Lawyer, loved ones frustrated by decision to remove memorial crosses outside of EMDC

The mother of an inmate who died in 2017 and a lawyer representing her and other families of inmates at the troubled Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre are describing a decision to remove memorial crosses outside of the jail as maddening and disrespectful.

“I really haven’t had time to grieve because I’m so mad,” Judy Struthers told Global News. “And now they have made me angrier.”

At least 18 people have died at the jail since 2009.

Lawyer Kevin Egan says a grievance was filed alleging that the memorial crosses were exacerbating symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder among some jail employees. The Grievance Settlement Board ruled that the crosses be removed.

“And 45 days later, we’re halfway through the 90-day period in which the arbitrator said the crosses had to be removed, nobody has taken the initiative to actually contact the families and say ‘there’s a ruling here, can we talk about it?’ Nothing like that. There’s no respect being shown to these families even now,” he says.

“Some of these monuments were placed there by Indigenous leaders as well with Indigenous ceremonies. And unfortunately, the decision maker chose to describe one of those Indigenous monuments as a ‘disturbing’ monument.”

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Egan also says the memorial crosses aren’t actually on EMDC property, but are on provincial property near the facility.

“What really should have been the focus of the union’s grievance was not the conditions outside the jail, but the conditions inside the jail,” he argues.

Global News reached out to the branch of the Ontario Public Service Employee Union (OPSEU) that represents workers at EMDC, but did not receive a response prior to publication.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Solicitor General told Global News that it will work with families to remove the memorial crosses “in compliance with the Grievance Settlement Board order.”

The Ministry spokesperson says that “our thoughts are with the family and friends that have lost loved ones” and that “the ministry is aware of the impact that the crosses may have had on staff,” who, it adds, have access to an employee and family assistance program.

“The ministry takes the health and safety of inmates and staff very seriously and the government is committed to making provincial correctional facilities safer for everyone.”

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Struthers has a hard time believing that, however, as she says she is still waiting for information about her son’s death.

“To hear that they want the crosses removed because it’s causing all this stress on the guards, do they not realize the stress that’s on us? I’ve been waiting almost three years, my family and I have gone through hell waiting for answers of what happened to Justin.”

Justin Struthers, 29, of Goderich died Dec. 26, 2017. His death was the fifth inmate death at EMDC that year.

At the time, the mother of his twin daughters said that he was found lifeless in his cell just one day after he was taken in.

The coroner’s statement on his death said he was injured in a fight with an inmate but that he was able to get up and walk, according to the London Free Press, but he was later “found lying on the floor with the torn hem of a bed sheet around his neck.”

Struthers, who now lives in Clinton, tells Global News that she didn’t see her son’s body until an hour before his visitation.

“My husband had to insist that that casket be open. So there’s all our family going in to see him and what we saw was horrific. And I was so angry at my other son because he was taking pictures, but I am so happy he did now,” she says.

Struthers brings signs with those pictures when she goes to EMDC twice a week, protesting for change at the jail. She says she also helps maintain all the memorial crosses and decorates them for the holidays.

“Lynn Pigeau’s brother died after my son. We became quite good friends, she’s like a daughter to me. And she passed away this past year of cancer and I promised her I would keep this up,” she says.

“If they take the crosses down, that is not going to stop me. I won’t be on their property — I stand up on the pavement with my signs and I will stand there with my son’s cross and my signs until I get some honest answers.”

— with files from Global News’ Andrew Graham.