Latest news with #CBC
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Deadly opioid 40 times more powerful than fentanyl smuggled into Canada inside PlayStations, basketballs
Social Sharing The video call is grainy, but it's crystal clear what the person on the phone is trying to sell: illicit drugs, packaged and ready to be shipped to Canada. The seller, who goes by the name Kim, says he sells cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA and nitazenes, a powerful class of synthetic opioids most people have never heard of — but which can be up to 43 times more powerful than fentanyl. "It can kill people, right? So, I just want to make sure that you know that," the CBC journalist asks in a secretly recorded phone call. "That is the game," the seller replies. The seller is one of the 14 people the CBC's visual investigation unit spoke to in text messages and phone calls after finding them through ads posted by users on major social media platforms such as LinkedIn, X and Reddit and e-commerce websites advertising nitazenes for sale. WATCH | How synthetic opioids get into Canada: Worse than fentanyl: How smugglers get a new, deadly drug into Canada 2 minutes ago Duration 5:37 A CBC News visual investigation tracks how deadly and super-potent synthetic opioids called nitazenes make their way into Canada, where they have killed hundreds of people. With open source support from investigators at Bellingcat, CBC finds hundreds of ads for nitazenes online, posted to social media and e-commerce sites, and talks to the sellers behind them to expose how these deadly drugs get smuggled to Canada. These ads, posted in the open, contain contact information that put CBC in touch with drug dealers who claim to be part of international criminal networks. CBC did not purchase any illegal substances. Nitazenes, which have never been approved for medical use and are Schedule 1 drugs under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, have increasingly been turning up in drug busts across Canada. Last year, two lab busts in Quebec alone may have accounted for more than a million counterfeit pharmaceutical oxycodone pills, which were actually protonitazepyne, a type of nitazene — or "analog" — according to the RCMP. Nitazenes have killed hundreds of Canadians over the past four years, according to data collected by CBC's visual investigations unit from coroners across the country. "[North Americans] not only are the largest consumers of nitazines, but really have the biggest problem as it relates to the number of deaths," said Alex Krotulski, director of the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education in Pennsylvania, a toxicology lab that tests for nitazenes in Canada and the U.S. "This is really becoming an established drug class of novel synthetic opioids." A more potent high Nitazenes aren't nearly as popular as fentanyl and its analogs, but they offer a more potent high, making them appealing to drug dealers. Drug users might not even know they're consuming nitazenes, which can be laced into counterfeit pills. "It makes me angry," said Montreal resident Christian Boivin after CBC shared its findings with him. Boivin's 15-year-old son Mathis died of a nitazene overdose last year after consuming what he thought were oxycodone pills. "[These sellers] don't have a conscience. They're bad people and they just want money… they don't care about lives." Mathis's story isn't an isolated case. Because public-facing statistics group them as "non-fentanyl opioids," CBC reached out to coroners in all 13 provinces and territories to compile data on the total number of deaths from nitazenes in Canada. The data received was incomplete — for example, Manitoba only provided statistics for 2024 — but indicates there have been nearly 400 deaths directly attributed to nitazenes or suspected to involve nitazenes since 2021. The true number of deaths is likely even higher. "I guarantee you because of the variability in toxicology testing, the variability in practices and variability in funding availability… [the number of deaths] is underreported," said Donna Papsun, a forensic toxicologist at Pennsylvania-based NMS Labs, which tests samples from across Canada. "If they're not looking for it, you can't find it." Going by the available data, the most deaths were in Alberta, with 121 since 2021, followed by Quebec with 91 and B.C. with 81. "We're worried that this will continue to rise as an ongoing threat," said Dan Anson, director general of intelligence and investigations for the Canada Border Services Agency. Sellers reveal how they smuggle drugs One of the ways that nitazenes make their way into Canada is through sellers who advertise on social media networks by posting images of powders overlaid with contact information. "Online ads are how this market functions right now," Anson told CBC. CBC's visual investigations unit, with support from open-source investigators at Bellingcat, found hundreds of ads in user-generated posts for more than a dozen types of nitazenes on social media platforms, including X, Reddit, LinkedIn, Behance (a graphic design website owned by Adobe), and e-commerce websites in India such as Exporters India, Dial4trade and TradeIndia. They surfaced by the dozens in Google image searches for keywords related to nitazene analogs. It often took mere minutes to receive a reply after responding to an online ad. Sellers were quick to share videos of their labs and products, even offering a step-by-step guide on