Grieving Sudbury mom asks for memorial site to mark lives lost in opioid crisis
Northern Ontario sees 2x weekly opioid deaths as southern Ontario
A grieving mother in Sudbury has made it her mission to draw attention to the opioid crisis, after her 22-year-old son, Myles Keaney, died of a suspected overdose in September.
It started when Denise Sandul placed a cross downtown in the spot where Keaney's body was found, as a homemade memorial. After that, Sandul says she started putting up more crosses to honour others in Sudbury who died after a struggle with addiction.
Eventually, she says the city let her set up a memorial site at the corners of Paris and Brady streets.
"I've had 14 requests for crosses from families who lost someone since [my son's] death, Sept. 8," she said. "And that's only the ones who've asked for crosses."
As of Friday morning, there were 45 crosses at the site. Sandul says she would like to see a permanent site dedicated to the memorial.
After meeting with Sandul and her daughters, NDP MPP Jamie West asked the provincial government on Thursday "to immediately increase funding for health services in Sudbury."
"The family honoured the life of Myles by placing a cross for him in downtown Sudbury. In September, Myles' cross was alone. When we visited last week, there were 20 crosses. Today there are 33, and there will be 51 crosses by this weekend," West said.
West says Sandul told him her son tried to get help with his addiction — several times — but none was available.
In response to West's request, Health Minister, Christine Elliott, expressed condolences to Sandul and her family.
"That is something none of us want to see happen in the province of Ontario," she said. "We know that there are many areas that don't have either the consumption and treatment services sites or the withdrawal-management supports that they need," she said from the floor of the legislature.
"That is why we brought forward our Roadmap to Wellness, to make sure that across Ontario — that includes northern Ontario, southern, eastern and western Ontario — we can have that core basket of addictions and mental health treatments."
Keaney's death is one of the many opioid-related deaths happening more frequently across the province and in the north, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the Chief Coroner's Office, 50 to 80 people per week die from overdoses across Ontario, with death rates in the north almost double what they are in southern Ontario.