Saskatoon police chief talks bear spray, overdoses on Evan Bray Show

Saskatoon is facing some big issues, as bear spray becomes more and more common in street crime, and overdose numbers rise.

Cam McBride, Saskatoon’s police chief, joined The Evan Bray Show on Tuesday to break down some of the challenges police are seeing on the streets of the Bridge City.

Read More:

• Saskatoon man facing charges after string of nine armed robberies: Police
• Saskatoon delivery driver beaten with bat during robbery: Police
• Saskatoon police deal with six bear spray calls over weekend

Listen to the interview here, or read the transcript below:

The following questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.

BRAY: Drug overdoses in the city of Saskatoon are at an alarming high. In fact, there was a story that was done just over a week ago by our CKOM newsroom that caught the attention of Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. Saskatoon saw 23 overdoses in the 24-hour period, 48 in the last week alone in one Canadian city. And then he goes on to talk about, of course, these drugs are killing Canadians. What is it that is going on right now? Are we just having a string of bad luck? Are we bringing bad drugs into the city? What’s happening with the overdoses?

MCBRIDE: You know, one of the things that we’re seeing all the time with drugs sold at the street level, especially with opioids, is they’re being manufactured by people who don’t know what they’re doing with precursor materials that they don’t really know what they have. And so, unfortunately for those who are addicted and using within Saskatoon and within Canada for that matter, they don’t really know, when they purchase, what they’re getting. And so right now in Saskatoon, we’re seeing a large number of over of overdoses as a result of drug toxicity from a mixture. It’s just it’s a lethal dose for many people.

Do we know where these drugs are coming from? Do they come from our province? Are they coming from elsewhere in Canada, or are they coming from other countries?

MCBRIDE: All of the above, Evan. Honestly, we’re seeing patterns of drugs coming to our city from all over the place, and so we are working very, very hard to understand where it’s coming from, who’s involved, and putting a putting a stop to it as best we can. It’s like a sink, though – you can shut off the tap, but you might still have a sink full of water that you have to deal with. And so we’re meeting daily with health, with emergency measures, with fire, and those service providers who are doing the lion’s share of the of the front-line work out there. It’s thrown everybody into overdrive trying to manage it in real time.

I know the group from Prairie Harm Reduction has been giving regular updates on the number of overdoses in the city, and what we’re hearing is a large amount of fentanyl is not reacting to Naloxone. Do we know when we get a bad batch – if there is such a thing, because I would argue all drugs are bad – but if you get a bad batch in, is there more aggressive work that police can do to try and prevent others from overdosing?

MCBRIDE: The work that we do is predominantly at the trafficking and possession stage. As soon as they’ve consumed and they go into a medical crisis, we rely so heavily on our ambulance service, our fire service, and paramedics, even at other organizations, to do that work in terms of reviving people and getting them off to the hospital. But right now, because of the sheer number, one of our service providers in the city reported in a one-hour period four overdoses, and those are four individuals that needed to be revived. And so right now it’s all hands on deck, and the police who would typically take more of a secondary role as a first responder. We’re having to get in there and we’re having to do more, honestly, more than we’re comfortable with doing, because we just don’t have the training.

But you did recently – correct me if I’m wrong – make a policy change where you are actually responding more to these types of calls?

MCBRIDE: That is correct. As a result of what we’re seeing on the streets of Saskatoon – again, with an all-hands-on-deck philosophy – we know we need to respond, because there may not be an ambulance that is capable of responding, or, fire might be backing up our ambulance service for at other calls, and so we know we all have to pull together at a time like this. And from an enforcement perspective, we need to look seriously at the charges we lay. And you know, there have been circumstances where we elevate the charges that we will lay. Not necessarily just trafficking charges where we can, but everything right up to manslaughter, to criminal negligence causing death (and) criminal negligence causing bodily harm. We’ve done that in the past, and we’ll do it again.

Tell me chief, what needs to happen from an investigative standpoint to be able to lay that charge? I think people will quickly argue “well, if you’re selling drugs, you could kill a person” in order to lay a charge of manslaughter. Give us an idea of what investigative results would need to happen in order for that to be successful.

MCBRIDE: We really need to tie the transfer of the drug itself to a specific person who then goes into a medical distress and dies as a result. And so we’re proving various elements along the way as we investigate the case, but we have to be able to walk into court and be able to unequivocally, directly tie the individual who sold or provided those drugs to an instance where they either caused bodily harm or the death of another person. At face value it might seem like that can’t be too hard, but it does require some very, very specific investigative skills and techniques, and I can say we have all of those capabilities within our drug unit and our crime-reduction team and others within the service, and so I’m confident in the in cases that we bring to court, and definitely will be working to ensure there’s an appropriate level of justice brought where people are dying.

A bad batch of fentanyl, for example, that is killing people – if you have that knowledge and continue to sell, that has to be aggravating factor to consider as well in something like a manslaughter charge.

MCBRIDE: Absolutely. That’s all part of that progressive proving of the case, if you will. As we go throughout the investigative process.

