Nearly 300 offences issued by CKPS during Road Safety Week
Chatham-Kent Police Service Headquarters in Chatham, Ont., on Thursday, June 16, 2022. (Submitted to CTV News Windsor)
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National Post
8 minutes ago
- National Post
FIRST READING: How some Canadian cities are becoming more lawless than the U.S.
Article content The two countries also can't be compared in terms of 'crime severity.' Since 2009, Canada's leading crime metric has been the Crime Severity Index, a tool that not only measures the quantity of crimes committed in a given year, but also tries to weight them in terms of relative damage or societal impact. The U.S., though, has no such metric. Article content As such, the Fraser Institute report had to work with raw figures of police-reported crime, differentiated only by whether a crime was violent or non-violent. Article content The 'comparability' of the two countries' crime figures could be skewed by something as simple as police being more diligent in counting petty crime as compared to more serious offences. But Di Matteo wrote that it was still an acceptable way 'to indicate overall crime patterns.' Article content And for most of the 2004-2022 period, the average Canadian city did indeed post lower rates of property crime than the average American city. These averages then became tied in 2020 and 2021, with Canada pulling ahead in 2022. Article content Article content The year 2022 happens to be when Canada was seized by a number of unprecedented crime waves, including a wave of arsons against churches, and a massive spike in car thefts that would eventually cause Canada to be dubbed by the BBC as an 'auto theft capital of the world.' Article content But while the average Canadian city-dweller might be more likely to get their car broken into, they still trail the United States in terms of being hurt or killed by crime. On the measure of 'violent crimes per 100,000 population,' the Fraser Institute report found that while Canada has seen violent crime increase in recent years, the U.S. remains well in the lead. Article content This remains most dramatic in terms of homicide rate. Canada has a relatively consistent murder rate of two homicides for every 100,000 people. In recent years, the U.S. homicide rate has come close to nearly tripling that amount. Article content The Fraser Institute report was published on March 18, and was largely overlooked amid Mark Carney's swearing-in as prime minister and the start of the 45th general election on March 23. Article content Last week, it was highlighted in a widely circulated social media post by Dubai-based influencer Mario Nawfal. 'Canada's biggest cities are now clocking higher property crime rates than the American metros most people think of first when they hear the word 'crime,'' wrote Nawfal. Article content Article content Article content The NDP's interim leader Don Davies has announced that his party will vote 'no' on accepting the terms of the Carney government's throne speech (Davies said it wasn't 'worker-centred' enough). Since the Liberals are governing as a minority, this means that either the Conservatives or the Bloc Québécois will have to vote 'yes' on the speech, lest the government fall on a confidence vote and Canada be plunged into another federal election. The opposition could always weasel out of a decision by simply abstaining on the vote, given that polls are showing that any election would probably just deliver the same result as last time. But the whole exercise has illustrated that Prime Minister Mark Carney's grip on power may not be as strong as he's indicated. It was only two weeks ago that he was speaking of having a 'mandate of change.' Article content And in the unlikely instance that the 45th parliament ends up dissolving almost immediately due to a procedural vote on the speech from the throne, this will technically mean that we dragged King Charles III here for nothing. Article content Article content Article content Article content
CTV News
11 minutes ago
- CTV News
More than 2,200 died of opioids in Ontario last year as numbers trend downward: data
Fentanyl is heated in sterile water using a cook kit in a consumption room at Moss Park Consumption and Treatment Service, in Toronto, on Thursday, Jan.9 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young TORONTO — More than 2,200 Ontarians died from opioids last year, a 15 per cent decrease from 2023, newly released data from the Office of the Chief Coroner shows. 'What goes through my head is a small degree of optimism in the fact that we have seen less people die last year, which is very good, but that's within a context of 2,231 people dying last year,' Dr. Dirk Huyer, the chief coroner, told The Canadian Press in an interview. His office had recorded 2,639 opioid deaths in 2023. 