A Lethbridge, Alta., mother is facing negligence charges in connection with the death of her teenage son over the Christmas holidays.
Lethbridge Police officers responded on Dec. 26, 2024, to the sudden death of a 13-year-old boy, whose body was found outside near a busy city street, police said in a Feb. 5 press release.
Further investigation has led authorities to believe the boy and his mother had been using drugs at approximately 5 p.m. on Christmas Day at a southside residence when he overdosed. A male acquaintance at the home provided life-saving measures and a call was placed to 911, but the caller hung up before speaking with anyone, police said.
Police said when first responders arrived on scene, the boy’s mother “hid him and lied about his whereabouts” to prevent his apprehension because he had been previously reported as missing,. The mother and son left the home later that evening, walking to a nearby business.
“Evidence gathered during the investigation indicated the boy was in medical distress,” police said. “Video surveillance showed the pair spent the night on the street and the boy never moved from the ground. At no time were paramedics called.”
The woman reported she had found her son dead on the afternoon of Dec. 26, police said.
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The boy was transported to the Calgary Medical Examiner’s Office. Toxicology results to confirm the teen’s cause of death are pending.
Police have charged Blanche Isobel Irene Fick, 38, of Lethbridge, with criminal negligence causing death and failing to provide the necessities of life in connection with the boy’s death.
Fick remains in police custody and is set to appear in court on Feb. 7.
A Quebec coroner has called for better education at schools about the dangers of opioid use following the death of a Montreal teen to accidental overdose.
Coroner Stéphanie Gamache’s report into the 2023 death of 15-year-old Mathis Boivin said the boy’s accidental overdose from N-desethyl isotonitazene, a powerful synthetic opioid, should spur lawmakers to do more to prevent similar teen deaths.
Boivin died in December 2023 after taking the drug, which he believed to be oxycodone, an opioid used for pain relief.
Gamache’s report noted that drug intoxication deaths are on the rise across North America and she urged immediate action on the issue.
“Preventing opioid and other psychoactive substance poisoning concerns us all,” she wrote. “Mathis’s death should sound the alarm, because we should not wait for the accumulation of deaths among young people to make this observation.”
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
