Ottawa police have reported a major increase in drug overdose cases in 2023 in a neighbourhood adjacent to Parliament Hill, with calls for police service rising by more than 200 percent.
Overdose-related calls in the ByWard Market neighbourhood, a retail and entertainment district in the downtown core, surged to 467 last year, up from 144 in from the previous year, according to data from Ottawa police. The increase is more substantial when compared to the earliest available data from 2018, when 77 overdose cases were recorded.