how they would ship the drugs to Canada: first, by mislabelling the packages, then by concealing them inside PlayStation 5s, deflated basketballs, teapots and Chinese herbal packages. They would then be shipped via courier or the mail. Previous reporting on the topic in the U.K. even had the drugs hidden in dog food and catering supplies. One seller told a CBC reporter that shipments of nitazene could even be delivered the same day from Detroit, Mich., to Windsor, Ont. Platforms respond to CBC's questions on nitazene ads: "You'll see some pretty bizarre levels of creativity when it comes to importing illegal drugs," said Anson. "They're coming from online marketplaces ... and they're going to come through postal courier." When reached by CBC for comment, LinkedIn, Reddit and Adobe removed the posts containing ads that were flagged. X did not respond to a request for comment and the flagged posts were still live at the time of publishing. A Google spokesperson said it complies with valid legal removal requests from the public and authorities. Dial4Trade and Exporters India, two India-based e-commerce platforms where ads were found, told CBC they added restrictions to block nitazene ads. TradeIndia, another platform, said it removed the flagged ads. A global network It became clear that sellers of nitazenes are spread across the globe, and aren't always who or where they purport to be online. On the e-commerce site TradeIndia, next to the heading "Etonitazene Powder," was a picture of a brown powder offered by a Chinese biotech company. On its website, the company states "nothing is above the human health." It has an address listed in Shanghai that doesn't exist on Google Maps. But the company was quick to explain why the address didn't exist when asked in a secretly recorded phone call. "It's very dangerous to sell in China," a man who went by Jerry told a CBC reporter during a call with a Mandarin translator. Jerry said he and his partners needed a fake address to make the company seem real, but also so they couldn't be discovered by Chinese authorities. Videos inside overseas drug labs To show they were legitimate distributors, they shared videos from their lab — and said the name of the CBC reporter and the date to prove the video's authenticity — and showed us past shipments to Canada. They even offered to send samples of nitazenes for free to test for purity. But the sellers weren't just from China. CBC spoke to sellers who claimed to ship from the U.S., the U.K., India, even the Philippines. Over video, one seller who said they're from the U.K. showed shipment records that he said were for drugs going to Grande Prairie, Alta. Like any global trade, some nitazene sellers said they were struggling with the impact of U.S. tariffs. A person representing a company called Umesh Enterprises that claimed to be based out of India said nitazenes are "coming from India.... due to the issues going on between the U.S. and China with the tariffs," they said during a call. "There's been a lot of blockage from China so…. we go with India." The speaker, like many of the sellers, acknowledged that importing nitazenes to Canada is illegal and knew how lethal these synthetic opioids can be. "[These sellers] don't care how many people they take down or how many families they hurt," said Toronto resident Dale Sutherland, whose 22-year-old son Corey died from an overdose involving a nitazene in 2022. "It's very frustrating…. we have to have more regulations, more strict penalties." In response to CBC's findings, Canada's fentanyl czar, Kevin Brosseau, said in a statement the "emergence of nitazenes, and other highly potent synthetic opioids, is something I am concerned about and am taking very seriously." Brosseau pointed to the federal government's recently tabled Bill C-2, or Strong Borders Act, which will give Canada Post more authority to open mail and remove barriers to law enforcement inspecting mail during an investigation. Critics of the proposed act demanded the complete withdrawal of Bill C-2, warning it would expand government surveillance.
ABC News
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
The Birthday Party
Come By Chance is produced by Novel for The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). The series is written and produced by Luke Quinton, and produced and edited by Jo Wheeler. Madeleine Parr is the assistant producer, Rebecca Nolan is the field producer, and Daniel Kempson handled sound design and scoring. Original music is by Adam Foran, with music supervision by Jo Wheeler and Nicholas Alexander. Roshini Nair is the digital coordinating producer. Senior producers are Veronica Simmons, Willow Smith, and Daemon Fairless, with production managers Charlotte Wolfe, Sherrie Hewson, and Sarah Tobin. The series was developed by Madeleine Parr, with Willard Foxton as Creative Director of Development at Novel. Fact-checking by Valerio Rocca; podcast art by Nitin Fernandes; cross-promo producer Amanda Cox; and video producer Evan Aagaard. Special thanks to Heidi Coombs, Derrick Follett, Caroline Hillier, Leona Hamid, Leith Quinton, Julia Bromberg, Neel Krishnan, Carly Frankel, and the team at WME. Executive producers are Max O'Brien, Cesil Fernandes, and Chris Oke. Tanya Springer is the senior manager, Arif Noorani is the director, and Leslie Merklinger is the executive director of CBC Podcasts. Most of all, thank you to the Averys, the Hynes, the Weir and Lush families, and everyone who shared their stories with us.
