OTTAWA, June 16 -- For the second year running, fewer Canadians are dying of opioid overdoses, and for once the country's health officials allowed themselves a careful kind of relief. In 2025, 5,630 people died of opioid toxicity, about 1,700 fewer than the year before, a fall of 23 per cent that builds on a 17 per cent decline the year before that, according to federal data.

The figures, released on Monday, are the clearest sign in years that the trajectory of Canada's toxic drug crisis has bent. They are also, on their own terms, still grim. A 23 per cent drop leaves more than fifteen people dying every day, and the country's chief public health officer, Dr Joss Reimer, was careful not to oversell it, telling reporters the toll was una...