Latest news with #Elmo
The Province
an hour ago
- Health
- The Province
Babies and toddlers are fatally overdosing on parents' fentanyl
'Societies get judged by how they take care of their kids. This is not a good judgment on us,' says Dr. Michael Rieder, lead author of a new study on child opioid poisonings Fentanyl recently seized, displayed during a press conference at BC RCMP Divisional Headquarters in Surrey, B.C., Friday, Feb. 23, 2024. Photo by Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press Twenty-month-old Amelia liked to play with zippers. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors One February morning in 2019, the toddler woke when her mother returned to the bed the two had been sharing in a rented room in a Kitchener, Ont. home. Amelia didn't have her own crib. It was around 10 a.m. Her mother had just used drugs in the bathroom, and then slipped a baggie with what was left of the blue-coloured substance inside a zipper pocket on the front of her sweater. She thought the opioid in her possession was fentanyl. Later testing determined it was, in fact, carfentanil, a fentanyl cousin 100 times more potent than fentanyl that vets use to tranquilize very big animals. She'd used earlier, at 2 a.m., while her young daughter slept. With Amelia now awake, she put on an Elmo video, pulled out a puzzle for her daughter to play with and then fell back asleep. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. When she woke a few hours later, her toddler was lying on top of her, her body limp, her lips blue. There was a wet baggie on the bed and, near the baggie, a baby's soother. Her screams for help alerted others in the house, who called 911. Despite life-saving attempts by first her mother then first responders, Amelia was pronounced dead in hospital at 1:30 p.m. that day. Her right hand was stained blue. Amelia was one of at least 26 infants, pre-schoolers and kindergarteners who have died from opioid overdoses in Ontario since 2017, most from fentanyl toxicity and most in their own homes, poisoned by their parents' drugs. A recently published review found 10 fatal opioid poisonings in children under 10 in Ontario over a four-year span, from 2017 to 2021. The youngest was nine months old, the oldest, three months shy of turning five. Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. All 10 had previous child protection services involvement. At least seven came from households with prior police involvement. 'Yet still these deaths occurred,' lead author Dr. Michael Rieder, a pediatrician and professor at Western University's Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry in London, said in a statement. In the years since his team's study stopped, at least 16 more children in the same age group — under 10 — have died from opioid poisoning in Ontario, according to data provided to National Post by Ontario's chief coroner, Dr. Dirk Huyer. The loss of an innocent child's life from an opioid overdose, preventable deaths that, in some cases, have led to manslaughter charges, isn't a tragedy unique to Ontario: Alberta recorded 11 fatal opioid poisonings in children under 10 between 2017 and 2024. In Saskatoon, a 16-month-old baby and both her parents died from suspected drug toxicity over the span of just six months in 2023, the CBC reported. In Winnipeg, three children — a three-month-old and two one-year-olds — died of fentanyl related overdoses in 2022 and 2023, according to the public broadcaster. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. British Columbia's Coroners Service was still compiling statistics on child opioid poisonings in response to a request from National Post at deadline. However, in March, a five-year-old was hospitalized after apparently overdosing on fentanyl at a home in Mission. The child was in the bathtub when she handled a jar containing fentanyl, 'and began exhibiting signs of distress soon afterwards,' Mission RCMP said. The adults in the home called 911 after her breathing changed and she began vomiting Paramedics needed multiple doses of naloxone to revive her. A 42-year-old Sault Ste. Marie man is currently facing manslaughter charges in a case involving a fentanyl overdose of a child in September 2023. 'Societies get judged by how they take care of their kids,' Rieder said in an interview. 'This is not a good judgment on us.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. His research team's results are unique since they found child welfare services were involved with every case prior to the child's death. By comparison, one U.S. study of 731 fatal drug poisonings in children five and under across 40 states found only one-sixth had an open child protection service case at the time of death. In that study, opioids accounted for nearly half of the deaths. Often the prevailing sentiment among social workers is that a child's best place is with the family, said Rieder. 'As a pediatrician of 38 years, I beg to differ,' he said. 'I think it's usually with your family … In many cases, sadly it is not.' While adults account for most fentanyl and other opioid-related deaths, an average of 20 a day in Canada last year, the 'staggering effect' on pediatric mortality — child deaths — has been overlooked and neglected, Rieder and his colleagues reported. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Fentanyl kills babies and young children the same way it kills adults. Like all opioids, the drug acts on the body's central nervous system, causing sedation and euphoria. In sufficient doses, it also slows breathing and heart rate. As breathing slows, the body's cells become stressed from lack of oxygen and a buildup of carbon dioxide. 'Eventually the heart just packs it in and says, 'Enough is enough. I'm going to stop,'' Rieder said. 'The opiate puts you to sleep and convinces your brain to stop breathing.' The difference is that it takes just a trace amount of ingested fentanyl to kill a young child. 'It doesn't take much,' Rieder said. 'It doesn't take gram quantities to do it.' For their study, his group used anonymized data from the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, relying on case notes to try to understand the circumstances surrounding the deaths to 'better the potential for intervention' and keep more kids from dying, the authors wrote in the June issue of Pediatrics & Child Health, the flagship journal of the Canadian Paediatric Society. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. No sentence will bring Amelia back, but the sentence imposed must reflect that a young life has been lost The case notes, however, provide only a broad overview, and are as brief as they are heartbreaking: An 11-month-old was found without vital signs — pulseless — under a living room table. Plastic baggies and drugs were found on the scene. An infant was discovered 'fully unresponsive by mom' on a mattress on the floor where the two had been sleeping at a friend's house. White powder and syringes were scattered about. A toddler fell asleep in a bed shared with two older siblings. During the night, a sister noted the toddler's 'stiffening and eyes rolling back.' A parent and two other adults in the house had used heroin the night before. A caregiver woke from a nap with a baby and found the infant with 'cyanosis,' blue from lack of oxygen. There was vomit in the bed. Police found a bag of fentanyl outside the bedroom. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In Amelia's case, a scrap of tinfoil with drug residue was found in her car seat cupholder. Her father had been arrested on drug charges days before her death. Her mother had stopped using and had stayed clean for several years after she became pregnant with Amelia, even contacting family services herself during her pregnancy for help to stay sober, but then relapsed into daily fentanyl use weeks before Amelia died. A family member had contacted local family and children's services, but both parents denied she was using again. 'Further attempts' to schedule visits became difficult when the mother failed to respond, court heard. Contact was eventually made, and a home visit scheduled for the day Amelia died, but her mother left a voice message at 5:50 a.m. that morning, cancelling the visit. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Both fentanyl and carfentanil were found in Amelia's blood. The mother, who had been sexually abused by an uncle when she was a child, went into foster care at 12 and started using crack cocaine at 14, pleaded guilty to criminal negligence causing death. In December 2019, she was sentenced to four years less time served. 'No sentence will bring Amelia back, but the sentence imposed must reflect that a young life has been lost in these tragic circumstances,' Justice Melanie Sopinka said in delivering her decision. Fentanyl alone, or in combination with other drugs, was the primary drug of toxicity in the Western study. In most cases, fentanyl was found in the child's play or sleeping area. A common narrative was that the child was found unresponsive after being put down for a nap. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. With opioid poisonings, children can look sleepy at first. In the case of the youngest infants, drug powder may have contaminated baby formula, Rieder said. 'With opioid overdose, you don't die right away — I think they put the baby down, thinking it was going to be OK, they went to sleep and woke up, and everything wasn't OK.' Historically, prescription meds caused most childhood opioid deaths, said the study's first author, Dr. Katrina Assen, a pediatrician at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary. 'Now we're switching to fentanyl.' Seven children in their study were white; three were Indigenous. The households were often small, cluttered, untidy and disorderly. There were often a lot of people living in them — five on average. The mean age of the children that died was just under two, an especially 'exploratory age,' the authors wrote. When kids transition from age two to four, they 'climb anywhere and eat everything,' Rieder said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. We have to make some decisions that are unpleasant As a former foster parent, Rieder said he knows from his own experience that child protection services are under-resourced, over-stressed and facing a scarcity of foster families. 'I think because of resource constraints children are often in situations in which they might be potentially in harm's way,' he said. Half the deaths his group found were classified as accidental; for the other half, the manner of death was deemed 'undetermined.' 'When you have an unexplained drug toxicity in a child, you just can't always say whether it got into them accidentally because of something somebody did or was there intentional provision of that substance to the child,' Huyer, Ontario's chief coroner, said. 