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Ontario’s Government for the People Helps Police Save Lives

QUEEN’S PARK – Today, MPP Vic Fedeli announced that Ontario’s Government for the People is helping police officers in Nipissing and across the province to save lives by enabling them to carry and administer naloxone in response to opioid overdoses like other first responders, who do not have to worry about routinely being the subject of a criminal investigation.

“Our government is making these changes to ensure police do not face unfair repercussions when they are do their job as first responders trying to save lives,” said Fedeli. “This change will help save countless lives while making sure police officers can do their duty without the fear of facing a criminal investigation.”

The province has amended Ontario Regulation 267/10, a key regulation under the current Police Services Act. Previously, police have been required to report to and be investigated by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) in an incident in which a civilian dies after naloxone is administered. After this change, Chiefs of Police no longer will be required to automatically notify SIU when a police officer has administered naloxone or other emergency first aid to a person who dies or suffers a serious injury, provided there was no other interaction that could have caused the death or serious injury.

Police officers will now be on par with other emergency first responders – such as paramedics or firefighters – who can carry and administer naloxone but are not subject to the same level of oversight. This is a significant change as police officers are often the first to arrive on the scene in a medical emergency and do what any first responder would do: they try to save a life.

“Today’s announcement is one of the first steps to fulfill our election commitment to support our police officers and fix Ontario’s broken policing legislation,” said Fedeli. “We are continuing our work with law enforcement to keep our streets and communities safe and respect the ongoing work of frontline policing services.”