Sidney Should Be Here

Sidney was a bright, talented, engaging 18 year old general science student at the University of Victoria.
      - She died a preventable death -
The systems designed to protect her allowed her to die.

Her Life

Her Death

Opioid poisoning is the leading cause of death in our youth in BC. This province has done little to help protect our young people who may occasionally experiment with, or inadvertently be exposed to drugs that are contaminated with deadly fentanyl.

We have written an open letter asking the BC government to do more to stop the deaths:

Open Letter

What you can do to help:

1. FOR ALL PROVINCES IN CANADA

Click the button for the province where you live or where you live or your child goes to school to generate a prewritten email addressed to the Premier and Ministers in your province asking them to mandate measures to protect
youth on your campuses.

Letter we’ve sent to all Premiers, Education Ministers, Health Ministers and Health Officials:

Letter to provincial education ministers Download

Line items to be included in a pre-written email to your Premier:

MAKE NASAL NALOXONE WIDELY AVAILABLE ACROSS CAMPUSES, PARTICULARLY STUDENT HOUSING. IT IS USELESS IF IT IS ON THE SHELF IN AN OFFICE THAT IS ONLY OPEN DURING OFFICE HOURS.
MAKE DRUG EDUCATION A MANDATORY PART OF ORIENTATION. STUDENTS NEED TO BE INFORMED OF THE RISKS OF THE TOXIC DRUG SUPPLY, HOW BEST TO STAY SAFE AND HOW TO PREVENT, RECOGNIZE AND TREAT AN OPIOID OVERDOSE.
DEVELOP MANDATORY OVERDOSE PREVENTION PROTOCOLS AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEMS ON OUR CAMPUSES.
MAKE CPR TRAINING AND NALOXONE TRAINING MANDATORY IN HIGH SCHOOLS. EVERY STUDENT DESERVES TO KNOW HOW TO RESPOND TO A MEDICAL EMERGENCY. THE ACT FOUNDATION WILL IMPLEMENT THIS FOR FREE www.ActFoundation.ca
IMPLEMENT SYSTEMS TO MAKE INFORMATION REGARDING OVERDOSE AND POISONING INCIDENTS CLEARLY AND PROMPTLY AVAILABLE TO ALL STUDENTS AND STAFF ON CAMPUS.

Click here to:
Send email to ALBERTA

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Send email to SASKACHEWAN

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Send email to MANITOBA

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Send email to ONTARIO

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Send email to QUEBEC

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Send email to NEW BRUNSWICK

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Send email to NOVA SCOTIA

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Send email to PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

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Send email to NEWFOUNDLAND and LABRADOR

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Send email to YUKON

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Send email to NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

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Send email to NUNAVUT

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Send email to
BRITISH COLUMBIA

Let your Premier know that they need to do more to protect young people in your province from deadly fentanyl and other drugs that are flooding this country.

2. FOR BC: Send email to the government demanding nasal naloxone.
Clicking this button will prepare a pre-written email that asks the Premier and ministers make nasal naloxone free and widely available in BC.
Click this button to send email:

Click here to:
Send email to BC government demanding
free and widely available nasal naloxone:

— CLICK THIS ORANGE BUTTON —

3. Follow SidneyShouldBeHere on Instagram and Facebook.
This will help propagate this message, show the government support of these initiatives, and allow us to keep you updated with any progress that we make.
CLICK THE LINKS to follow:

— CLICK ONE or BOTH OF THESE SOCIAL MEDIA BUTTONS —

4. Reach out to other BC government officials:

Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills: Lisa Beare

Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions: Jennifer Whiteside

If you are in BC, CC your MLA on emails sent to these officials.

This link gets you to a page where you can find your BC MLA.

Provincial Health Officer: Bonnie Henry

May 24: Bonnie Henry supports these initiatives. See her endorsement here.

