Health Minister Sonia Bélanger will meet on Wednesday with the parents of Zachary Miron, the 15-year-old who died in 2024 after drinking a can of “Red Bull”.
The mixture of his ADHD medication and the energy drink caused an arrhythmia that led to his sudden death while he was skiing in Morin Heights, in the Laurentians, with his class.
Since then, his parents, David Miron and Veronica Martinez, have been campaigning to ban the sale of these drinks to those under 16. Their petition has already gathered more than 14,500 signatures on the National Assembly website.
On Tuesday, Minister Bélanger again refused to say whether she would agree to the request, which is supported by Public Health. She stated that she wanted to proceed in stages, starting with a meeting with Miron and Martinez.
“I will have the opportunity to meet (…) the parents of the young man who died to (…) discuss with them. I will then be able to see what the next steps would be,” she said in a press scrum in Quebec City.
Bélanger specified that she would be accompanied during this meeting by Québec solidaire MNA Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, who is very involved in the issue. Furthermore, she indicated that she might decide to commission additional studies on the subject.
“There are opinions, (…) but that doesn’t mean I won’t ask for others to detail certain elements. (…) There are different reports, recommendations, but we need to go much further,” she argued.
“We’ll take it step by step, I’m meeting the parents for the first time and we’ll continue to see what we can do.”
The petition mentions that England and Norway have banned the sale of energy drinks to those under 16. Latvia and Lithuania prohibit the sale of these drinks to all minors.
“We need to have a debate, a discussion about energy drinks, because the debate has taken place elsewhere and the government has a report that it must unveil,” Liberal MNA Monsef Derraji said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“This poses a health risk to young people,” acknowledged MNA Joël Arseneau of the Parti Québécois. “We don’t have any proposals in this regard, but we are ready to study the government’s proposal on this matter.”
Cliche-Rivard said he sensed an openness from all elected officials. “I am therefore extending my hand to the minister who can truly make a difference at the end of her mandate and honour the memory of Zachary Miron,” he told The Canadian Press.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
