Latest news with #LisaBeare
Global News
15-05-2025
- Global News
Jury recommends education, training following UVic student's overdose death
The jury has made a number of recommendations following an inquest into the death of an 18-year-old university student in January 2024. Sidney McIntyre-Starko was 18 years old when she died of an accidental fentanyl overdose in her dorm room at the University of Victoria. She and her friends had snorted a substance they'd found at the bottom of a box of coolers. The inquest into her death was called after her parents went public with concerns over the response of UVic campus security and the length of time it took to give her naloxone and CPR. 2:38 Inquest into accidental overdose death of UVic student about to go to jury The jury made recommendations about education, training and protocols around emergencies and the toxic drug crisis. Story continues below advertisement It wants Minister of Education and Child Care Lisa Beare to implement a program in high schools training students on how to administer CPR, how to use automated external defibrillators (AED), how to use and administer nasal naloxone and develop a presentation on identifying drugs and their risks. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy To Anne Kang, the minister of post-secondary education and future skills, the jury recommends creating a program involving an in-person presentation about the drug crisis using real stories from survivors and / or family members of loved ones lost to the drug crisis. They recommend the ministry consult with post-secondary institutions and municipalities to implement unique addresses for campuses so that buildings can be found easier and to avoid confusion around where emergency services need to go. They recommend a map of the campus on the back of each student's door with buildings clearly marked and for post-secondary institutions to allow time for campus security training each year to cover protocols and procedures in the case of emergency. The jury also recommends that post-secondary institutions install CCTV cameras in public areas, such as bus loops, so that footage can be obtained at a later date, if necessary. 2:34 Coroner's inquest into UVic student's death hears testimony from 911 operator To the University of Victoria, the jury recommends that all students attend a mandatory in-person or online presentation about how to contact 911 and campus security; how to obtain and administer naloxone; how to find and use an AED device; general info on the drug crisis and a summary for future reference; how to find safe drug supply testing sites, and the implementation of the course for the campus security officer training program. Story continues below advertisement In an inquest, a jury will have the opportunity to make recommendations although a jury must not make any finding of legal responsibility or express any conclusion of law. More to come.
Hamilton Spectator
14-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Minister denies daycare funding for B.C. legislature, saying area is well served
VICTORIA - Plans by the British Columbia legislative assembly to open a child-care facility remain up in the air after the provincial government rejected a funding request. The legislature sought the funding in February 2024, but B.C.'s Ministry of Education and Child Care responded in March that the application was unsuccessful. The legislature had applied to the 2024-25 ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund, which recently announced 486 licensed child-care spaces in 12 locations as part of a larger announcement of more than 750 new spaces valued at more than $62 million. Minister Lisa Beare said she rejected the application after a review by her ministry because child-care needs were higher elsewhere, adding that the Victoria neighbourhood around the legislature is already well served. 'Other areas that had a higher need were prioritized in this intake,' Beare said. 'There are no optics, because it is exactly based on need,' she added. Beare said that her ministry reviews applications along several criteria before submitting a final list for her approval. 'I signed off on all the spaces at the end of the New Space Fund applications,' she said. Beare said her ministry is working with the legislature on its application for the next funding window, but it is not clear yet when that will be. Beare said her ministry is still rolling out spaces. 'So it's going to be awhile still, but we will absolutely let them know when it is time to apply again.' A 2023 report says the child-care needs of staff working for the legislature and party caucuses would receive priority over the needs of members of the legislative assembly. The same report pegs the estimated capital cost of the one-storey modular building that would be operated by a not-for-profit at $2 million with another $195,000 for playground equipment. Legislative assembly clerk Kate Ryan-Lloyd has said the project remains in a 'state of readiness,' and her office said in a statement that staff are preparing options for the committee overseeing the administration and financing of the legislature. Expected options include an updated application to the New Spaces Fund, once details are available, the statement added. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 13, 2025.
CBC
01-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Fired B.C. school trustees going to court to try to get their jobs back
Social Sharing The Greater Victoria school trustees who were fired by the province in January have filed a court petition to try to get their jobs back. The nine trustees, who were elected to the Greater Victoria School Board in 2022, were dismissed after months of dispute with the Education Ministry over student safety. In court documents filed Monday, March 31, the trustees allege that their firing and the two ministerial orders that led to it were unfair, in bad faith, and outside of the minister's jurisdiction. They're asking a judge to review and set aside the ministerial orders and reinstate their positions on the board. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Education Minister Lisa Beare said the former trustees have a right to file such a petition, but that she's confident in the decision she made. Firing followed a series of ministerial orders The disagreement began last year after police, local First Nations, and parents raised concerns about safety in schools. They said there was a rise in gang activity, drugs and sextortion in schools since the school board cancelled its school police liaison officer program in 2023. In September, then-education minister Rachna Singh ordered the school board to work with local police to create a safety plan. In December, after receiving the plan, new Education Minister Lisa Beare said it wasn't satisfactory and appointed a special adviser to work with the board to revise it. The special adviser and the school board disagreed on what to include in the new plan, and the education minister ended up dismissing the board on Jan. 30, replacing it with a single trustee who will stay in place until the next general election in 2026. In their court petition, fired trustees Nicole Duncan, Karin Kwan, Natalie Baillaut, Angela Carmichael, Mavis David, Derek Gagnon, Emily Mahbobi, Diane McNally, and Rob Paynter, allege the ministry's actions were rooted in a desire to force school police liaison officers (SPLOs) back into the district's schools — something they argue the minister has no right to do. "The orders are part of the same procedurally unfair process initiated by the Minister for the purpose of re-instating the SPLO Program in SD61 without the Minister being seen to have done so," states the petition. For her part, Beare says the decisions were never specifically about liaison officers but about school safety more broadly. "This was never about SPLOs," Beare told CBC News. "This was about the board being given multiple chances over a number of years to meet the needs of the students and provide a safety plan to update their policies in the district to ensure that students were being kept safe, and the board failed to do that." Next steps The former trustees' petition has yet to be heard in B.C. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the newly appointed trustee, Sherri Bell, signed off on a new safety plan at a school district meeting on March 31, which the province will now review.
