KIRKLAND LAKE – On a cold January morning in 2020, Colleen Fagan sat at her kitchen table in Kirkland Lake, stunned.
Pierre Richard, her stepson, who she thought was in jail, had been released and died of drug poisoning within 24 hours.
“I was his stepmom. I loved him dearly,” she told TimminsToday. “We had lots of fun together, lots of good times … I miss him.”
Fagan said Pierre — who was 30 when he died — was kind, generous, strong, handsome, and full of life. He loved restoring old cars, snowmobiling, and “owning and fixing Ski-Doos and having fun with that.”
Jean-Marc Richard said his son’s Jan. 3, 2020, death wasn’t just about the drugs; it was about the system that failed him.
“The drugs are how Pierre died, but the system caused him to relapse and die,” he said. “If something isn’t done, we will keep losing our children.”
Pierre had spent time in custody in late 2019, participating in programs, counselling, and working toward accessing a treatment bed at Sudbury’s Monarch Recovery Services facility. His family said he was motivated and in the vulnerable “action stage” of recovery.
He couldn’t go directly from jail to residential treatment, so in December 2019, his parents agreed to be his surety — to supervise him while he was on bail — until a bed became available.
For weeks, Pierre stayed home, worked with his father, and called the treatment centre daily, sometimes three times a day, hoping for an opening.
Over Christmas, he relapsed.
Concerned for his safety and their own, his family revoked his surety on Dec. 26, 2019, believing jail was the only place he could access supports and stay away from drugs.
Without notice to his family, Pierre was released from prison on Jan. 2, 2020.
“Total shock,” said Fagan. “We sat at the kitchen table and just about cried. We did our best to take care of him in those last few weeks, and we put him back to keep him safe. And we didn’t even get a phone call.”
A lack of local options
The family says his death highlights dangerous gaps in the north’s addiction and mental health services.
“Everything is needed,” said Fagan. “Mental health options that are available when you need it. Somewhere to go, with people to keep you on the right track while you get integrated back into the community.”
Some mental health and addictions services in Northern Ontario include the Northern Treatment Centre in Timmins and Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) branches in Timmins, Kirkland Lake, New Liskeard, and Sudbury. Some hospitals also provide mental health care.
Other facilities include Monarch Recovery Services in Sudbury, the Detox Centre in Smooth Rock Falls, and the Jubilee Centre in Timmins, which offers treatment for addictions and concurrent disorders.
In Timmins, one woman is also working to open a recovery home for men.
According to the Timiskaming Health Unit, from 2020 to 2024, there were 111 paramedic service calls for suspected opioid-related incidents, with the greatest percentage of calls among those 20-39 years of age (56.4 per cent).
During the same period, 63 doses of naloxone, which can temporarily reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, were administered for opioid-related incidents when paramedic services were called in Timiskaming.
In 2024, there were 19 emergency department visits for opioid incidents in Timiskaming. This represents a local rate of 52.7 visits per 100,000 population per year. The Ontario rate during that same period was 77.4 visits per 100,000 population per year.
Overall in the district in 2024, nine opioid-related deaths confirmed. This represents a local rate of 25.8 deaths per 100,000 population. The Ontario rate during that same period was 13.9 deaths per 100,000 population.
Josée Merrick, who spearheaded the Timiskaming opioid poisoning prevention task force, said the lack of withdrawal management services, safe beds, and local residential treatment means many people can’t access help when they need it most. Wait lists, she argues, are deadly.
“If Pierre could have accessed a safe bed and entered treatment straight away in December, there’s a strong possibility this death could have been avoided,” Merrick said.
Stigma and silence
Beyond service gaps, the family says stigma also plays a role.
“You feel like you haven’t done a good job. And you feel like everybody thinks you didn’t do good parenting. That you didn’t have enough control, or they would have done it different and it never would have happened,” said Fagan.
This is what she wants people in the community to understand about families living through a loved one’s addiction.
“It’s hell. It’s hard. You do your best. You try to support them the best you can… They’re not all bad people,” Fagan said.
The fifth annual International Overdose Awareness Day in Kirkland Lake is on Aug. 27 at the Toburn mine property, located at the corner of Burnside Drive and Government Road. There will be a service, naloxone kits will be handed out, there’s live music, and a barbecue.
Fagan said events like this are “important.”
“Here, it’s a very small area, and we know a lot of the people and the parents that this has happened to. Like Pierre and Harley Gregorich, I mean, they were friends all their life, because they all grew up in this little town together,” she said.
“There were a couple of years where it was really bad for people overdosing. I personally know at least a half a dozen people. And I’ve known them as kids, watched them grow up. Know their parents.”
Gregorich died of an overdose in October of 2020.
Pierre’s name is one of many etched into the memorial crosses at the Toburn mine site.
“It’s important to have his name out there,” said Fagan. “Everybody knew him, and look what happened. Stay away from the drugs. We haven’t forgotten Pierre, but things need to change.”
