DEATH LINKED TO FENTANYL

City leaders, parents talk

Hours after police linked the fatal overdose of a 14-year-old Kanata girl to fentanyl, hundreds of parents gathered with city leaders on Monday night to learn more about how to shield their kids from the lethal wave of opioids.

Dr. Isra Levy, the city’s chief medical officer, told the crowd there are no “cookbook solutions” and said his team has not been passive as it tracked the “wave” from the West Coast to Ottawa, where it is now in every pocket of the city and beyond its rural edges.

“I wish that we had answers,” Levy said. “I wish we weren’t here.”

Deputy police Chief Steve Bell told the parents at the Kanata recreation centre that the force has been investigating fentanyl cases for 12 months.

Bell also told the crowd police can’t rid the streets of fentanyl without everyone’s help.

Dozens of addiction and treatment experts fielded question after question at an information session organized by Coun. Allan Hubley.

“The whole point of this is so parents can have an informed discussion with their children,” Hubley said in an interview. “And then there’s enforcement, where if you know of someone who is dealing this, then report them before another child dies.”

The town hall was organized after the Valentine’s Day death of 14-year-old Chloe Kotval. Police confirmed Monday that her death was linked to counterfeit pills containing fentanyl.

They believe she thought she was taking prescription Percocet. The pills she took were marked Percocet 5, but were counterfeit, police believe.

It was the second overdose death of a west-end teenager since New Year’s Eve. Teslin Russell, 18, was found dead on Dec. 31. Police have not received toxicology results, but suspect she too consumed counterfeit pills.

Police Chief Charles Bordeleau said a man in his 20s died from a suspected overdose in the downtown area on the weekend, signalling to police that fatal opioid use isn’t just a west-end issue and isn’t limited to teens.

In his first public comments on the deaths, Bordeleau called them tragic. “I feel terrible for the parents and the families and the entire community that’s going through this.”

Bordeleau appealed to the public to give police information on who is supplying counterfeit pills and fentanyl in the city. If police can trace counterfeit pills involved in a death to traffickers, he said, they could face charges beyond drug offences.

Police made the largest fentanyl seizure in Ottawa history this month, amounting to nearly 9,000 pills.

The force also is working with Ottawa Public Health, paramedics and the community to educate families and children about the “huge risks” posed by these drugs, Bordeleau said.

The force is also looking at how best to deploy naloxone — a drug that acts as an antidote to an opioid overdose — to front-line officers. Bordeleau, as president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, has called on the province to fund naloxone for every frontline officer in Ontario.

The City of Ottawa is also looking into equipping firefighters with naloxone.