Sister of inmate who died at EMDC prepares for walk to Queen's Park

The sister of an inmate who died at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC) last year is walking from London, Ont. to Queen's Park to raise awareness about she calls the "crisis in corrections" on both sides of the bars.

Lynn Pigeau, whose brother James died of a suspicious overdose, will leave EMDC on Saturday at 9 a.m.

She and two friends, who are walking with her, will hold rallies with families from other Ontario correctional facilities along the way.

Need for others to know

Pigeau said she was amazed when being interviewed by a Brampton newspaper recently that the reporter hadn't heard about the fourteen deaths at EMDC since 2009.

"That's why I said right from the get-go, we need to get this out of London. We need our loved ones to be known, their faces known, and we need the government to know. These places need help. Correctional officers need help … Let's get this done."

The rallies will be held at the Brantford jail (now closed), the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre, Maplehurst Correctional complex in Milton and the Toronto South Detention Centre, culminating with a final rally at Queen's  Park on May 30.  

Pigeau said a scathing letter written by Ontario's Chief Human Rights Commissioner,  Renu Mandhane, complaining of poor conditions at EMDC was "very accurate." She said it reflected many of the concerns her deceased brother had written in journals while in the jail.

Pigeau welcomed the commissioner's letter and said similar concerns have been noted by coroner's juries but "noting comes out of them."

"If we all work together … maybe we can find ways to fix the situation, so it's safer" for those on both sides of the bars, she said.

Pigeau said the walk is not just to remember inmates who have died in Ontario jails but for those who work in them, as well.

"There's good correctional officers … there's bad correctional officers…I don't put the blame on anyone. I put the blame on the system. The system needs to be fixed."

Pigeau says she's ready for the walk, physically and mentally.

Having survived two bouts with cancer in the last 10 years, she says she can handle this.

"To me, this is just another cancer. So I'm going to kick ass, like I did the last couple of times!"