130 Overdose Calls In 1 Day Match Record For B.C. Paramedics

Paramedics in B.C. recently equalled a record for suspected overdose calls in one day, despite a slight drop in overdose deaths so far in 2018 compared to 2017.

B.C. Emergency Health Services said there were 130 calls for suspected overdoses on July 27, which matches a record set in April 2017. There were no fatalities among those calls.

Overdose deaths still a 'chronic issue' despite report showing dip in numbers

Linda Lupini, an executive vice-president for the service, says the load is a strain for paramedics, who were on the front lines of the opioid epidemic long before a state of emergency was declared April 14, 2016

bit.ly/2BGkqqN via @CBCNews

‘It's Nice To See Someone Giving Life’ Woman Gives Birth In DTES Alley

Kevin Thompson has seen his share of tragedy in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside over the years, and it’s been especially bad in 2018.

“I’ve buried more friends this year than I have in 30 years of being down here because of this fentanyl crisis,” he told CTV News.

On Thursday, however, Thompson and other members of this community that has witnessed so much death in recent years helped bring new life into the world.

bit.ly/2RxlJ59 via @CTVVancouver

Join Jean Swanson In Fighting For The City We Need

Jean Swanson has run for city council several times since the 1970s, but most recently her 2017 by-election campaign gained a wave of popular support by tapping into popular anger around inaction on Vancouver’s housing crisis. Her campaign called attention to the acute lack of affordable housing in Vancouver, which has the highest rents and lowest vacancy rates in Canada. Jean’s call for a four-year rent freeze and a “mansion tax” of an additional one percent on houses valued at over $5 million were concrete demands that people could rally around. Jean was almost successful in gaining a position on council, she came close to winning despite her shoestring budget.

bit.ly/2TAzhdC via @socialist_ca

Baby Delivered In Alley In Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

Vancouver harm-reduction activist Coco Culbertson has put out a tweet today that caught many people by surprise.

She declared that an unnamed Maple Overdose Prevention Site peer hero delivered a baby in the alley in the Downtown Eastside.

"Baby and mom are ok and on way to hospital," she stated.

PHS operates the Maple Overdose Prevention Site at 177 East Hastings Street.

bit.ly/2Q1eVrN via @georgiastraight

Man Raped As Teen On ‘Scared Straight’ Tour Of B.C. Prison Wins Settlement

A 54-year-old B.C. man who was raped as a teen while on a court-mandated tour of a notorious Burnaby prison has been awarded at least $175,000 in damages.

The ruling came down in the B.C. Supreme Court on Tuesday, in a suit that named the Province of B.C. and a former prison guard.

The victim, identified only as B.E.S. because he was minor at the time, was being taken on a “scared straight” tour of the now-shuttered Oakalla prison — part of a parole sentence for a break and enter he participated at age 13 or 14.

READ MORE: How a bloody riot and massive prison break brought down Oakalla, B.C.’s most notorious jail

bit.ly/2LCfHL2 via @globalnews

Homeless In Vancouver The Etiquette Of Checking A Street Person For Signs Of Life

The steady rise of homelessness in Vancouver over the last 20 years has gone a long way to desensitizing us to the sight of it, but most of us still worry for the people who we see sitting and laying unconscious in public places.

bit.ly/2Czvd7K via @georgiastraight

'Not Something That Should Happen' Homeless Man Spends Dying Hours At Vancouver Tim Hortons

74-year-old man spent his final hours last week in a spot where he had spent much of the last years of his life: at a nook in a Vancouver Tim Hortons.

Witnesses said the man, Ted — whose last name is not known — may have been slumped at his table, unresponsive, for several hours before he was noticed.

More than half of Vancouver's homeless population have been homeless for less than a year, count finds

In the city with the most expensive houses in Canada, 24-hour restaurants have become a means of survival for many people. Advocates and experts say that Ted's death is an indictment of a system that has failed to provide shelter for the city's most vulnerable.

bit.ly/2VbbQZP via @CBCNews