Mother hopes inquest sheds light on son's death in Stony Mountain prison
She remembers the 'happy kid' who worked hard to get his high school equivalency credentials and was popular with friends and family.
'My son liked everything, basketball, any kind of sports team, he always wanted to play. If there was a powwow, he wanted to go. If there was somebody that needed help, he'd go and help,' Brass told the Free Press.
Supplied
Patrick Eaglestick, 25, died by hanging while at Stony Mountain in 2020. An inquest was called into his death this week.
She said it pains her to think about the brutality of his death at age 25. He died in hospital, one day after he was found hanging in his cell during a routine check on March 23, 2020. His death was ruled a suicide, and because he died while incarcerated, an inquest must be held as per the Fatality Inquiries Act.
'The hardest thing to lose is your grown child,' she said.
At the time of his death, Eaglestick was serving a two-year sentence for assault with a weapon, use of an imitation firearm while committing an offence, and failing to comply with a condition under recognizance. He hanged himself two months after his sentence began.
Five years later, Brass still has questions about his death. While he 'got in trouble' on the outside, resulting in his incarceration, Brass said, he was introduced to drugs while in prison during a previous five-year stint for his involvement in a robbery, without intervention from guards.
She said he was introduced to gang activity while he was in Stony; Eaglestick would call her from the prison and tell her he was scared of the gang members who harassed him.
She said there was no intervention from Stony employees.
She hopes the inquest finds that Stony Mountain was negligent in protecting her son.
'They were supposed to keep my son alive, they failed to do that,' she said. 'I wish I had my son here with me.'
On Monday, Manitoba chief medical examiner Dr. John Younes called inquests into the deaths of Eaglestick and six other men incarcerated at Stony Mountain and Headingley Correctional Centre in 2020 and 2021.
Among them is William Ahmo, whose 2021 death after a standoff with jail guards was deemed a homicide; the correctional officer who led the guards in the standoff was acquitted of criminal charges in September.
Another inquest will probe the death of Jesse Thomas, 36, who died from an accidental drug overdose on Nov. 19, 2021.
Five of the seven inquests are in relation to hanging deaths that occurred between March and December 2020: Eaglestick, Curt Harper, 36, Melvis Owen, 38, Farron Rowan, 32, and Adrian Young, 39.
Christine Latimer, the national executive director of the John Howard Society, said that number of suicides is surprising.
'To me, that's high… I track every announcement that (Correctional Services Canada) makes about a death in custody, and there's nothing like this,' she said.
In the past year, one inquest into a suicide by hanging at Stony Mountain has been published. Timothy Koltusky was 34 when he was found hanging by a ligature made from garbage bags tied to an electric fixture in his cell on March 12, 2019.
Supplied
Patrick Eaglestick's mother says he worked hard to get his high school equivalency credentials and was popular with friends and family.
Judges have recommended Stony retrofit electrical fixtures to prevent suicides as early as 2005.
Koltusky's inquest report, published in January, describes his suicide as tragic but not preventable; it notes the chief medical examiner's call for an inquest 'lacks jurisdiction to make recommendations to the federal authorities responsible for the operation of penitentiaries in Canada.'
Latimer said more needs to be done.
'Generally their answer to suicides is, hide the knives, right? There's nothing that looks at the circumstances which leads people to be suicidal, but they want to stop the means by which people can actually carry out the threat,' Latimer said.
'You also need to look at their mental wellbeing.'
University of Winnipeg criminal justice professor Michael Weinrath was also surprised by the number.
'It's a problem when you have that many hangings, in one particular period,' he said.
Weekday Mornings
A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day.
Stony Mountain, which was built in 1876, is the oldest correctional facility in the country. Many cells are smaller than what current standards allow, Weinrath said, but the high cost of rebuilding the prison meant they were grandfathered in.
Retrofitting cells to ensure they don't have suspension points for hanging is also costly, he said.
He's curious whether the number of inquests on one method of death will inspire change.
'Certainly, I think the management at Stony Mountain would come under some scrutiny, in the end,' he said.
