When Ash Wednesday moved from Niagara Falls to British Columbia at 19, he had no clue what was in store for him.
In the early 2000s, Wednesday started working in the Downtown Eastside as a social worker. He worked at Insite, the first North American supervised drug consumption site.
After a year at Insite, he started working at the Vancouver heroin trials for a North American project.
During his time at the trials, he experienced witnessing gun play, theft, a kidnapping threat on his child, and a health scare when Wednesday was stabbed with a used needle.
"Working there was super wild," Wednesday told V.I.A.
After more work in the addiction treatment field in Maple Ridge and Coquitlam, Wednesday began work at a homeless shelter in Vancouver, where he said he witnesses several overdoses.
He also lost one of his friends who worked at the shelter to an overdose.
"I watched my friend die and it was f*cking awful," he said.
In all his time doing social work, Wednesday said he witnessed over 1,200 overdoses. At that point, he knew he needed time away from the field.
"It was too much," said Wednesday.
A new beginning
After stepping away from social work, WorkSafeBC offered to send Wednesday to school and he chose Blanche MacDonald College to become a barber.
"No one dies at a barbershop," he pointed out.
While he was still in school, his partner at the time had an overdose and was in a coma.
"I would be at school and go to the laundry room and cry," he described.
Fortunately, she came out of the coma three months after the incident.
Once he graduated, he started working as a barber in Port Moody where he met some of his future business partners.
Wednesday, along with some of his colleagues, decided to start their own barbershop and he knew where he wanted it to be.
"East Vancouver is my neighbourhood, the place where I am comfortable."
Less than a month ago, they opened The Republic of East Vancouver Barbershop at 2564 E Hastings St.
With the walls adorned with punk rock posters, skateboards, and crazy art, the Republic of East Vancouver is everything that Wednesday wanted.
"This was our culture. Now, we are old and we still want that around with the barbershop," he said.
The barbershop, a quick drive from the Downtown Eastside, signifies a new start for Wednesday.
"Seven minutes from the place that destroyed me, we built this thing where I can build myself back up again."
