SUDBURY—After her son Myles Keaney died of an overdose, Denise Sandul and the rest of the family kept gravitating to the spot in front of the local fire hall where he spent his final moments.
After six weeks, Sandul wondered about the others who had passed away from drug use. “I was in my grief thinking, is this the end? Nobody cares but our family that Myles has died from these toxic drugs? What about all the other people?
“We were in the midst of COVID and that was on the radar, and overdoses were not really talked about much anymore.”
She posted on social media, asking if anyone would be interested in a memorial — a collection of handmade crosses with the names of loved ones on them. Her son-in-laws would make them.
Sandul began the memorial two years ago, outside of the fire hall, with eight crosses; there are now almost 250 in a new location at a downtown corner after firefighters said seeing the markers on their way to and from work was too much to bear.
“This is a shoutout that society has failed to deal with this problem — and it’s only a fraction of the people who have died in the city,” Sandul told the Star this week after making one of her regular visits to tend to the site.
The addiction and overdose crisis that has hit communities across the province has been particularly acute in northern Ontario. With a lack of resources and long wait lists, plus few rehab and detox beds, there is little help for people with addictions and their families.
With the major political parties promising action on mental health and addictions, Sandul is hoping the issue doesn’t fade away after the June 2 election.
“We need a treatment center,” plus supportive housing to help people get on their feet afterwards, she said.
“I always told my son his life had meaning — we just had to find out what it was,” she said. “And I felt when he died that I had lied to him, disappointed him, and now I’m determined that his life was not for nothing.”
In Sudbury and Manitoulin, some 70 people died of opioid-related overdoses from January to September of last year, which is a rate of 34.1 per 100,000 people. The provincewide rate is 13.7.
“I didn’t know anyone who had a child who died of an overdose when my son passed away, and now I’ve heard from hundreds of families,” Sandul said.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who was in Sudbury early last week, said “the resources just aren’t there. The rehab beds aren’t there. The consumption and treatment sites aren’t there — nowhere along the lines are the resources there to help people deal with the drug consumption problem or the drug overdose problem.”
She said police also often don’t have the resources to deal with the issue.
“This is something that older people in smaller communities have been talking to me about for a couple of years now,” Horwath said, adding that the NDP platform would declare it a public emergency, add detox and rehab beds as well as supportive housing.
During Tuesday’s debate in North Bay, all party leaders addressed the issue after being asked if they would support a northern center of excellence to look at issues of mental health, homelessness and addictions.
PC Leader Doug Ford said his party has spent millions on mental health and even created an associate ministry to handle such issues, noting “this issue is extremely important to me — it’s personal to me. I’ve seen addiction in my family, ”referring to the struggles of his late brother of him and former Toronto Major Rob Ford.
“I understand what the families go through, when they have someone addicted to anything, be it alcohol or drugs. We created the first minister of mental health and addictions; we lead the largest investment in Canadian history of $3.8 billion.”
In addition, in government “we created 53 beds in North Bay, 50 new beds in Timmins, 34 new beds in Thunder Bay and 15 new beds in Sudbury. We need a wraparound system that’s going to help people.”
Horwath, however, shot back that millions were cut from services, and “what Mr. Ford forgot to mention is that one of the first things he did (after forming government in 2018) was cap the number of safe consumption sites in Ontario and put people’s lives at risk. It’s heartbreaking.”
Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca said his party, if elected, would provide supportive and affordable housing, and “our platform (includes) $360 million in ongoing annual funding to not-for-profits and municipalities to create the wraparound services that we talk about so frequently.”
He said he would also re-establish the province’s opioid emergency task force and spend $3 billion over four years on mental health.
To address the higher rate of drug overdoses, the Green Party has promised to cover mental health care under OHIP, and ensure services are available in all areas of the province.
The Greens would also decriminalize drug use and redirect the funds currently spent in the justice system to health care.
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