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by Murray Moore Whether the recommendations of a coroner's jury made Wednesday to help prevent a future death in the Midland police department cell block will be implemented is a decision to be made by the town council, Chief of Police Ernie Bates said, at the conclusion of the day-long inquest into the suicide last June 15 of Harvey Goudreault, 49, of Midland. The three woman, two man jury recommended that the cell closest to the entrance to the six-cell cellblock, and to the one-way window that gives a view into the cell block, be reserved for persons who police believe to be in a "volatile'"' state of mind. The other recommendation is that the police officer in charge check the cellblock's occupants at the end of his 12 hour shift. Goudreault was being held in one of the two cells farthest from the one-way window in the cellblock on June 15 when, sometime between 5:45 a.m., and 7:44 a.m., he tied one sleeve of his shirt to the top of his cell's door and the other sleeve into a noose around his PRE EIS rm -- SR TRE, Dance fever Midland Homecoming '82 Middy Bear and Pat Sherk a member of the Huronia Branch of the Red Cross put on their dancing shoes during Wed- Those folks who came forward Wednesday to give "the gift of life" are invited to take a well deserved: bow. Of the 448 men and women who showed up at Midland Civic Centre to take part in this week's Red Cross Blood Donors Clinic, 418 managed to get the green light to give blood. The event was again We did It! 4178 units of blood collected at clinic hosted by members of the Huronia Branch of the Red Cross. These volunteers, set this week's target at 350 pints of blood which was easily topped as hun- dreds from North Simcoe rolled up their sleeves for a good cause. Even Middy Bear was on hand to drum up support for next mon- th's Homecoming '82! nesday's blood donors' clinic in Midland. The clinic produce a total of 418 units of blood. ' the smashing success it Next clinic in Midland is Slated for Wednesday, Dec. 15 at the Budd Watson Gallery. It is expected the goal will be 350 pints of blood. You'll find a list of donors elsewhere in today's paper. (By the way not only hats off to local donors but to all the volunteers who made this week's clinic was...well done people! A sign of the times? It appears "Shop Downtown Midland" Signs on the backs of Midland Transit buses have ruffled a few feathers. ' During the course of Monday night's council meeting, Deputy-reeve Bev Day suggested the signs read "Shop Midland." It was Alderman Ian Ross' contention that the original signs were paid for by the BIA and that there might be problems with changing the wording at this time. Nevertheless most councillors seemed to agree "Shop Midland' might be a more ap- propriate message so as to help drum up business in not only downtown Midland but elsewhere where commercial and retails establishments are set up in town. Day's proposal was originated after he had received a number of complaints. neck. The man who Crown counsel Fred Horton described in his summation to the jury as "something of a nuisance, or a pain, to the members of the municipal police force" was in the hands of the town police nine times between May 26 and the day of his death. Police either put him in a cell overnight because he was drunk and homeless, or they transported him to the emergency department of Huronia District Hospital when he called police, complaining of illness and asking for transportation. The jury was told by the Crown counsel that the prevention of suicide, even by trained policemen, is difficult if the person is determined, and that 30 seconds of lack of air is sufficient to induce un- consciousness, with brain death resulting after five minutes. Sixteen witnesses testified, and not one held the opinion that Goudreault was in a suicidal mood in the few days that preceded his death. Horton told the jury that the evidence given showed that Goudreault was "well treated under the circumstances"' and that the police depart- ment members' actions spoke well for the department. Their handling of Goudreault could be a model for other departments, he added. The coroner, Dr. Peter Cameron, described the police handling of Goudreault as exemplary, kind and fair. The evidence showed that he was emotional when drunk, which was often, and that for 10 or 12 years Goudreault had been making threats of harming himself, "a classical case of crying wolf," the coroner said. Goudreault had a criminal record that started in 1949 and ended in 1967, two years after his vision was reduced to one per cent after he drank methanol while in Kingston Penitentiary. Chief Bates said that the cell which the jury has recommended be set aside for "volatile" prisoners is being used as a storage space for equipment including the department's riot equipment, and that another secure area would have to be found. In addition the cell is not equipped with a toilet or a bed. During a tour of the cellblock, the jury heard from Horton that mirrors could be mounted on the ceiling of the cellblock corridor, to allow a better view of the cells' interiors, or that television cameras could be installed in the ceiling. Mirrors, however, can be smashed, he said. Television cameras constantly panning cells in the Barrie Jail and monitored from another area of the jail did not prevent a suicide there, he said. Suicides have occurred at the Mental Health Centre even though cells are checked at 15 minute intervals, the coroner told the jury. Goudreault was picked up intoxicated by police at the parkette at the north end of King Street at 12:10 a.m. on June 15. He was taken to the police station until arrangements could be made to return him to the rest home in Coldwater where he had become a resident a few days earlier. The police decided he would have to stay overnight in a cell because neither the rest home nor the Midland OPP could take him to Coldwater at that time. Goudreault had 186 mg. of alcohol in his blood at his death, more than twice the 80 mg. level which police use to determine whether a motorist is driving while drunk. Staff Sergeant Don Johnston, the senior officer on the shift during which Goudreault was brought in, and whose 12 hour shift ended at 7 a.m. on June 15, checked the cellblock's two occupants, Goudreault and a transient from Toronto, Lloyd Johnston, at 1 a.m., 4 a.m., and 5:45 a.m. The civilian radio operator told the men to quiet down around 3a.m. Goudreault and Johnston, who was in the cell opposite Goudreault, talked and shouted at each other for most of the time between Goudreault's arrival in his cell and 3:30 a.m., the radio operator said. About two hours before Goudreault was picked up by Constable Michael Brady at the parkette, Goudreault bought two 12 ounce bottles of Walker's whiskey from a bootlegger on Queen Street, Sheila Thayer, who testified under a section of the Canada Evidence Act. Thayer has been convicted of selling liquor. Goudreault had one empty bottle and one full bottle and 25 cents, when he was picked up. He paid for the whiskey with a cheque for $24. SHARING THEIR HEALTH "friday, September 17,1982, Page 3