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak AbasReporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg's North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
5 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Violent incidents surging in schools, with educational assistants bearing brunt of student-on-staff attacks
Julie Braaksma, better known as Ms. Braaksma inside her Brandon elementary school, was called for back-up help when a Grade 1 student burst into a temper tantrum in January. More than 15 years into her career as a resource teacher, the request was not out of the ordinary; in fact, she often tells colleagues to reach out if they need assistance to de-escalate a situation. Julie Braaksma, a former resource teacher in the Brandon School Division, is studying the rate of violence in Manitoba classrooms. She is among many educators who has suffered violence at the hands of students. (Cheryl Hnatiuk / Free Press) 'Objects were flying out of the classroom — school supplies, pencils, toys,' Braaksma recalled about the scene in January. The distressed boy grew increasingly frustrated as his classmates evacuated the room. Moments later, the six-year-old picked up a chair to throw at Braaksma. In an attempt to retreat, she tripped over a desk and fell to the ground. That's when the child jumped on her and started punching her with a building block, she said, adding that his scratches drew blood and she suffered bruised ribs. 'It's not out of the norm for what's happening in this province, but it's definitely one of the more serious incidents,' said Braaksma, a PhD student who has devoted the better part of the last four years to researching violence in Manitoba schools. 'Usually, I've just been punched or kicked or spit on.' Documents obtained by the Free Press from the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba shows injury claims have surged in the education sector. In a freedom of information request, the Free Press sought a breakdown of time-loss claims filed by school staff, including educational assistants (EAs), early childhood educators and vocational teachers, between 2015 and 2025. (The Manitoba Teachers' Society membership is not included as its 16,600 educators report workplace injuries to their local and employer. Principals and teachers can use sick time or access disability coverage through MTS to recover, if need be.) There were 844 more reports made to the workers compensation board last year compared to a decade ago — a 332 per cent increase. Annual reports of surface wounds and bruises quadrupled during that period. Open wound incidents grew ninefold. The number of 'other traumatic injuries and disorders' also spiked, owing to steady year-over-year growth in that WCB category encompassing concussions, back pain and general soreness. In 2015, there were 34 such incident reports — a fraction of the 164 that have already been reported mid-way through the current calendar year. Last year's count was 434. Those figures are unsurprising to the handful of Canadian researchers who have made it their mission to uncover the extent of student violence on teachers and school staff. 'There should be moral panic, but there isn't,' said Chris Bruckert, chair of the department of criminology at the University of Ottawa. Bruckert and clinical psychologist Darcy Santor founded the Violence and Harassment Against Educators Project in 2018. Their research team has since surveyed more than 10,500 teachers, EAs and clerical staff. What they've found is that more workers are being injured — it's a near-universal experience for EAs — and the frequency of incidents has risen following the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet, there is little public awareness or concern because it's become so normalized that students are not relaying what they've witnessed to their parents, Bruckert said. 'People think teachers are a bunch of whiny, privileged people who have the summers off and should just suck it up,' she added. Darby Mallory, a PhD student involved in the project, said they've debated whether 'violence' is an appropriate descriptor for what's happening. Ultimately, whether or not a student is intentionally targeting an adult or acting out because their needs are not being met, employees are experiencing these incidents as violence, she said. Mallory said it's important not to minimize that, especially given many educators they surveyed have reported violence to administration and been met with minimization, trivialization 'or even blame.' Manitoba EAs were asked about whether they had personally experienced violence in their workplace in a spring survey conducted by the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Seven in 10 respondents said they had. Half of that group indicated they were experiencing violence at work on a daily or weekly basis. 'Nobody should be going to school fearing for their safety — not the kids and not the staff,' said union leader Gina McKay, who represents more than 6,000 support staff in kindergarten-to-Grade 12 buildings. A total of 753 EAs completed the CUPE Manitoba workforce survey in April. McKay said what strikes her as particularly troubling is how few workers are receiving paid annual training to prevent workplace violence. Only 30 per cent of EAs reported they were receiving it. That figure remains unchanged in reviewing the results of all 1,136 K-12 employees who participated in the poll. When taking into consideration bus drivers, clerical staff and custodians, 60 per cent of non-teaching school division staff in Manitoba have experienced violence on the job. Inclusive education teacher Luanne Karn and a handful of EA colleagues began tracking injuries they suffered at a Winnipeg middle school in 2021-22. The group documented 150 incidents in six weeks. Among them: bruises; sprains; scratches; a fracture; and a concussion. 