'This is all we have,' Sudbury, Ont. residents outraged by Crosses for Change vandalism

Sue Raymond says it's hard to believe someone would pull crosses out of a makeshift memorial.

"This is all we have," she said. "For a lot of us, this is our way of healing."

Raymond visited the Crosses for Change memorial in Sudbury, Ont. on Tuesday.

Her brother, Aaron Raymond, passed away in early February and became the latest cross at the site. Now, she says his cross was moved further back as volunteers restored the site.

"It's just heartbreaking why people do that. Why are people so threatened by a cross, that they feel they need to vandalise anything?" she added.

On Monday, Sudbury residents went on social media to share their concerns about vandalism at the Crosses for Change site.

Pictures on the Silent No More Facebook group showed a pile of crosses, which were pulled from the grass and tossed with their decorations intact.

According to Raymond, volunteers quickly cleaned the site up and restored the crosses after residents flagged the incident.

"They'll keep coming back and putting them up. There's no getting rid of the issue," she said.

The city-approved site was set up in 2020 by Denise Sandul, a Sudbury mother who lost her son Myles Keaney to a suspected overdose.

Almost 270 crosses at the site

Sandul placed Keaney's cross at the spot where his body was found in downtown Sudbury.

Now the Crosses for Change site has almost 270 crosses. Each cross represents a person who died of an overdose.

"This is heartbreaking for someone to come in and tear them out — if they were mad at a person here — and a revenge to get even with a person," Raymond said.

Raymond, who herself suffered from addiction, has been in recovery for 27 years. She hauled a bag of stickers and paint to her brother's cross and taped his picture to it.

She adorned the cross with skulls and butterflies, which represent his work as a tattoo artist at his business, Aaron's Artistry.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he turned back to substances after facing depression and financial struggles, Raymond said.

"He couldn't continue. He loved doing his craft and he got lost again, and ended up relapsing. So he was a couple of years relapsing. It's been his last two years, he suffered terribly," she said.

'It's not a permanent monument'

Denise Sandul, organizer of Crosses for Change, said it's the first ever act of vandalism at the site.

"I was devastated that someone would do this. Until I looked a little further, and I saw that this person didn't damage anything," Sandul said.

Most of the crosses were intact while older ones were broken from wear, she added.

Sandul said she placed scattered decorations under a tree for visitors to recover. But the spot was also vandalized\. She returned to clean up the site days later.

Despite two incidents in a row, the makeshift location is still ideal for now, she added.

"Some of them are coming like close to the end because they're so weathered. It's not permanent. I am hoping and have been working with the city toward having a permanent monument," she said.

Robert Bazinet, a Sudbury resident with late friends who have crosses, said he was disappointed Sudbury's growing acts of vandalism have reached the site.

"I feel violated myself. They're going to take out things on the crosses. I mean, what's next?" he said.

"Nothing seems to be safe in this town."

Raymond, who now lives in Oshawa, Ont., told CBC News she took years to feel safe before coming back to Sudbury after a 15-year recovery from her own addiction.

"I just knew in my heart that if I came home, I'd be curious to see who's still around and who's not," she said.