The Recovery Capital Conference (RCC) will be running from Wednesday to Thursday in Calgary, but Canadian motivational speaker Guy Felicella will be barred from attending it. This is because the afternoon before the RCC, Felicella is giving a keynote address at an event called Community Conversations: Drug Policy Alternatives for Alberta in Calgary.“That’s a problem, says the email, because the organizers of Tuesday’s event have said mean things about the organizers of Wednesday-Thursday’s events,” tweeted Felicella on Sunday. “I’m being uninvited NOT BECAUSE I protested or said ‘vile’ things, but because I’m ‘sharing a stage’ with people who did.”.He said the Last Door has the right to have and refuse whoever they want at a private event. In his seven years attending Recovery Day and numerous RCCs, he acknowledged he has never disrupted proceedings or made anyone feel unsafe. He works as an educator. As an educator, he has given talks to police chiefs, recovery society galas, youth, school communities, and more. While he works as an educator, he said he is always learning. If people are going to solve the opioid crisis, he said they “MUST listen to each other and find the places we align.”He works in recovery, connects people to treatment, and develops and runs programming for addicts. When he signed up for the RCC, he said he wanted to go for work rather than to protest or make anyone feel unsafe. That is why he is disheartened and devastated. He said actions such as these “make me feel like we’ll never find common ground and solutions in Canada.”As a person in recovery, he said it hurts to be rejected. It has brought up plenty of past trauma. Felicella concluded by saying his abstinence recovery must not be good enough because he supports harm reduction. “For @recovery_summit — a conference about caring for people with mental health and substance use issues — to BAN THE ATTENDANCE of a person in recovery, a person with lived experience who still struggles with my mental health … a person who educates youth on the toxic drug crisis, a person who helps connect people to treatment, and helps families who are struggling with these challenges…IT REALLY SENDS THE WRONG MESSAGE,” he said. Last Door Community Engagement said it was aware Felicella was a keynote speaker at an event whose organizers and supporters have protested the RCC and made derogatory and inflammatory remarks about its staff. “These remarks from those that Mr. Felicella is sharing a stage with include, but are not limited to, smearing the staff and organizers of Last Door and the Recovery Capital Conference as ‘brownshirts’ and ‘far right,’” said Last Door Community Engagement. “Our event is intended to be a safe environment not just for our staff, but for those wanting to thoughtfully learn about recovery-oriented systems of care, and we have no tolerance for disruption or making conference attendees or staff feel unsafe.” As a result, Last Door Community Engagement said it had cancelled his registration and barred him from attending the RCC. It added it would be pleased to reassess his attendance in future years. Alberta Mental Health and Addictions Minister Dan Williams became emotional on March 15 when speaking about the increase in funding his ministry has received since 2019. READ MORE: Alberta cabinet ministers vow municipal conduct reforms, recovery communities at conference“This government takes incredibly seriously this crisis around addiction and this crisis people face in their homes with mental health challenges,” said Williams. “On this piece, particularly around overdoses, the metric we need to look at is are we getting people treatment.” Last Door could not be reached for comment in time for publication.