'Students were hyper-alert, dysregulated, punching, pinching, grabbing hair, stabbing, yelling, swearing. That was my daily experience,' Karn said, recalling the lead-up to an earlier-than-planned retirement in 2024. Karn took multiple leaves before making that decision; she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in connection to the constant violence she witnessed and experienced in Manitoba's public schools. For the most part, her students acted out to communicate their needs were not being met, she said, noting many of them were functioning below grade level and required specialized support for a physical or cognitive disability. Karn said the standardized education model — or, 'factory approach' — was not providing the built-in flexibility many of her students needed to regulate their emotions. There was also not enough one-on-one instructional time to help them master skills, she said. 'As the mainstreaming of students with special needs or exceptionalities has occurred, the level of violence in schools has also increased because, I think, a lot of them are not getting their needs met,' Karn said. She noted the shift to integrate students from low-enrolment programs into regular classrooms has not been met with adequate resources to allow for true inclusion. It became increasingly difficult to watch resources dwindle over time, Karn said, reflecting on her 25-year career in teaching and raising a teenager who's enrolled in a public school. Research out of University of Ottawa suggests school violence is on the rise in Ontario for an array of reasons linked to decades of government austerity and societal changes. Larger class sizes, too few EAs and children not getting their learning or behavioural needs met due to limited assessment resources are all contributing factors, Bruckert said. The criminology professor cited a shift in parenting styles and the proliferation of iPads as other influences. Children are spending more time in front of a screen and they are not learning to share or master other social skills the same way they did 15 years ago, she said. Mallory, lead author of the recently released report, Running on Fumes: Violence, Austerity, and Institutional Neglect in Ontario Schools, also noted students are showing up to school during a stressful time. Running on Fumes: Violence, Austerity, and Institutional Neglect in Ontario Schools The PhD student listed the mental health crisis, affordable housing shortage and the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, among other stressors. The research team's analysis shows the rate of Ontario elementary teachers experiencing student-initiated violence grew by more than 30 per cent between 2017-18 and 2022-23. The average frequency of reported incidents more than doubled during that period, from 8.8 unique incidents over a school year to 18.4. The University of Ottawa initiative also exposed that women experience 'dramatically higher' rates of violence from students than men. 'Violence is often accompanied by gendered slurs, sexualized behaviours, and derogatory put-downs,' the Running on Fumes report states. Ninety per cent of female respondents in the 2022-23 survey experienced violence versus 72 per cent of male participants. On average, women experienced twice as many incidents as men. The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario has been a key partner in the Violence and Harassment Against Educators Project. The federation, which represents 83,000 teachers and EAs, has been lobbying the Ontario government and school boards to ramp up compliance with health and safety legislation and improve reporting on violence in K-12 classrooms. Lillian Klausen, president of the Manitoba Teachers' Society, said her 16,600 members share the same concerns as their Canadian counterparts. MTS did not have any data to release on the subject, but Klausen said it has created an internal committee to address workers' physical and psychological health in response to recent anecdotes about violence. There have been multiple high-profile incidents in Manitoba in recent months. Winnipeg's Sturgeon Heights Collegiate initiated a lockdown in May when a teenage boy attacked a school employee and vandalized the campus. Last month, a 16-year-old student showed up at Neelin High School in Brandon with a sword to carry out a plot to target people of colour and immigrants. The academic year that just ended was Braaksma's last with the Brandon School Division. She is moving to Saskatchewan, saying her now-former employer's handling of the January incident was a motivating factor. Braaksma said her professional judgment and training was called into question and there was no opportunity to debrief with the student or the family. Notably, she had nonviolent crisis intervention training. What made matters worse is that she never heard from anyone on the superintendent's team to acknowledge the incident, she said. No one was available at the division to answer questions this week due to 'summer schedules and limited availability,' said communications co-ordinator Terri Curtis. Julie Braaksma, will soon be completing her PhD thesis examining student on staff violence in Manitoba schools. (Cheryl Hnatiuk / Free Press) Braaksma said her experience and early PhD findings suggest student-on-school-staff violence often goes underreported and does not lead to even a brief leave of absence. She carried out her shift as usual after the altercation in January and only sought medical attention following several days of worsening pain in her chest. This spring, as part of her online PhD program at Adler University, she surveyed nearly 200 local teachers on workplace violence and harassment and its toll on their physical and mental health. She is in the process of analyzing that data. 'I'm not here to lay blame,' Braaksma said. 'I'm here to say, 'It's happening. We have a problem. Let's fix it.'' — with files by Katie May Maggie MacintoshEducation reporter Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie. Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative. Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
CBC
2 days ago
- CBC
Thousands go from jail to being homeless in Ontario every year, report finds