ABC News
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
PRESENTS — Come By Chance
Come By Chance is produced by Novel for The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). The series is written and produced by Luke Quinton, and produced and edited by Jo Wheeler. Madeleine Parr is the assistant producer, Rebecca Nolan is the field producer, and Daniel Kempson handled sound design and scoring. Original music is by Adam Foran, with music supervision by Jo Wheeler and Nicholas Alexander. Roshini Nair is the digital coordinating producer. Senior producers are Veronica Simmons, Willow Smith, and Daemon Fairless, with production managers Charlotte Wolfe, Sherrie Hewson, and Sarah Tobin. The series was developed by Madeleine Parr, with Willard Foxton as Creative Director of Development at Novel. Fact-checking by Valerio Rocca; podcast art by Nitin Fernandes; cross-promo producer Amanda Cox; and video producer Evan Aagaard. Special thanks to Heidi Coombs, Derrick Follett, Caroline Hillier, Leona Hamid, Leith Quinton, Julia Bromberg, Neel Krishnan, Carly Frankel, and the team at WME. Executive producers are Max O'Brien, Cesil Fernandes, and Chris Oke. Tanya Springer is the senior manager, Arif Noorani is the director, and Leslie Merklinger is the executive director of CBC Podcasts. Most of all, thank you to the Averys, the Hynes, the Weir and Lush families, and everyone who shared their stories with us.
Irish Examiner
10 hours ago
- General
- Irish Examiner
Chance to be part of Cork's €1.825m Red House's history
THE owner of Cork's much-loved Red House was warned by his one-time school history teacher not to muck about with this venerable era private, Leeside residence, with its many rises, and ignominious dips, over more than 200 years of its history: it just about pre-dates the 1815 Battle of Waterloo. Could have met its Waterloo by Wellington Bridge ....but it didn't 'I met my old history teacher, Matt Foley, a few years back at a school reunion and he warned me - in the strongest possible terms - not to change its character,' says the owner, now the vendor of the c 1811 Red House. He had bought it, in a very sorry state, back in 2014 and has since very successfully reversed the ravages of time. A sorry sight and site before salvation came its way In fact, the language used by the retired CBC history teacher (whose family home was over on the Western Road across Wellington Bridge) was a lot stronger than 'the strongest possible terms….' But, the point was made, and not lost on his former pupil who assured his former teacher he had no intention of changing it, he just loved it, had always admired it, and wanted to rescue it. 'I knew the house for years, right back to college days in the 1990s when I lived across the road from it when it had been a family home,' says the Corkman who bought it intending it to be his own family home, having previously lived and worked in Hong Kong and the UK. However, his family and work life now with his US-born wife and children is in Dublin, so having bought, saved and 'lightly restyled' the Red House at very considerable expense, and having of late rented it at the very upper end of the corporate letting scale, has decided to part ways with it, ready for its next life chapter. Sitting pretty Red House has been here in these Property & Home pages before, variously called No 72, Red House, and more properly Lisheen. Red rag-order in 2006 We wrote about it back in 2006 when it was described as a 'Lady in Red, albeit more than slightly down at heel,' having had the ignominy, for a period, of being lived in by squatters who'd started chopping up some of the internal timbers for the fireplace to stay warm. Even despite its poor order of two decades back, it had carried a pre-auction guide/hope of €1.5m to €2m: this was back in roaring Celtic Tiger times when a Sunday's Well house had set a Cork home price record of c€5m and the country was awash in (borrowed) cash. High end finishes now It didn't sell, and so sat for a number of subsequent years, slowly decaying and came back for sale in 2014, all boarded up, faded (pic, top right), a shadow of once-upon a time more glorious days, and sold for €450,000 to its current owner, later described in these pages as 'a dreamer' for the scale of what was taken on. High level section links the now amalgamated home, part Georgian, part Victorian and wholly modernised The couple brought the highly regarded Pat O'Sullivan of Kiosk Architects on board, and then engaged Rose Construction for the herculean task of working with a period home inside and outside, on a challenging riverside and roadside site, in red-rag order, and one which was granted listed building status by Cork City Council after their purchase. Vaulted ceiling with ornate rose: the thorny work was done by Rose Construction Singled out for special protection were large ceiling roses in two of the reception rooms in the c3,800 sq ft 'home of two halves', part dating to the early 1800s, the other Victorian, dating to the 1860s and which at various times were used as one, and sometimes two, residences. The older Georgian/Queen Anne era 'half' also has one of the conserved plasterwork roses crowning a very fine vaulted ceiling, all in any case given due regard as was the owners' and architects' intentions in any case. (The vendors had previous experience of house renovations in older era homes in London and in West Cork.) Opportunity knocks Post the 2014 purchase, it took a few years before work could really start at Lisheen/aka No 72, also previously West View Cottage, and later West View Villa (and, 'the Red House' to the rest of us.) Its latter, finishing up staged were after a certain global pandemic hit, with covid adding to time lines, materials and build costs and restrictions. As well as using Kiosk Architects for the salvation and rebirth of Red House, the couple got full planning for a Kiosk-designed c 1,700 sq ft ultra contemporary one-off in a side garden on the property's overall c 0.25 