BC has made progress towards improving safety for post-secondary education students in their province. Please see their published guidelines:

Overdose Prevention and Response: Guidelines for B.C.’s Post-Secondary Sector

OD_prev_&_resp_guide Download

In June of 2024, UVic officials conducted meetings of the Senate and of the Board of Governors. We contacted these bodies prior to their meetings to advise of the deaths on campus and how they were being handled. The university president speaking at the meeting of the senate delivered false information to the meeting attendees. We provided corrections to this information, and we asked the university and the president to correct these false statements. Listed just below are the interactions we had with the university:

View Letter submitted to UVic President, Senate, Board of Governors
June 4, 2024
Do you have an opinion about how UVic handled this?
Visit this page to read more about it and send them an email

Click here:
to see UVic statements released to the media, and our responses

Click here:
Sidney’s death was reported by national news outlets.
Why did Sidney have to die before changes were promised?

Vancouver Sun article: Fentanyl poisoning on UVic campus
May 16, 2024

Freedom of Information laws in Canada: A failed system

There is an opioid crisis in BC and Canada

We must do more to stop our young from dying.

Sidney should be here.

**Royal Jubilee Hospital, Victoria – January 29, 2024**

Explore these important initiatives:

Free Widely Available Nasal Naloxone in BC

CPR / AED / NALOXONE Training in BC schools curricula

Emergency Nasal Naloxone Access Boxes on Campuses

Better Education and Orientation About Drugs

Review Campus Medical Response and Oversight

Conduct a Coroner’s Inquest

Sidney should be here.

On January 23, 2024, University of Victoria campus security responded to Sidney with enough time to save her.
They were trained in CPR and carried nasal naloxone.
Instead of acting right away, they waited 9 minutes before giving naloxone, and 12 minutes to start CPR. The 911 operator took 3.5 minutes just to figure out a location on campus before she even asked what was going on.

If this is what can happen with 911 and campus security, a university can turn into a death trap for your student if they suffer a life threatening emergency while on campus.

SidneyShouldBeHere@gmail.com

Contact us

FAQs

What happens during a fentanyl/opioid overdose?

During an overdose, breathing can be dangerously slowed or stopped, causing brain damage or death. If a person stops breathing it only takes about 4 minutes for brain damage to begin and another few minutes before death occurs. When a person survives an opioid overdose, it’s because someone knew what was happening and how to take action.

Signs and symptoms of an opioid overdose:

Slow or no breathing
Unresponsive to voice or pain (can’t wake them up)
Pale face
Blue lips or nails
Gurgling or snoring sounds
Choking or vomiting
Cold and damp skin
Narrow (tiny) pupils
Stiff body or seizure-like movement

Is the toxic drug crisis in BC affecting our teens and young adults?

The leading cause of death in BC of persons between the ages of 10 and 29 is opioid poisoning. Most of these are accidental fentanyl poisonings. Young people between the age of 15 and 24 are the fastest growing population requiring hospital care from opioid overdoses in Canada. The danger is real, we must do more to protect our youth.

What is Fentanyl?

Fentanyl is an opioid used medically to treat pain. It is also a major contaminant in most street drugs on the illicit market in BC. For people who don’t take opioids, tiny amounts of fentanyl can kill. Many people poisoned by fentanyl did not know they were ingesting it. Fentanyl can be taken orally, absorbed through the skin, smoked, snorted or injected. If they accidentally ingest fentanyl, the first time drug user is at very high risk of death. 2.5 grams of fentanyl, the legal amount you can possess in BC, is enough to kill over a thousand opioid naive people.

What is naloxone??

Naloxone is a medicine that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose/poisoning when given early. It can be given via an injection (free everywhere in Canada) or it can be given as an easy to use nasal spray (free only in Ontario, Quebec, NWT and Yukon). It will not cause harm if given to someone who did not take an opioid. It takes a few minutes to work and it can wear off, so It is crucial to call 911 and provide CPR if needed.