” she said. “My Kokum loved me so much. I’ll never experience that kind of love again.”

Trudeau said she is in the process of starting her own company now.

She also said that both she and Pheasant are keen to assist others. They do that by making themselves available when called upon by an individual who is looking to talk to someone.

“There’s a lot of people [who need help] and they’re afraid,” she said. “So, we try to be that voice for them.”

Another Wiikwemkoong member, Alison Recollet, was also on the panel.

“I’ve been on my healing journey for a while now,” she said. “Every day is a healing journey. I come from sexual abuse. A lot of shame goes with sexual abuse.”

The panel also included Quentin Bird and Regan Gamble.

Bird, who lives in Winnipeg, is a member of Dakota Plains Wahpeton Nation in Manitoba. He grew up in care for the majority of his childhood and then was in jail for many of his adult years.

Gamble, a member of Beardy’s & Okemasis Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, talked about her experiences at Indian Residential School, ensuing drug and alcohol addictions and being a domestic abuse survivor.