When Dan was released from the Toronto South Detention Centre last December after serving about 60 days, he was given a TTC token and sent on his way. He walked to a bus stop, but he had nowhere to go. "There's no plan," Dan said. "I'm a criminal, right? Nobody wants me." Dan, who was convicted of theft and failure to comply, wandered all night before going to an encampment. CBC Toronto isn't disclosing Dan's last name because he fears it could affect his chances of getting employment. Since then, Dan has alternated between staying with friends and living outside. That means it is difficult to get his life organized, attend appointments and have a cell phone without it being stolen, he says. If he falls asleep while it is charging in a public place, it's gone when he wakes up. "As soon as I caught a charge and was guilty, every sort of good thing going for me dried up," he said. Dan, who was homeless before he went into jail, said supports such as provincial transitional housing similar to federal halfway houses, might have helped. He would have liked "just the stability of having somewhere to go" — a safe place to leave his belongings. Not having a plan means "you are right back in the hole you started in," he said. Our provincial criminal legal system is really contributing to the crisis. Dan is not alone. A new report released Thursday by the John Howard Society of Ontario says, in one year, thousands of people became homeless immediately upon release from Ontario jails. The society is a charity that works to build a safer Ontario. The report, entitled From Incarceration to Encampment, found that provincial jails had 7,455 releases in 2023-2024 of people with no fixed address, meaning they had no housing. The number doesn't necessarily represent individual people because some people are admitted and released several times in one year, the report says. The report calls on the Ontario government to set up a provincial transitional housing system for people released from its correctional facilities. 'Housing is crucial to reintegration,' policy director says Safiyah Husein, the society's director of policy, said the report reveals a "deep link" between incarceration and homelessness in Ontario. She said it shows that people who spend time in jail need a "pathway" to help them reintegrate into society. And it puts a number on an urgent issue that requires a systemic government response, she said. "A lot of people are flagged as having no fixed address or lacking stable housing upon admissions to correctional institutions. And then most of these people will be released straight onto the streets the day that they get out of jail. And with no supports, they might end up in shelters or encampments, but that's no place to rebuild a life," she said. The report says people may be homeless upon release if they didn't have housing when they were admitted to jails, if they lost their housing while incarcerated, or if they were unable to return to their previous housing, sometimes due to release conditions. "Housing is crucial to reintegration. And so with the lack of supports, a lack of housing, that increases the risk of reoffending and winding up right back in jail." Husein said some people in jail might lose their employment, while others might have their income assistance cut off. She added that it is important to remember that a large percentage of people in Ontario jails are awaiting trial and have not been convicted of a crime. "There are long-term impacts to losing housing when an individual is jailed, even for a short period of time," she said. According to the report, the lack of housing for those released from jail has an impact on the larger society too. "Thousands of people are discharged into homelessness from provincial correctional institutions every year, returning to communities across Ontario. Without housing, individuals end up in shelters, encampments or sleeping rough," the report says. "Individuals released into homelessness are more likely to reoffend, compromising public safety and entrenching individuals in a revolving door of jail and the streets." Husein said the report urges the province to take action. "This report really highlights a pretty troubling but hidden fact about our homelessness and housing crisis in that our provincial criminal legal system is really contributing to the crisis," she said. Ontario government pledges to review report The report recommends that the province: Create transitional housing for people released from Ontario jails, similar to federal community-based residential facilities known as halfway houses. Update its policy directives for Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program so that recipients in jail would not be cut off but instead receive benefits for up to three months. Launch a campaign to encourage landlords to stop discriminating against those who have been involved in the criminal justice system. Ontario's Ministry of the Solicitor General said in a statement Wednesday that it will review the report. It says the province is investing $75.5 million to provide access to safe, secure accommodations for people experiencing homeless, along with "wrap-around supports." That's on top of creating 1,239 more housing units, 815 supportive housing units and 971 additional shelter spaces, it said. "This is in addition to the $1.7 billion we are investing to improve access to supportive housing, including through the Homelessness Prevention Program, which helps municipalities deliver programs tailored to local needs," the ministry said in the statement. "Our government's bold action to create 28 new Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment Hubs is also adding 560 highly supportive housing units, in addition to addiction recovery and treatment beds, helping thousands of people each year transition to more stable long-term housing." Keith Hambly, CEO of Fred Victor, a multi-service agency in Toronto, said he is not surprised by the lack of housing for formerly incarcerated people. "What is truly needed in this case, and in many cases of homelessness, is a level of housing and supportive housing that works with people where they're at, that works with their mental health issues that may be presenting, or substance use issues, or even issues of long term trauma. Or else the story repeats itself," Hambly said. Elizabeth McIsaac, president of Maytree, a foundation committed to finding solutions to poverty, said the number of people in a given year being released from jail into homelessness is "terrible." Maytree sponsored the report.
Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Mother hopes inquest sheds light on son's death in Stony Mountain prison
Penny Brass was flooded with emotion when she learned an inquest had been called into the death of her son, Patrick Eaglestick, while he was incarcerated at Stony Mountain Institution. She remembers the 'happy kid' who worked hard to get his high school equivalency credentials and was popular with friends and family. 'My son liked everything, basketball, any kind of sports team, he always wanted to play. If there was a powwow, he wanted to go. If there was somebody that needed help, he'd go and help,' Brass told the Free Press. Supplied Patrick Eaglestick, 25, died by hanging while at Stony Mountain in 2020. An inquest was called into his death this week. She said it pains her to think about the brutality of his death at age 25. He died in hospital, one day after he was found hanging in his cell during a routine check on March 23, 2020. His death was ruled a suicide, and because he died while incarcerated, an inquest must be held as per the Fatality Inquiries Act. 'The hardest thing to lose is your grown child,' she said. At the time of his death, Eaglestick was serving a two-year sentence for assault with a weapon, use of an imitation firearm while committing an offence, and failing to comply with a condition under recognizance. He hanged himself two months after his sentence began. Five years later, Brass still has questions about his death. While he 'got in trouble' on the outside, resulting in his incarceration, Brass said, he was introduced to drugs while in prison during a previous five-year stint for his involvement in a robbery, without intervention from guards. She said he was introduced to gang activity while he was in Stony; Eaglestick would call her from the prison and tell her he was scared of the gang members who harassed him. She said there was no intervention from Stony employees. She hopes the inquest finds that Stony Mountain was negligent in protecting her son. 'They were supposed to keep my son alive, they failed to do that,' she said. 'I wish I had my son here with me.' On Monday, Manitoba chief medical examiner Dr. John Younes called inquests into the deaths of Eaglestick and six other men incarcerated at Stony Mountain and Headingley Correctional Centre in 2020 and 2021. Among them is William Ahmo, whose 2021 death after a standoff with jail guards was deemed a homicide; the correctional officer who led the guards in the standoff was acquitted of criminal charges in September. Another inquest will probe the death of Jesse Thomas, 36, who died from an accidental drug overdose on Nov. 19, 2021. Five of the seven inquests are in relation to hanging deaths that occurred between March and December 2020: Eaglestick, Curt Harper, 36, Melvis Owen, 38, Farron Rowan, 32, and Adrian Young, 39. Christine Latimer, the national executive director of the John Howard Society, said that number of suicides is surprising. 'To me, that's high… I track every announcement that (Correctional Services Canada) makes about a death in custody, and there's nothing like this,' she said. In the past year, one inquest into a suicide by hanging at Stony Mountain has been published. Timothy Koltusky was 34 when he was found hanging by a ligature made from garbage bags tied to an electric fixture in his cell on March 12, 2019. Supplied Patrick Eaglestick's mother says he worked hard to get his high school equivalency credentials and was popular with friends and family. Judges have recommended Stony retrofit electrical fixtures to prevent suicides as early as 2005. Koltusky's inquest report, published in January, describes his suicide as tragic but not preventable; it notes the chief medical examiner's call for an inquest 'lacks jurisdiction to make recommendations to the federal authorities responsible for the operation of penitentiaries in Canada.' Latimer said more needs to be done. 'Generally their answer to suicides is, hide the knives, right? There's nothing that looks at the circumstances which leads people to be suicidal, but they want to stop the means by which people can actually carry out the threat,' Latimer said. 'You also need to look at their mental wellbeing.' University of Winnipeg criminal justice professor Michael Weinrath was also surprised by the number. 'It's a problem when you have that many hangings, in one particular period,' he said. Weekday Mornings A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day. Stony Mountain, which was built in 1876, is the oldest correctional facility in the country. Many cells are smaller than what current standards allow, Weinrath said, but the high cost of rebuilding the prison meant they were grandfathered in. Retrofitting cells to ensure they don't have suspension points for hanging is also costly, he said. He's curious whether the number of inquests on one method of death will inspire change. 'Certainly, I think the management at Stony Mountain would come under some scrutiny, in the end,' he said. Malak AbasReporter Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg's North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak. Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
