Opioid victims’ families want a simple change. Why won’t the Liberals act?

published on March 29, 2019 by Claire Brownell in Maclean's

It’s been almost two years since John and Jennifer Hedican lost their 26-year-old son Ryan to fentanyl poisoning in 2017. Since then, the Courtenay, B.C. couple has watched with frustration as the death toll from the opioid epidemic has continued to rise. They are now enraged the federal government won’t implement a small fix to make it harder to get fentanyl across the border.

An archaic legal loophole had transformed Canada Post into the shipping method of choice for fentanyl importers. In 2017 — the same year the Hedicans’ son died — the government considered acting on a recommendation from law enforcement agencies to grant police the power to search packages sent through Canada Post. Police can already search packages sent through private couriers, but the Liberal government ultimately chose to leave the law unchanged…

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