‘Peaceful is not always quiet’: activist

Crystal Hébert awarded YMCA Peace Medal

Crystal Hébert, an Indigenous activist who helps people with addiction and homelessness, received the YMCA Peace Medal in a noon ceremony Thursday at the Y on Aylmer Street.

Hébert, whose pronouns are they/them, said it was surprising to receive the medal given that their activism involves organizing protests or helping people without homes to camp illegally on city property.

“I’m not what some people would call peaceful,” Hébert said in a speech. “But peaceful is not always quiet.”

Hébert, whose Indigenous name is Mkwa Giizhis, spent Thursday morning on the scene on Wolfe Street where a tent encampment was being dismantled.

It’s a disgrace that the city dispersed people with no place to go, Hébert told the crowd at the Y: “Winter comes every year — we should have known better, we should have done better.”

Hébert is known for other activism, too: for example they founded Tweak Easy, a grassroots group that sets up a semi-enclosed tent downtown where people can smoke drugs with volunteers present to help in case of drug poisoning.

“People think what I do is radical — but it’s not,” Hébert said, adding that it’s all done “because I care” and that anyone can do it, too: “We can all be radical — we can all do this.”

In the speech, Hébert also described being homeless at age seven and living with their mother and sister for three months at the home of friends.

Hébert’s mother would give money and cigarettes to people who were living rough, Hébert said, “even though we were broke.”

Hébert said their mother died of a drug overdose in 2014.

Holding up a photo taken of the late mother at a protest, Hébert described her as someone “endlessly giving all the love she didn’t receive.”

“She always taught me to stand up and use my voice,” Hébert said.

Coun. Alex Bierk, an artist and longtime advocate for people struggling with addiction, was also at the ceremony.

Bierk had been the recipient of the Peace Medal in 2020, when there

was no ceremony due to COVID-19 lockdown.

“Mkwa — we need you — we really need you,” he said in appreciation of Hébert’s activism, in a speech.

Mayor Jeff Leal didn’t give a speech but came to the ceremony to offer Hébert a scroll from the city “to recognize their extensive advocacy — particularly for Indigenous women and marginalized individuals in our community,” he said in an interview.

“That’s the way you bring about public policy change — advocacy.”