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When ‘tranq' takes its toll

When ‘tranq' takes its toll

Globe and Mail20-03-2025
Poisoned
Xylazine is for animals, but chances are that it's laced into the street drugs where you live – and it can cost users their memories, limbs and lives. How did it come to Canada, and what's being done about it?
Kathryn Blaze Baum, Andrea Woo, Kristy Kirkup and Alanna Smith
Toronto, vancouver, ottawa and calgary
The Globe and Mail
Published 32 minutes ago
Michael Bonneau of Vancouver, with Rufus the dog, has an hours-long gap in his memory from the day he inadvertently smoked what he now believes was 'tranq dope.' Somehow, he had acquired a head wound and lost the money in his wallet. 'It's scary, because I don't remember any of it,' he says.
Jesse Winter/The Globe and Mail
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City of Victoria adds new police officers, announces other measures to clamp down on downtown disorder
City of Victoria adds new police officers, announces other measures to clamp down on downtown disorder

Globe and Mail

time03-07-2025

  • Globe and Mail

City of Victoria adds new police officers, announces other measures to clamp down on downtown disorder

The City of Victoria will spend more than $10-million on new measures to improve public safety in its downtown, its mayor announced Wednesday, an infusion of cash aimed at addressing an outcry from residents and businesses about squalor and disorder. Nine new police officers will be either hired or redeployed to focus on the downtown and specifically the area around Pandora Avenue. More bylaw officers will be added to the neighbourhood and money has been allocated to transport vulnerable people away from the area to health and other services around the region. Victoria's spiralling problem with homelessness, addiction and mental-health issues received national attention after The Globe and Mail spent months speaking with Victoria residents, business owners, police officers, local politicians and drug users. The story, published in May, was a chronicle of how even smaller, seemingly idyllic cities have struggled to deal with the widening impact of the drug crisis. Local Councillor Stephen Hammond, a lawyer, has been critical of some city policies that he has said go beyond municipal jurisdiction, and he has questioned whether those policies have contributed to disorder on Pandora Avenue. The new measures are 'a major turnaround from the city,' he said in an interview Wednesday. 'It's a sign of the complete frustration of Victorians.' Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto said Wednesday her announcement is not a reaction to recent chaos, including several reported assaults, but it is instead an intentional and thoughtful plan city staff and other community members have been working on for months. Deaths from opioid overdoses fell last year, but worsened in some provinces The city said in a news release that 'resources are needed to demonstrate that criminals can no longer thrive in Victoria,' and Ms. Alto acknowledged that 'in some parts of the community,' criminals are 'taking advantage of vulnerable folks.' Ms. Alto said council had to make 'hard choices,' but the 'urgency of responding to the city's social-disorder crisis is paramount.' The moves are in line with the city's new Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan announced last month. Councillors are expected to ratify the plan Thursday. The city says it will not raise taxes to pay for the new measures. Rather, $4-million will come from a city emergency fund, while other funding is being reallocated from other projects, including upgrading a local athletic park and a downtown square. On the list of changes is a 'comprehensive rebuild' of the 800, 900 and 1000 blocks of Pandora Avenue, where a transient homeless community has been long established, growing larger during the pandemic. Early design estimates put the rebuild at more than $7-million, but the city said 'preliminary work will make tangible changes with a $3.75 million budget' starting in 2025. Canada's anti-money-laundering agency steps up fight against fentanyl trafficking The city has been under increasing pressure to respond to deteriorating public safety. A Leger poll earlier this year showed that 73 per cent of Victorians think downtown has gotten worse in the past year, far higher than any other Canadian city. The top reasons given for the perceived decline of the core include homelessness (91 per cent) and drug addiction (87 per cent). Forty-four per cent of respondents said that they or a close friend or family member had been the victim of a crime or dangerous experience within the past six months. Commercial vacancies in Victoria reached a historical high of 10.7 per cent in February, 2025, up from 6.1 per cent in 2023, according to Colliers, an investment management company. In its news release Wednesday, the city notes it hosts most of the social and health services provided in the region – 89 per cent of shelter beds and 83 per cent of supportive-housing beds. But it says demand for those services is increased by neighbouring municipalities transporting recently released hospital patients to parks and shelters in Victoria. 'While continuing to urge neighbour local governments to create their own social and health services, the city will begin to relocate vulnerable residents to needed services at suitable service delivery locations throughout the region, such as hospitals, clinics, and social services.' The city will also work with experienced service providers to establish new secure, short-term emergency shelter spaces outside the downtown core by investing what Ms. Alto said was a 'significant amount of money.' But Mr. Hammond said the most important new measure is the boost to enforcement. 'We have surpassed the tipping point as a city [in terms of chaos],' he said. 'We can't go on like this any more.' With a report from The Canadian Press

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