Front Burner - A volunteer’s tragic end, his killer’s remorse

Episode Date: December 23, 2021

For those using drugs in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Thomus Donaghy was a lifeline, committed to saving those on the brink of overdose. On the night of July 27, 2020, Donaghy, a volunteer at the Overdose Prevention Society, had just saved another life. Moments later, he lost his own. Today, the stories of two men whose lives were shaped by a city in the grips of an overdose epidemic, the tragic circumstances that brought them together that night, and why Maximus Roland Hayes, the man who killed Donaghy, wants to make sure his life wasn't lost for nothing. Our guests are CBC Vancouver reporter Jason Proctor, and Sara Blyth, the executive director of Vancouver’s Overdose Prevention Society.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Angela Starrett. Hello, I'm Angela Starrett. For those using drugs in Vancouver's downtown Eastside, Thomas Donaghy was a lifeline, committed to saving those on the brink of overdose. On July 27th, 2020, Donaghy had just saved another life.

And then, moments later, he lost his own. Today on FrontBurner, we're talking to Sarah Blythe. She's the executive director of the Overdose Prevention Society and my colleague, Vancouver reporter Jason Proctor, who's been covering this story for CBC. We'll be talking about the lives of two men shaped by a city in the grips of an overdose epidemic, the tragic circumstances that brought them together that night, and why Thomas Donaghy's killer now wants to make sure his life wasn't lost for nothing. Hello to you both. Hello. Hello. Hello, Angela.

Jason, I want to start with you. Can you tell me about what happened that night outside of St. Paul's Hospital? So this dates back to July 27th, 2020, at around 8.20pm at St. Paul's Hospital, which is in the West End of Vancouver. At the overdose prevention site where Thomas Donaghy was working, Max Hayes, who was a client of the site, showed up. And what we know comes from witnesses who say that some form of argument broke out between the two men, allegedly over money and drugs, and that they got into a physical confrontation. At some point, Max Hayes thrust a Gatorade bottle towards Thomas Donaghy's chest. The fight moved into the street adjacent to the hospital. And then, according to witnesses,

Thomas Donaghy actually had the upper hand in the fight. He was landing a number of punches on Max Hayes, who was fairly ineffectual. Hayes turned to run away. Thomas Donaghy grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head as he was running away. And in reaction to that, Max Hayes pulled a knife out and stabbed Thomas Donaghy in the left chest. He was obviously right outside a hospital. And, you know, within a short time, he had died of his injuries. Wow. And Jason, I want to get to sort of the fallout of all of this and what's happening in the court and some of the things that Max Hayes is saying now.

But first, Sarah, I want to ask you about Thomas Donaghy. It seems like there was this huge outpouring of grief after he died. Can you tell me a bit about who he was and why he was so adored? Yeah. I just want to start by saying hearing some of those details is just so crushing. It's just really hard to listen to that. But, you know, I want to make sure that we honour, you know, his memory because he was such an amazing person and he liked to make other people laugh. You know, his memory because he was such an amazing person and he, he liked to make other people laugh, you know, no, not a lot of people know, but he was deaf and, you know, he really couldn't hear much, but he read lips the best that he could.

And, uh, you know, he was just, um, you know, he loved everything that everyone else did. He loved hockey, uh, video games, you know, he loved animals. He always cared for the underdog. Um, he took in two cats, one that was blind. Um, you know, he loved animals. He always cared for the underdog. He took in two cats, one that was blind. You know, he just had a real empathy for people who struggled, especially in the downhoney side. And he always went above and beyond to help people. He trained hundreds of people. He saved probably a thousand lives. hundreds of people. He saved probably a thousand lives. He went up and down the alley all by himself at night in the freezing cold. And, you know, we'd ask him, you know, you don't really necessarily have to do that, Thomas. That's really a difficult thing. And he just was like, I can't leave people alone to die. So he was really, he was one of a kind and we really miss him dearly. So he was really, he was one of a kind and we really miss him dearly. And, you know, just to hear that was so shocking that people couldn't even process it for a really long time.

And he was loved by his family and he had made a huge community in the downtown inside. People really cared about him. So it was just, it's still shocking to this day. I'm just curious, how did you first come to meet him? Well, we started the Overdose Prevention Society in 2016 because the alley that I was managing, a street market in the alley, was one of the two alleys in probably in Canada with the most drug users in that alley. So there was just so many overdoses happening. And we were dealing with it every day. People would run to the market and say, hey, we need some help. It was an outdoor market. So we just set up a tent table and some chairs. He was one of the first people to come and volunteer. His time, he just wanted to help

people. He saw what we were doing. He saw what was happening. And this was before even the government or the media or anyone had recognized what an issue it was. You know, people like him are the reason why we were able to save lives at the rate that we are. Yeah, and definitely everything you're saying is so front and center for all of us here in Vancouver. I'm just wondering for Thomas, what was a normal shift like for him at the overdose prevention site you guys worked at? Can you walk me through what that would have looked like for someone that doesn't necessarily know what he would be doing per se? Yeah, he would come in. He was always early and, you know, have his coffee and, you know, get ready, get all the equipment ready, fill up all the Narcan, make sure that everybody's ready

