Vancouver police investigating after body of newborn found inside portable toilet

Police are investigating after the body of a newborn baby was found inside a portable toilet in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside late Wednesday.

Officers were called to the Carnegie Community Centre at Main and Hastings streets just before 6 p.m. PT, after multiple people called to report a deceased infant inside one of the porta-potties on the sidewalk outside the building.

A statement said officers found the newborn's body when they arrived.

"This is, without a doubt, an extremely tragic incident," Vancouver police Const. Tania Visintin said Thursday. "It has been a tough evening for the community and the department."

Police are looking to speak with witnesses, as well as the mother of the baby.

"At this time, we have not spoken to the mother," Visintin said Thursday. 

"None of us can imagine what she's going through ... we are very concerned for her physical well-being as well as her mental well-being," the officer continued. "We desperately want to speak with her and have her medically assessed."

Visintin said police are still determining exactly when and where the baby was born.

"We do know it was a newborn ... as for days, weeks, hours, we don't have that information."

Memorial grows

The Carnegie centre is a hub in the Downtown Eastside which usually offers programs and supports for people living in the area. A small crowd gathered Thursday to lay flowers, pray and perform a smudging ceremony outside the portable. One woman laid down a brown, plush teddy bear.

"This is not the story of a woman who failed, but about a woman who was failed," Janice Abbott, CEO of Atira Women's Society, tweeted Thursday.

The City of Vancouver, in a statement, said work to evaluate temporary washroom options, already underway, will be expedited in light of the death.

Mebrat Beyene, executive director of WISH, said the lack of hygiene necessities like washrooms and showers in the neighbourhood is a problem that's grown worse during the COVID-19 pandemic because many facilities have closed or scaled back their hours.

People are wearing the same clothes for days on end, she said. Women don't have adequate access to menstrual products.

"Our fear is always that a tragedy ... will happen before action happens," Beyene said. "The barriers are just heartbreaking right now."

Beyene said the city could make a big difference immediately by getting washroom trailers into the neighbourhood.

'Everybody deserves better than this'

Coun. Christine Boyle said the city has rolled out portable washrooms and handwashing stations in the Downtown Eastside but there aren't enough.

There is a particular need for women-only facilities, she said.

"We as a city, as a province, failed this mother in not supporting her and not providing more choices," Boyle said. "People deserve better. Everybody deserves better than this."

Boyle said work is underway to provide better supports. She pointed to efforts by Social Development Minister Shane Simpson to develop a plan for the Downtown Eastside during the pandemic.

Boyle said people in the neighbourhood have a desperate need for housing supports and income supports and for family-sized units of modular and social housing.

Coroner investigating

The B.C. Coroners Service has been notified of the death.

"We are currently in the very early stages of this investigation to determine the circumstances and have no further details at this time," read a statement from the service.

Anyone with information is asked to call the department's Major Crime Section at 604-717-2500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 to remain anonymous.