'I also have a degree of worry that this is a short interval, for whatever reason that we haven't identified, and that the numbers could potentially get worse again,' Huyer said. The mortality rate from opioid overdoses was 14.3 deaths per 100,000 people in 2024. That is down from the peak of 19.4 deaths per 100,000 people at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, when opioids took the lives of 2,880 Ontarians. Fentanyl and its related substances were found in more than 83 per cent of opioid toxicity deaths, while stimulants were found in 69 per cent of deaths. Prescription benzodiazepines were seen in 45 per cent of deaths last year, a sharp increase from 33 per cent the year before. Non-prescription benzodiazepines were found in 62 per cent of deaths, slightly down from 66 per cent in 2023. The opioid crisis began to hit Ontario in 2015 and 2016 when illicit fentanyl made its way east from British Columbia. There were 728 opioid deaths in 2015 and by 2018, that doubled to 1,565 deaths. The crisis peaked in the middle of the pandemic. Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's chief medical officer of health, declined a request for an interview about opioid deaths in the province. The Canadian Press has asked him on more than a dozen occasions since 2022 to discuss the opioid crisis but he has never agreed to an interview on the subject. Health Minister Sylvia Jones did not respond to an interview request. The Ministry of Health said the province is 'making it easier for people to break the tragic cycle of addiction by expanding access to safe and comprehensive mental health support.' 'Through Ontario's road map to wellness, the government is investing $3.8 billion over 10 years, and $124 million through the addictions recovery fund, supporting 500 new addiction recovery beds, more than 32 youth wellness hubs, over 100 mobile crisis teams, and innovative models of care like mobile clinics,' the ministry said in a statement. Huyer lamented the fact that the province does not precisely know what's behind the decrease in opioid deaths, but postulated that it could be due to a slightly less toxic supply of drugs. 'I wish we knew because then I think everybody would be able to answer the question on where they should be focusing and how to help provide the best for everybody,' he said. Other hallmarks of the Ontario opioid crisis remain unchanged. Men account for 75 per cent of deaths, opioids disproportionally kill marginalized people and one in five opioid overdose deaths across the province occurs in the homeless population. The province has undergone a fundamental shift in its approach to the opioid crisis, which included banning supervised consumption sites it deemed too close to schools and daycares. That legislation came about after a Toronto woman was killed by a stray bullet from a shooting outside one of the sites. One Toronto consumption site challenged that law in court days before it came into effect on April 1. A judge granted an injunction to allow 10 such sites to remain open while he considers his decision. But nine of the 10 sites had already agreed to transition to the province's new abstinence-based model — homelessness and addiction recovery treatment, or HART, hubs — and closed. The province is investing $550 million to fund a total of 28 HART hubs across Ontario, along with 540 new, highly supportive housing units. Liberal health critic Adil Shamji, who still works part time as an emergency department physician and was on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic, said he's disappointed in the province's response. 'But there's no level of disappointment that can approach the level of heartbreak that families across Ontario are experiencing,' he said. The new homelessness and addiction treatment hubs also miss the mark, he said. 'They have no new services to offer and in many cases are underfunded, overwhelmed, and at a very immature stage where they're not able to meet the demand,' Shamji said. He said there's a void of leadership on the file. 'When you have the medical condition that touches on so many different people in so many different walks of life, it speaks to the need for a public health response and for leaders to come out with ambition, boldness and with the seriousness that it deserves,' he said. 'And we're not seeing that from this government, from the minister of health, from public health or the chief medical officer of health.' The Office of the Chief Coroner reported 197 opioid deaths across the province in April, the most recent data available, but stressed that number is very preliminary and will rise since death investigations and toxicology results often taken months to complete. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 5, 2025. Liam Casey, The Canadian Press
CTV News
20 minutes ago
- CTV News
North York apartment building evacuated due to high levels of carbon monoxide
A North York apartment building was evacuated on Thursday after high levels of carbon monoxide was detected. A North York apartment building is being evacuated after high levels of carbon monoxide were detected, Toronto Fire says. Emergency crews were called to a building on Keele Street, near Sheppard Avenue West, at around 4 a.m. Thursday for a report of a woman experiencing symptoms of concern. Crews are still investigating the source, Toronto Fire said, but it appears to be a mechanical issue in the basement. TTC buses have been deployed to shelter displaced residents. One person was transported to hospital with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, paramedics told CP24.
