Tonight, the Mitchell Fire Station’s clock tower face will be lit up blue in honour of an OPP officer that served locally for many years.
The clock tower face is lit in the memory of Det. Const. Steven Tourangeau of the Huron-Perth OPP.
Tourangeau had served many years in the community, as West Perth Fire Chief Bill Hunter remembered. As he said, lighting the tower in Tourangeau’s memory is the least they can do.
“Steve was a local Perth county officer, so it kind of hits home with a lot of our members,” Hunter said. “But there really isn't a lot that we can do as far as grieving. So it gives us a small token of our appreciation for the service that the fallen police officers have given to the community.”
Hunter said that they have been lighting the tower since the building’s construction in 2021. They light the tower for many different reasons, including when a first responder like Tourangeau dies in the line of duty.
On Monday a two-vehicle collision at the intersection of Highway 59 and Oxford County Road 33 claimed the lives of Tourangeau and bus driver David James Stewart.
Since then the clock tower has been lighting up each night and will until Tourangeau’s funeral service.
Scott Mills, a representative of the Ontario Provincial Police Association, said that any officer’s death is difficult, though having one so close to home is worse for any area first responders.
“It's especially difficult for the police officers who responded to the scene, the paramedics who responded to the scene, the fire personnel who responded,” Mills said. “Any scene like that is difficult to process for first responders. It's worse when one of the victims is one of your own, whether that be a family member or in this case, a police officer.”
A tight-knit community, Mills called all first responders a ‘family’ of sorts.
In light of this tragedy, he recommended a number of services for police and other members of the first responder family.
The Encompas Mental Health Wellness Program is available to OPPA members. It provides confidential help like support service navigation, advocacy, tailored plans of care, and access to mental health services.
Mills also recommended peer support groups, like Boots on the Ground.
“The key message is,” Mills said. “If you're not feeling yourself after one of these traumatic incidents, as a first responder please talk to somebody. That can be a close confidant, a friend, a family member, your spouse, a peer. If you need professional support, they are there.”
Hunter concurred. Like Mills he assured that there are a myriad of services available to fire fighters. In West Perth there is a peer support team. In each station of the municipality there are professionally trained counsellors.
They also promote internally a family assistance program, for employees to speak with a mental health expert over the phone, to speak about incident stress or post traumatic stress.
“It affects us all,” Hunter said. “I knew Steve just professionally and his co-workers and his family … we certainly are keeping them in our thoughts and that goes back to turning the clock face blue.
“It's a small token of appreciation from our side. Hopefully his family and friends can get a little bit of solace from (it).”
— Thomas Carrique (@OPPCommissioner) May 30, 2023
At the most recent National Day of Mourning, marked annually on April 28, Stratford Police Services Chief Greg Skinner remembered the nine police officers who have died on the line of duty in Canada.
Since then, that number has grown to 11 with Tourangeau. Five of those officers were in Ontario.
Skinner told StratfordToday that it is an important time to understand policing and the dangers associated with it.
“As a Chief of Police, I can tell you that the safety of the community may be my primary concern but it is the safety of our police officers that causes me to lose sleep,” Skinner indicated. “There are few professions that subject employees to the risks that police officers face with each tour of duty having the potential of presenting a unique set of circumstances that jeopardizes your safety.”
Like Hunter and Mills, Skinner highlighted just how vital mental health supports for first responders are.
A GoFund Me page has been set up for both Stewart and Tourangeau in light of their deaths. Stewart’s can be found here and Tourangeau’s can be found here.
