Mayor Says Belleville in ‘Crisis’ After 17 Overdoses in 24 Hours

Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis speaks at a press conference in Belleville, Ont., on Feb. 7 to address the rise in overdoses in the city's downtown. (Handout photo)

The mayor of Belleville, a small city in southeastern Ontario, says his community is facing a “crisis” after emergency services responded to 17 drug overdoses in a 24-hour period.

Paramedics and police responded to 14 overdoses in the city’s downtown core between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Feb. 6 and received three additional calls later that day.

“It’s not the first occurrence and it won’t be the last. Like many municipalities across the province and country, we have a very serious drug, addictions and mental health crisis in our city,” Mayor Neil Ellis said in an emailed news release. “We need support from the provincial government on how we move forward with this crisis.”

On Feb. 6, Belleville Police Service issued an advisory to members of the public, asking them to “exercise caution and avoid unnecessary travel” in the city’s downtown while emergency services were dispatched to the area.

“Emergency officials are currently responding to 13 overdose incidents during the past hour, prompting the need for increased vigilance and awareness in the affected areas,” the statement read. Police received additional calls after issuing the statement, bringing the total number to 17.

Hastings County Paramedic Chief Carl Bowker told The Epoch Times the 13 afternoon calls were “mostly for people who were described as unconscious.” Nine of the people were taken to hospital “on a high priority.”

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“But it didn’t end there. We had a couple of reports later on in the evening of ambulances responding again to suspected opioid calls,” he said in a Feb. 7 phone interview. “We had another one this morning.”

During the height of the calls on Feb. 6, emergency vehicles filled the city’s downtown near Bridge Street United Church. The church offers a daily meal program and drop-in services for the city’s homeless.

Traffic was redirected to keep access routes open “to allow emergency services to respond to these calls,” the city press release said, adding that the streets are now clear and there was never “a threat to the public.”

The volume of calls caused “overwhelming” pressure on emergency services, Chief Bowker said. The paramedic service has just seven ambulances to respond to calls “at peak capacity,” which forced them to call in ambulances from neighbouring communities to deal with the demand, he said.

Belleville Police Chief Mike Callaghan said the Belleville Police Service is partnering with other emergency services, public health and local hospitals to develop “operational scenarios” to address similar events in the future.

“While we are fortunate that there were no casualties during this incident, we know this is an issue that will only continue to grow in our community and nation-wide,” he said in the release.

Mr. Ellis called the rise in overdoses a problem not just for Belleville, but for the entire country.

“We need support from the provincial government on how we move forward with this crisis,” he said. “It is a crisis that is not specific to Belleville, it is a provincial and federal issue... As a municipality, we are ready to help and do whatever we can to be part of the solution, but we need some guidance.”

Drug Overdoses on Rise

Chief Bowker told The Epoch Times that there had been an uptick in opioid-related calls in the Belleville area beginning last week. 

“There were reports that some of these opioids might be released with a powerful sedative that wasn’t responding to Narcan,” a medication used to reverse or reduce the effects of opioids, Chief Bowker said.

The recent surge in overdoses in the city comes on the heels of an even larger spike last November.  

Chief Bowker said it was suspected in November that drugs were being laced with GHB, also known as the date rape drug. He said it’s possible this week’s overdoses may be the result of something similar.

“We’re hearing that maybe some of [the drugs] have GHB,” he said. “And we’ve heard reports that it’s laced with an animal tranquilizer. It might have ketamine in it, which is a powerful anesthetic. So we don’t know. We don’t want to speculate on that. But that’s certainly what we suspect.”

The Hastings and Prince Edward Public Health Unit (HPEPH) reported an escalation in “opioid related poisonings” on Nov. 1.

The county’s paramedic service reported more than 20 opioid-related calls in Belleville Nov. 1 and city police were “aware of” at least 10 suspected opioid-related poisonings that took place in a two-hour period that afternoon, the health unit said in a press release.

Chief Callaghan told reporters just days later that emergency services had responded to more than 90 overdose calls in the first week of the month; an “astronomical” rise above the usual six or seven calls.