acre site, and this was offered for sale in 2022 with a €475,000 AMV. Now, more practically, both the site with its positive planning history and the fully reborn Red House with up to six bedrooms and understated yet high-end finishes, top to bottom under a wholly-new roof down into a lower part-basement are rolled into the one package, with a €1.825m guide cited by agent Johnny O'Flynn of Sherry FitzGerald. Mr O'Flynn knows that he is selling a Cork classic, in a hallowed city suburb much valued by medics and other well-heeled professionals and where older era homes now tend to get very costly upgrades when and if selling on. The Price Register shows a half a dozen with a Sundays Well address selling for between €1m and €2.2m, with the boom time era €5m Woodlawn showing as a 2016 resale at €2.195 million. The house immediately downriver of Red House, The Hollies sold in 2016 for a recorded €800,000 and has since had a very costly makeover: the setting right on the river is what makes these one-offs of the Georgian and Victorian eras so highly prized. Red House has possibly the very best or most engaging of River Lee/Sundays Well views, not just from the grounds but from the inside as well: look west/upriver and you see Wellington Bridge/Thomas Davis Bridge and County Hall; look downriver and you see the iconic Shakey Bridge/Daly's Bridge: Cork's Red House is almost as iconic. 'At one stage during the work we had thought about changing the colour to more of a pink, but while we were doing the work the architects started getting letters from neighbours and members of the public saying they really hoped it was going to stay red, and of course it has,' say the owners who could possibly have had red blood on their hands if they veered of the original bolder lipstick red colour at this true on-off. The man behind Red House's full-blooded 21st century restoration and conservation says the first lease they got sight of was in 1804, between a Rt Hon Richard Edmund St Laurence and James Bonwell; then, a 90 year lease between the Earl of Cork and Ossery and a William Newman; next, in 1892, it was leased to a Dominick Daly by Viscount Dungarvan: 'I loved history and had a great history teacher,' says the 2025 vendor, still possibly afraid of being haunted by a certain history teacher, living locally….. Sherry FitzGerald's Johnny O'Flynn chimes in on the sale now to say 'seeped in history and known by Corkonians as 'The Red House', West View Villa is an imposing five / six bedroom detached waterside home, with so much space, it is hard to believe just how centrally located in Cork City you are.' Now includes off-street parking He says home work done here was meticulous, blending charm and originality with modern day comforts, and captivating views from just about every room, with a large double garage with remote control access for off-street parking and private garden on three sides, landscaped by designer Sean Russell. There are some pressed metal interventions in a vertical bay window treatments, one on the main river-and Mardyke facing facade, the other horizontal in the top floor span corridor, with timber sashes also, most with original window shutters. Flooring's a mix of solid timber, reclaimed and Victorian style tiles (sourced in Toledo Spain,) slate and cast iron insert fireplaces, a contemporary two- tone kitchen by Clohane Wood Products Skibbereen, and bathroom and sanitary ware from Bert & May, London. There are up to six bedrooms (two with en suites) and masses of storage on all levels, including a steady temperature lower ground level pantry/wine cellar and basement store, twin gas boilers, alarm and CCTV among the 21st century adaptations to a 220+year old Cork icon. Semi-basement pantry/wine cellar with storage access Selling agents Sherry FitzGerald add 'it's exceptionally rare that properties like this come to the market… even more so ones that have been so meticulously restored to such a high standard.' VERDICT: the only thing a new owner might want to do is change the colour…..if they want to be run out of town, before they ever get to unpack.
CBC
13 hours ago
- Politics
- CBC
What questions do you have about the conflict between Israel and Iran?
Social Sharing You've got smart questions, we've got solid answers. Click here to listen to the CBC's Just Asking every Saturday at 4 p.m. when you need to make sense of the world around you. Let your friend Saroja Coelho be your guide. With guest experts, Just Asking turns the week's news and latest trends into tips that help you make better decisions in your life. Whether it's tech, money, career or health — we'll hear you out, and help you out. The show takes live calls on CBC Radio every Saturday afternoon, and drops the podcast that same evening. Here's what's happening this Saturday: What questions do you have about the conflict between Israel and Iran? Israel launched attacks on the heart of Iran's nuclear and military structure on Friday, killing at least three top military officers. Iran has launched a counter strike firing hundred of ballistic missiles toward Israel. As we watch this developing story, our experts will share their analysis and answer your questions on the conflict. Dennis Horak was Canada's ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Yemen from 2015 to 2018. Alex Vatanka is the Director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute, a non-partisan think tank providing expert policy analysis on the answer your questions. What questions do you have about imposter syndrome? Have you ever felt like a fraud at work, plagued by self-doubt? Our experts we'll dive into why so many of us feel "imposter syndrome," what to do about it, and what employers can do to create more supportive work environments. Kim Meninger is a leadership coach who has her own story of imposter syndrome that fuels her work. Kevin Cokley is a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and the editor of "The Impostor Phenomenon." They'll take your questions!