'It's very difficult to answer those questions at times.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Addiction is a horrible disease, Rieder said. 'It wires you badly. People in drug-using homes, in drug-using circumstances, make decisions that do not seem rational. They do it because the addiction drives them,' he said. 'In homes where there are drug users and kids, I think (child protection services) need to consider these facts when making decisions. … We have to make some decisions that are unpleasant.' Should drug-associated material be found in a household, 'action by CWS (child welfare services) workers should be taken forthwith,' and at a minimum require education on safe drug storage 'and follow up visits to ensure that these steps are put into place,' Rieder and his co-authors wrote. In a statement to National Post, the Ontario Association of Children's Aid Societies said if a report of neglect or abuse is received, the first step is assessment of safety concerns and to identify potential risks to children in the home. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'If concerns are identified, CAS's will work with the caregivers to create safety/mitigation plans and monitor these until the risk is reduced to a level (where) child protection intervention is no longer required,' the statement said. 'For substance use issues, these plans could be a number of things along a continuum of intrusiveness, spanning from harm-reduction strategies to removal of children from the home and other legal intervention.' National Post Read More Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here. News Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Canucks News Sports
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Portland anti-ICE demonstrators confused when person in full-size Elmo costume shows up
An adult dressed in an Elmo costume was caught on camera trolling protesters outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Portland, Oregon, over the weekend, clashing with demonstrators. Katie Daviscourt of The Post Millennial filmed the confrontation at the ICE South Waterfront facility on Saturday. In the video, the unidentified person in the costume is seen posing on the ground in front of the entrance to the ICE facility, crawling around outside and then dancing in front of the anti-ICE demonstrators who attempted to confront the person. The incident reportedly left anti-ICE demonstrators confused and frustrated, according to newsgathering website Storyful. Multiple Arrests After Violent Mob Attacks Portland Ice Facility With Fireworks And Knives Earlier this month, Portland's progressive-leaning city council was exploring ways to expel ICE from the detention facility that has become a flashpoint for violent clashes between agents and radical agitators. Read On The Fox News App City councilors told a packed hearing that they would consider revoking ICE's permit to operate the South Waterfront facility due to alleged violations of a 2011 conditional-use permit, according to local news outlet Willamette Week. Portland Anti-ice Riot Crushed By Federal Agents The permit allows detention and administrative use under specific limitations, but lawmakers have raised concerns that ICE has been holding detainees there for longer than the required 12-hour limit. Residents and lawmakers raised other concerns, saying that the facility undermines the city's sanctuary city policy, while residents testified about targeted arrests, gas attacks and intimidation. "Our values of sanctuary and humanity are under siege," local resident Michelle Dar said. She also said that federal agents' armed actions threatened everyone's safety, not just that of immigrants. Other residents complained that loud bangs and flashbangs were disrupting life for residents of subsidized housing and students of a local school. A handful of people also blamed Antifa for the ugly scenes outside the facility. Chaotic scenes have been unfolding outside the facility since June, including in one incident when a large group of anti-ICE protesters tried to block law enforcement vehicles from entering and exiting the facility, forcing agents to deploy rubber bullets, tear gas and flash bangs to disperse the crowd. Fox News' Michael Dorgan, Alexandra Koch and Bill Melugin contributed to this report. Original article source: Portland anti-ICE demonstrators confused when person in full-size Elmo costume shows up Solve the daily Crossword
Fox News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Person dressed in Elmo costume disrupts anti-ICE protest
A person dressed in an Elmo costume caused a scene while disrupting an anti-ICE protest in Portland, Oregon, on July 26, 2025. (Credit: Katie Daviscourt/The Post Millennial)
Fast Company
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
Elmo sparks a national therapy session: A brief oral history
On Monday morning, January 29, 2024, Christina Vittas posted a nine-word tweet: 'Elmo is just checking in! How is everybody doing?' Apparently, not so great. Vittas had been managing the social accounts for the beloved Sesame Street superstar since the end of 2020. She hadn't anticipated that Elmo's friendly question would tap into a deep vein of national angst: a looming presidential election, inflation, and conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine. Christina Vittas: I thought, Strategically, when is the best time for Elmo to post this? Monday morning, right? People are getting back in. 'How are we doing?' is a question that a friend would ask. I posted on X at 10:46 a.m. The super-early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is this Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
