This entire family died of suspected overdoses. Those left say parents with addictions need more support
In a 6-month span, a 16-month-old baby and both her parents died of suspected drug toxicity
This story originally published on Sept. 12, 2023.
Anne Doig looks at three smiling faces on the funeral handouts in her lap — one much younger than the others.
A toddler in a Christmas onesie sits on a bed, propped up by pillows. The words "Madison Lily Cowan. August 6, 2021 — January 1, 2023" are printed in pink letters.
Madison's parents, John Cowan and Berkeley Donkervoort, both 38, died months after their only child.
All three are suspected to have died of toxic drug poisoning, also called an overdose.
From the moment Madison was born, Doig worried the girl would struggle, given her parents' addictions.
"It's a dreadful thing to think, but absent of a very powerful intervention sustained over a long period of time, that little girl's hope of anything resembling a normal life was fraught," she said.
Doig and other family members want to see better support for parents living with addictions, and better protections for their children.
Years of addiction, calls for help
Doig says her son, John, was a "sunny and optimistic person." He studied pipe fitting in Alberta, but a head injury sustained in a car crash affected his ability to continue his career.
Berkeley was a dental hygienist who had "the biggest laugh," according to her mother, Susan Donkervoort. She believed Berkeley used fentanyl for eight years before she died.
John and Berkeley started dating in 2015, then got pregnant around Christmas 2020. Doig says Berkeley didn't get prenatal care until her third trimester, despite family encouragement.
She and Donkervoort believe Berkeley used drugs during her pregnancy.
Both grandmothers say they called Saskatoon police and Saskatchewan child protective services several times. They expressed concerns about the couple's drug use, as well as the fact the family was living with a person they say was a known drug dealer.
A social worker who checked in on the family would book visits in advance, Doig says, giving John and Berkeley lots of time to clean up and "cover their tracks."
She staged an intervention in December 2022 to get the parents help, but weeks later, Madison died.
Madison's death
According to Doig, John told her that Berkeley called him at work on New Year's Day. Madison was sick — vomitting — and she needed him to come home.
Instead of calling 911, Doig says someone who knew the family drove Berkeley and Madison to the hospital where staff tried to revive the baby. But she was gone.
Doig says documents from the Saskatchewan Coroners Service show Madison died with fentanyl, carfentanil and benzodiazepines in her stomach. She believes the baby somehow ingested the drugs.
"We got through the funeral," she said.
"John did a fabulous job. He was able to stand at the doorway and greet every single person."
Both parents died with drugs in system
But just weeks later, on Feb. 6, John died.
According to Doig, he had taken someone's quetiapine, a drug used to treat psychotic disorders or as a sedative for people with addictions.
"It was in his system along with the street stuff he was using," which Doig said included fentanyl, methamphetamine and benzodiazepines, according to coroner documents.
Berkeley died on June 21.
Donkervoort received coroner documents stating her daughter had fentanyl and benzodiazepines in her system when she died.
She said not even losing Madison and John was enough for her daughter to seek help.
"I was actually hoping that she might have been charged with something so she could get help in jail."
Saskatoon police investigated the deaths, then handed them over to the Saskatchewan Coroners Service.
A spokesperson for Saskatchewan's ministry of social services says the department investigates serious incidents that happen to children in care or who receive social services.
The coroner, which is privy to those investigations, could choose to hold an inquest into the deaths, something Doig says she'd support if it fosters change and protects others.
Protecting children
Doig, a recently retired family physician of 40 years, says the deaths are tragic for her family, but preventable for others.
"You can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped, but I think the rules change when there's a baby involved," she said.
While she doesn't think Madison should have been taken away, Doig says the current system isn't working.
"What I wanted was support for those parents, but I don't know what support looked like."
Each family and situation is different, according to Dr. Peter Selby, an addictions health specialist with the University of Toronto and the Centre of Addiction and Mental Health.
"Just because that person has an active addiction doesn't mean they have to lose custody over that child forever. But it can mean there are other people who are brought in to make sure that child is raised safely."
That could look like, for example, finding responsible child care for when parents are using.
It's when parents aren't able to provide the necessities of life that Selby believes agencies should step in, providing help that keeps the best interests of the child at heart.
"The good thing is with substance use, it's reversible, so people can get better. I've seen that happen many times," he said.
He says when children are apprehended from mothers who use drugs, it reinforces stigmas and the idea that they're bad mothers. Instead, he says we need to reexamine how we deliver addiction support to pregnant women who need it.
"You need a village around this," said Selby, who helped create an existing support network at St. Joseph's Health Centre in Toronto. He notes that it often involves the housing sector, health care, child protection and the legal system working to keep families together.
"If we don't put that investment in now, I feel we're going to lose out on a whole generation."
Calling for a safer supply
Doig says Berkeley and John tried methadone — a drug used to treat opioid addiction — but they still struggled with substances.
Doig believes a safe drug supply could help cut the flow of what she calls "contaminated garbage."
"It's Russian roulette every time they buy drugs because they don't know what's in it," she said. "If you're going to use, at least be using something that somebody can stand behind the pharmacology of."
Saskatchewan's ministry of health says it's focused on treatment and recovery.
"Providing illicit drugs through the publicly-funded health-care system is not something that the government of Saskatchewan is considering," wrote a spokesperson.
According to the statement, the province will continue connecting people who've had overdoses with help and will expand addictions treatment spaces in the future.
Stigmas can prevent parents from seeking help
Barb Fornssler, an assistant professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Saskatchewan, says solely focusing on sobriety reinforces stigma, which keeps people from accessing help.
Like Selby, Fornssler wants to see wraparound services, but she worries existing systems over-police families and over-apprehend children.
"People who use substances love their children very much. They are not seeking to harm their children at all. In fact, I've seen the opposite in my work — they are trying to prioritize their children's well-being and ensure they're safe," she said.
"Unfortunately, that doesn't always work out when a family is not properly supported with additional services."
Since Madison died, Donkervoort says she's tried emailing provincial and federal representatives to raise awareness about the opioid crisis.
"I've come to realize that all I can do is maybe try and help another family not have to go through what my family's just been through," she said.
Donkervoort lives in Nova Scotia, but she visited Saskatoon on Aug. 6.
Instead of throwing her granddaughter a party, she spent what would have been Madison's second birthday at her grave.
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