I want to shift gears to bear spray. I feel like you and I have talked about bear spray almost every month. I was going to go through the list of calls from this past weekend… I’m not going to read out all of these calls, but the reason I wanted to is I love the city. I love the city of Saskatoon. It kills me that this is happening. The one case here – the Midtown Plaza case – a loss prevention officer was sprayed with bear spray by a 12-year-old boy. He flees the scene. You guys arrest him and find the bear spray on him. Many of these cases result in police arresting the suspect, but doesn’t change the fact they’re carrying bear spray. Last month, I know you said we need to do more to regulate sales. We need to do more with appropriate and proportionate penalties. How do we do this? How do we get there? How do we solve this problem, chief?

MCBRIDE: Part of the work that we’ve been doing is trying to ensure that we can effectively set the stage, if you will, for an argument going forward. And so we’re looking at the statistics. We can confirm that we are laying charges. We are seeing convictions in court, so that you know that piece is being handled effectively through the justice system. We’re looking at the number of individuals involved and who they are, and there’s an absolutely disproportionate number of youths who are involved in this, and we know as well that individuals who are carrying pepper spray and using pepper spray are also committing other crimes; crimes like robbery, crimes like assaulting police in the course of their duties, and that’s of grave concern to me. And so we’re just trying to establish a way forward. One of the things that is absolutely disheartening to me – and I had heard that this was happening so I actually went in person. We have a private store adjacent to one of our neighborhoods that experiences a disproportionate amount of violent crime, and within that store an absolute wide array of weaponry. And so as we are in the community doing our very best to promote and bring community safety, working with residents there, we’ve got private industry that is flooding the community with weapons as fast as we can pull them off the street. And that is really disheartening, and so I think that’s directing us towards the solution. How in the world do we make a dent in this issue when private industry is flooding our streets with the product?

Do you have a sense, and do the officers talk with the arrests that they make, about where they obtained the pepper spray?

MCBRIDE: On occasion, yes. Some they’re purchasing it themselves. Some, it’s being given to them. And so one of the things that I would love to see moving forward is an ability to track and holding the original purchaser somehow responsible. Some may think I’m crazy to think that way, but people are getting this product and transferring it into the hands of criminals, and at some point there needs to be accountability.

How big is organized crime in Saskatoon, both at a higher level of organized crime and what I would call street level?

MCBRIDE: Well, we definitely have organized crime within Saskatoon. And there’s various ways that you can look at, or define organized crime within street-level organized crime. We’ve had it for years here. Typically there are levels of organization with respect to more high-level organized crime. It’s less organized here, but just a fact of a growing city – the greater the population, the more likely you are to experience higher levels of organized crime. And so within the provincial perspective, it’s something that we are definitely looking at all the time, keeping a handle and our eyes on what’s happening, and taking measures to address it. We’re not a port city, and so we’ll never have that organized crime that seems to happen around areas where there is more shipping and whatnot.

You’ve got a warrant enforcement team that I’ve been kind of following. It seems to be quite effective. Would you agree?

MCBRIDE: It came as a direct result of the recommendation that came out of the James Smith coroner’s inquest. And it’s all about bringing accountability and ensuring individuals who have been charged with an offense get their day in court, and that we bring them to justice as soon as we can. Particularly around violent offenders in the community, that becomes all the more important. And so right now our team’s establishing their protocols, prioritizing their work, and very shortly they will be in full swing, arresting individuals who are wanted in our community.

This texter says: “I know the security camera registry that (the Saskatoon Police Service) has is up and running. Is it playing a role in investigations and has it been received well by the community?”

MCBRIDE: For those who have signed up, certainly it’s been received well, and it is something that we utilize in any case. Now, in 2025 policing, anytime something happens, one of the first things we’re doing is looking for video, and so it it doesn’t replace that natural inclination to look for video, but it certainly gives us a head start in terms of where video may be present. And so it’s been well received. It hasn’t gained, I think, the traction that it could, but we’ll keep plugging away at it.

Lots of questions on bear spray. We’ve covered a lot of them, but two questions very quickly. Number one: Is there an age limit? And number two: If you have a can of dog spray or something that you purchased for a legal reason and it’s expired, how can we dispose of it?

MCBRIDE: That’s a really tricky one. You can dispose of it by bringing it to the police station, and absolutely we will receive it and ensure it’s destroyed with all the other bear spray that we that we seize off the streets. Or, as long as the wind is right and you’re in a safe place, you can just spray the can out. You can spray it into the toilet. You can spray it onto the ground.

Be careful doing that!

MCBRIDE: And I mentioned the wind. I’ve done it wrong.

Is there an age limit for someone to walk into a store and buy bear spray?

MCBRIDE: They need to be an adult, and they need to provide identification, like proper, legal identification, and so that’s something for the vendors. We’re always looking to make sure that they are selling to people who are lawfully able to purchase.

Chief, last question to finish off our talk. Finish the sentence for me: I wish my officers could spend less time…

MCBRIDE: Investigating incidents of social disorder where somebody or an organization with greater capacity to deal with individuals in crisis when it comes to mental health, when they’re more appropriate.

I’m not shocked to hear you say that, as always, chief, I appreciate you joining our show.