Ontario Big City Mayors are urging the provincial government to review mental health laws and potentially expand involuntary treatment options for people struggling with drug addiction and homelessness. The mayors, representing 29 cities with populations over 100,000, say they want to initiate a discussion about these sensitive issues as homelessness has surged across Ontario since the COVID-19 pandemic.
A person who experienced homelessness sits with their belongings as city workers move to clear an encampment on Toronto's Bay Street on May 15, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young Ontario Big City Mayors are asking the province to review mental-health laws and whether to expand the scope of involuntary treatment for people who are addicted to drugs and live on the streets.
Last year, nearly 2,600 Ontarians died due to opioids, a 50 per cent increase from 2019, with fentanyl and its derivatives especially affecting users in the homeless population. "So our ask to immediately review and update those acts in consultation with proper medical and health-care professionals, as well as municipalities and those impacted by the challenges faced on our streets, is a reasonable ask — to say, 'Is that sort of treatment, or compulsory, or however you want to call it, mandatory treatment, the right thing to do?'"
Alex Nuttall, the mayor of Barrie, Ont., was among several city leaders who were calling on mayors to take a collective position and outright ask for mandatory involuntary treatment laws from the province.
They also want the federal government to spend the $250 million for municipalities it announced in the spring, as part of a promised national encampment strategy."We have an encampment and opioid addictions and mental-health crisis in our province and we should not be at another podium again asking for help," he said.Cuba's power grid fails, plunging country into darkness
One of four Canadian cabinet members who are stepping down said on Friday that he has confidence in Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and he played down polls predicting the Liberals will badly lose in the next election.While flying over Egypt’s famous Great Pyramids at sunrise earlier this week, US paraglider Marshall Mosher and fellow paragliders spotted the unexpected sight of a stray hound also taking in views around the summit of one of the ancient wonders.Former U.S.
Food insecurity is a constant problem across the Maritimes and food banks are preparing their shelves for the high demand they expect to see during the holidays.An 18-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with a shooting that prompted an emergency alert in the Salisbury and Moncton areas of New Brunswick last month.
A man found guilty of dangerous driving causing death in 2021 heard from the victim’s family in a Barrie courtroom on Friday ahead of his sentencing.Windsor-Essex partnering to improve mental health supports for international agricultural workers
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