Advertisement 1

Toronto cops who commit suicide now eligible for memorial wall

Article content

TORONTO

Some things in life come too late. In death, too.

However, some things are better late than never.

“Today, the Toronto Police Service has announced that a settlement has been reached with the Ontario Human Rights Commission relating to the Memorial Wall honouring fallen officers,” said a release from police spokesman Meaghan Gray.

It said the TPS and the Ontario Human Rights Commission have an “agreement by which any member, including those who have lost their lives because of mental-health injuries, may be eligible for recognition on the Memorial Wall, if they meet specific criteria.”

Huge.

Just like that, a wrong that went on for so long had been instantly righted.

“By October 2017, the service will finalize a procedure that will provide a process and the specific criteria under which applications will be considered. The process will allow the name of a member who has died because of mental-health injuries, including names of those who have already passed away, to be put forward for consideration,” said the release.

It means the TPS can “respectfully recognize those who have died, regardless of cause of death, by appropriately commemorating those who, through their actions, demonstrated the noble qualities of policing and inspired those who continue to serve.”

The first name that jumped to mind was Sgt. Eddie Adamson.

It was in 2005 when the 57-year-old son of a former chief ended it all after being haunted by that March 24, 1980 day on Queen St. W. when Const. Michael Sweet lay bleeding to death at the hands of the murderous Munro brothers. Adamson could do nothing to help because of orders which prohibited him from taking action,

A beautiful wife and three young daughters lost their dad that day. Adamson was never the same, either.

They now call it post-traumatic stress disorder, but in those days the police and society in general didn’t have a handle on it.

Adamson was found in a motel room, his notebook and newspaper clippings from that disturbing day strewn about.

As legendary Toronto Sun columnist Mark Bonokoski wrote in a 2009 column: “While it was definitely a gun that ended Eddie Adamson’s nightmares, what loaded that bullet into its chamber was the cumulative impact of what happened on March 14, 1980 — the day Toronto Const. Michael Sweet, a father of three young girls, was shot, held hostage, and allowed to bleed to death by the notorious Munro brothers during a botched robbery ... He wanted to storm the restaurant, knowing that Sweet had been shot and was in critical condition.

“But he was ordered to stand down. And obeying that order — after arduously arguing against it — haunted him to his grave.”

Mark never let this cause go — often working with Eddie’s daughter, Julie, a sergeant with York Regional Police.

“It was a long and arduous journey for the Adamson family, but now the right thing has been done,” an elated Bonokoski told me Thursday. “Eddie Adamson took his own life because the demons would not leave him alone.

“Being ordered to stand down, and not go into that bistro to save the life of fellow officer Michael Sweet, haunted him to his dying day,” added Bonokoski. “Eddie was a cop’s cop. He heard Michael Sweet plead for his life, and could do nothing. Imagine carrying that with you.”

There’s nothing that can be done to bring Eddie Adamson back to life. But now his memory can be kept alive.

Article content
Advertisement 2
Advertisement
Article content
Article content
Latest National Stories
    This Week in Flyers