to go for the day. And we'd let people in and, you know, he would just monitor people to make sure that if they're using drugs, that they would use it safely. And if they had an overdose, he would be one of the first responders with oxygen and Narcan and then calling the ambulance. And he really set the pace for how we treat people and also really, really cared for people and, and would really listen to folks once they came back from an overdose and, and set a situation where people felt comfortable recovering. And, you know, 99% of people don't go to the hospital because of people like Thomas. They, they just help them recover at the overdose prevention site. venture site. Yeah. And like I said, there was just such an outpouring of grief, especially online. You know, when my producer was researching this story, she came across something that Thomas shared on his Facebook. In April that year, he wrote, quote, I try so hard to help other people because I don't have any idea on how to help myself. And I thought that was very telling about this, you know, incredibly selfless person who also at one point, as I understand it, suffered from addiction

himself. How do you think his own experience informed the way he approached his work at the overdose prevention site? Well, I think that, you know, really the only people who understand, you can take doctors, psychiatrists, but really the only people who understand, really understand how another person feels when they're using drugs is another person who uses drugs. It makes people feel good.

You know, I know when a person comes back from an overdose and it's been a really severe one, it's really, it's really actually quite traumatizing. People are on, you know, life and death. You don't know if you're going to save them. Sometimes if you find persons in an alley, you got to be pretty brave to be in an alley by yourself, finding people who are blue and then bringing them back to life that way. I mean, it's really, it's a tough, tough thing. And to do it in the cold alleys, it's something that not many people in the world would do.

I mean, I think that's the key thing about Thomas is that he was very, very unique in the fact that he would go above and beyond. You know, he'd be the person you'd want on your team, you know, in a, you know, a catastrophe because he would step to the occasion. Again, such a, like an incredibly selfless and brave person that obviously so many people really honored and respected. And I want to turn to you now, Jason, to talk about Max Hayes. He was sentenced to 18

months in jail for manslaughter for stabbing Thomas Donaghy to death. That was on top of time he already spent in pretrial custody, which sounds to me like a relatively light sentence for manslaughter. Why did the judge make that decision? Well, exactly. I think the judge addresses the fact that manslaughter is one of these crimes that can draw anything from a suspended sentence to years in jail. And what she's doing here is balancing a number of different factors. Max Hayes was taken into custody and has been there ever since this happened. He asked his lawyer not to ask for bail because he was afraid that he would start using again. He's expressed a great deal of remorse, which is a mitigating factor. And there's also a lot with regards to his background that the judge considered. He's 24 years old. So I guess, you know, the thing that

the judge has to balance here is the need to punish him, the need to send a message to society, and ultimately kind of the equation that's at the bottom of everything with regards to our judicial system, which is the possibility that a person can redeem themselves from something like this. And I want to get to that piece of it in a second. But I mean, part of what the judge took into consideration as well was this letter that his adoptive mother wrote and shared. I understand you spoke to her about it. Can you tell me about that? I wanted the judge to know know that the lives of both men were affected by a system that doesn't do enough for where there's not enough support vendors or servicers of the right kinds for persons that have their challenges yeah i did her name's me khan hayes. She adopted Max when he was 21 months old. She was 30. She wrote about that experience. He was born to a teenage mother. She tried to care for him, but she couldn't. He was placed in foster care. His hair was discolored because he'd been so poorly fed at that point. And she speaks about this sort of coat of armor that sort of begins going around him,

that he was actually, you know, a loving child. Some things happened to him in his teenage years that really had a massive impact on him. Like so many people, he ended up on the streets of downtown Victoria using heroin. And from there, sort of everything went on. But she spoke about her fears, about his desire to get help. He's been in and out of places that were intended to try to help him. He begged her at one point to buy a pair of handcuffs which she did and handcuffed him to her um but ultimately he ended back in the downtown east side and she said you know this is for every parent every loved one of of anybody there the call that she got after this happened was the one

she had dreaded because either she thought that his situation would end up in his death or the death of somebody else. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization. Empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. Hi, it's Ramit Sethi here. You may have seen my money show on Netflix.

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Now, in the judge's decision, she pointed to a moment in Hayes' altercation with Donaghy, the moment that Donaghy lifted a shirt over Hayes' head. This is what the judge says triggered something for Hayes. Can you tell me why that was factored in here? Yeah, exactly. This is, I guess, what Max's mother spoke about in the court as well. Max had, as a teenager, shown a lot of promise as an athlete, and he was put in an out-of-catchment football program. And there, from what the judge says, he was subjected to a hazing, which ultimately was a sexual assault.

which ultimately was a sexual assault. And the judge says that that occurred in a situation that saw a sweater lifted above Max's head. So basically, he couldn't see the people that were doing this to him. Ever after this happened, his mother said that's when he changed. Something had happened to him. He didn't feel comfortable talking about it. And instead he retreated into himself. And so what the judge essentially says is that this was a triggering factor for Max, unfortunately. And so he lashed out at that point in response to this thing that had echoed throughout his life.