The Herald Scotland
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Epstein backlash is souring Trump's winning streak
Answer: Jeffrey Epstein. After continuing to amass unprecedented power in the White House, steamrolling a compliant Congress and being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by world leaders more eager to flatter than confront him, Trump finds himself flummoxed by the case of a disgraced financier who died in a jail cell six years ago. Epstein's ghost is beginning to haunt the White House. The very tools that helped win Trump two terms - the openness to conspiracy, the distrust of elites, the eruption of a viral moment - have now turned to bedevil him. In this case, the assertion this month by the Justice Department and the FBI that the Epstein case was over and done with was met by derision and disbelief among some of the president's most loyal supporters. After all, such influential MAGA voices as Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon had been insisting for years that Epstein's suicide was suspicious and his powerful associates hidden. A week ago, Trump told his supporters to "not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about." He followed up by denouncing his supporters who were upset with the case as "weaklings" who had "bought into this bulls***, hook, line and sinker." Those instructions didn't sway many in his political base. Then he directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the investigation's grand-jury testimony, a step that can only be ordered by a judge. Now Trump has filed a lawsuit for libel and slander against the Wall Street Journal, its publisher, two of its reporters, and News Corp founder and former friend Rupert Murdoch. At issue is its story that Trump sent a "bawdy" 50th-birthday letter to Epstein in 2003, decorated with a crude drawing of a woman's naked body that used his distinctive signature to suggest pubic hair. More: Trump: Epstein grand jury records unlikely to satisfy critics "Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret," it reportedly said. Trump called the article "false" and demanded damages "not to be less than $10 billion." But he acknowledged on the social-media platform Truth Social that the release of grand-jury testimony isn't likely to settle things. [N]othing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request," he railed. "It will always be more, more, more. MAGA!" A furor that swamps Medicaid cuts and Elmo's future A purported "Epstein client list" and the dark suspicion that powerful people are being protected has created a political firestorm stronger than the prospect of cutting an estimated 12 million people off Medicaid or the proposal to end federal funding for Elmo. The cuts in health care for the poor were part of the "Big Beautiful Bill" that Congress passed July 3 -, extending Trump's first-term tax cuts, increasing spending on border security and slashing funds for Medicaid, food stamps and green energy. On Friday, July 18, Congress approved $9 billion in spending cuts in foreign aid and public broadcasting, Muppets included. The so-called recission package deleted funding Congress had previously approved and reflected the Capitol's voluntary retreat from its constitutional power to decide how tax money should be spent. In the past, the tactic has rarely succeeded. In the future, the White House budget office said more such cuts would be on their way. But that consequential debate got less ink and fueled less furor than the Epstein saga. Trump's attempt to convince Americans that there is nothing to see here is likely to be an uphill battle. In a Reuters/Ipsos Poll, 69% of Americans said they thought the federal government was hiding details about Epstein's clients. Only 6% said information wasn't being hidden. The rest weren't sure. The poll, taken July 15-16, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3% for all adults and 6% for subgroups. Those who see a conspiracy afoot included a 55% majority of Republicans. Only about a third of those in the GOP, 35%, approved of how Trump is handling the issue. Overall, just 17% approved, his lowest rating on any issue. The long lifespans of conspiracy theories One lesson of Trump's political career is this: Once you've persuaded people there's fire behind the smoke, it's hard to convince them that the air has been cleared. When Barack Obama ran for the White House in 2008, Trump repeated debunked allegations that the Illinois senator had been born in Kenya and wasn't eligible to be elected president. After Obama had served two terms in the White House, a Morning Consult poll found a third of Republicans still believed that falsehood. Since the 2020 election that Trump lost, he has repeated disproven allegations that the election was rigged against him. When the 2024 campaign was getting underway, a CNN poll found that 69% of Republicans and those who "leaned" to the GOP believed Joe Biden's win wasn't legitimate, that the election had been stolen. And Epstein? Welcome or not, he may be sticking around for a while.
