Today in the Legislature I rose to pay tribute to Elliot Eurchuk, a former constituent, who tragically died from an accidental overdose of opioids at just 16 years of age.

Below I reproduce the video and text of the short tribute.

Video of Tribute

Text of Tribute

A. Weaver: Today I rise with profound sadness to convey my deepest sympathies to the family of Elliot Cleveland Eurchuk, who tragically passed away on Friday, April 20, from an accidental overdose of opioids at just 16 years of age.

Elliot and his family are constituents, and Elliot was a grade 11 student at Oak Bay High School. He loved sports, hiking, books and hoped to study medicine in the future. He was known for his wit, humour and profound kindness.

I cannot imagine the grief his family and friends are experiencing. His school and our collective community are grieving together with his family.

His parents, Rachel Staples and Brock Eurchuk — Brock, a longtime friend of mine, who I graduated from high school with — have bravely spoken out to tell their story and warn other youth and parents about the danger of prescription opioids.

Every day in British Columbia we are losing youth in our communities. The B.C. Coroners Service reports that the number of overdose deaths among ten- to 18-year-olds almost doubled, from 12 in 2016 to 23 in 2017. One life lost is truly heartbreaking, yet the scale of this emergency could hardly be articulated in a way that respects and reflects the grief felt around B.C.

To Elliot’s parents and family, please accept my sincere condolences for your tragic loss. I’m sure I speak on behalf of all my colleagues in this chamber when I say that our thoughts and prayers are with you at these difficult times.