You know, we know about in Canada these, and I don't know if you can speak to, I'm not asking you to speak about these reports, but maybe if this was taken into consideration. In Canada, we have these GLADU reports that give the court a complete picture of a person and their life, including information about their background, if they're Indigenous in particular, and how, I guess, trauma might have played into a crime, for example. Do you know if the court took his indigeneity and his trauma, intergenerational trauma, into consideration? That's exactly right, Angela, they did. His father was believed to be of Jamaican and Indigenous ancestry. And so he had a GLADU report done, which is a pre-sentence report a judge can ask for. And in that, he spoke about the desire he has to know who he is and where he comes from. And Sarah, I just wanted to pause to ask you about this.

I'm wondering if there's parallels that you see in Max's story with others that you meet every day at the overdose prevention site. How familiar did Max's story sound to you when you heard it? Well, I mean, obviously, everybody's life is different. Having trauma or learning disabilities or, you know, terminal illness and things like that really can all play into someone using drugs. And it can be, you know, the complicated life. People are looking for family. You know, they get involved with people. Maybe they shouldn't. Things like that happen eventually I think for someone like Max getting out of jail he's going to need support so what

is that support going to look like so that he can make better life decisions for himself because if he doesn't have that support there's going to be problems I think you know I just you know he didn't get the support obviously growing up that he needed. And some of the things that happened to him were he really needed a lot of help around that. And, you know, I just think that in order for him to succeed, you're going to we're going to have to help him so that he's successful in the way that he sounds like he wants to be. in the way that he sounds like he wants to be. And Jason, what do we know right now about how Max Hayes feels about the sentence and about what he did to Thomas Donaghy? Well, this is part of it.

He read a statement in court. His mother said that he wrote it himself. Also, we know from the Gladue report that he has said he wants to pledge himself that he's caused and i mean his mother says you know um this this will and should be a burden on him it weighs on him heavily as i um spoke about in my statement to the courts and as he spoke to, you know, there is that guilt of that now he's clean and he's got another opportunity, but it was at the loss of Thomas's life. And Jason, I know that you became aware of those who are skeptical about Max's remorse. Can you tell me about that?

Yeah. I mean, you know, you just have to look at the comments on the story that I wrote. There are those who take Max at his word. There are those who think that this is something somebody says to, you know, get a break. You know, it's interesting, his mother said to me, even as she was writing her letter to the judge she wanted to be very conscious of the fact that a life was lost here it was hard to balance who max is and what he'd been through without making it sound like an excuse for his um actions that night But it was important to write so that people have like more understanding, you know, that behind every addict, there's a person and the story.

What she wanted to do was say, here is my son, and here's what happened. There's one particular comment that appears to come from somebody who is related to Thomas Donaghy, who says, to come from somebody who is related to Thomas Donaghy, who says, well, what are we supposed to do with this? He is not there anymore, you know, and what they got was the pain and grief of losing him. He would have been 43. He died way too young for no reason, is what they say, you know, not for Max Hayes' sobriety. And, you know, like I say, a lot of people express skepticism that he will succeed in this desire to stay sober. I understand that in March this year, community members in the downtown Eastside opened another overdose prevention site and they named it after Thomas Donaghy. I wanted to ask you both what you think Thomas Donaghy's legacy was.

And I'll start with you, Sarah. Yeah, his legacy was just being a person who would be there for people no matter what and you know he was a standard of how to treat people and how to that drug users are the best people to help each other really in the downtown east side. I've really realized that over time they understand each other they know what they've gone through, you know, they have the life experience and, and the understanding of what trauma and what people are going through and, and how to help them because they've been there and they know, they know, they know the best. And so, you know, he's, he was really showed that drug users show up for work. Drug users help each other. Drug users can work as hard as anyone else. And they're not just a statistic. And Jason, I know you've talked to a number of people about Thomas Donaghy. I'm wondering what they say his legacy would be.

Well, you know, I think what you can take from this is the judge, in fact, says the city of Vancouver is a poorer place for his loss. This was an amazing man who saved lives doing something that was effectively a business of giving people second chance. And I think that's kind of a current that runs throughout this story. You know, when you look at Max Hayes, it's the sort of question you have to ask with regards to all of this. Like, can you redeem yourself? Can you have a second chance in life? Can you move past the worst thing you have ever done and make the world a better place. And I think it's people like Thomas Donaghy who give you hope because of their selfless willingness

to put themselves out there and help other people. Jason, Sarah, thank you so much for your time today and talking about this really important story with us today. Thank you. Thank you, Angela. That's all for today. I'm Angela Starrett, in for Jamie Poisson. Thanks for listening to FrontBurner. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.