About Ryan Nayler
Ryan Nayler
Ryan Thomas Nayler, December 7th 1985 – November 29th 2020
Ryan was a beautiful, brilliant soul. He had the IQ of a genius and was highly educated earning both a bachelors and master’s degree. He graduated with honours. He was a gifted writer and musician and he played many instruments including guitar, violin, harp and Irish flute and had the heart of a poet. Ryan was born in Canada but he was super proud of his Irish heritage, so much so that he earned a degree in Celtic studies. He had the mischievous playfulness of a leprechaun, loved to make people laugh and enjoyed playing pranks on others. He had Irish eyes that smiled brightly whenever he was happy or up to something.
Ryan was a born activist. From the time he was a little boy he was aware of the wrongs in the world and he felt moved to do something to make things right or better. He was always trying to do whatever he could to help others and would share everything he had with his family, his friends, and even strangers. From emptying our cupboards to fill the paper bag that comes in the newspaper at Thanksgiving or emptying his piggy bank every time we went to Toronto so he would have money to give to the homeless. He wrote his first protest letter at 10 years old and it was read on the lawn of Queen’s Park.
He was an ethical vegan and a passionate animal and human rights advocate. He felt very strongly that since animals have no voice and no rights, someone needed to speak for them and elected himself to be their voice. Ryan was living in Toronto and working on his Master’s degree when he heard about the University of Victoria’s plan to cull over 1000 rabbits. He used his savings and immediately flew across the country to save those rabbits. He organized a campaign that included letter writing, petitions, radio and TV interviews and rallies and protests. Thanks to Ryan’s efforts the campaign was successful in relocating all the rabbits to new homes across Canada and the US. This was one of his proudest accomplishments.
Ryan earned a Master Degree in Library and Information Sciences and was an advocate for freedom of speech and freedom of information. Ryan wrote articles that were published in academic journals and was a professional book reviewer. He loved working as a librarian and especially enjoyed his time working at the Rare Books Collection at the University of Toronto. Ryan was loving and loyal to his friends and family. He most loved family gathering where he would get to spend time with his many nieces and nephews. His playful nature and his respect for children as equals earned him the title of "favourite uncle." While working out of province and away from family Ryan started having psychosis and was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Ryan struggled with suicidal depression and used alcohol and later drugs like crack cocaine and crystal meth to self-medicate.
The past 8 years were very difficult for Ryan, as he tried his best to cope with both his bipolar disorder and substance use disorder. Ryan tried to get help but due to his concurrent disorder, as well as stigma, and lack of funding for mental health and addiction treatment, he faced many barriers to getting the help and service he needed. During the last few years of his life when Ryan was struggling the hardest to stay alive he still was doing all he could to help others, becoming an advocate for police accountability, increased mental health funding, safe supply and decriminalization, and for supportive housing. He was a big advocate for a Supervised Consumption Site (SCS) in Barrie and was a harm reduction advocate, always reminding friends to have Naloxone and to never use drugs alone. Sadly on November 29th 2020 Ryan lost his life due to a toxic drug poisoning.
He will live on in the hearts of those that knew and loved him.