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Drugs plagued musician Ron Hynes to the end, nephew says

Joel Thomas Hynes, left, with his uncle, Ron Hynes.

The nephew of Newfoundland musician Ron Hynes says that addiction issues plagued his famous uncle until his death from cancer last week.

“Ron was a fiercely ambitious, prolific artist, a wondrous man with a brilliant gift, no contest,” wrote Joel Thomas Hynes, a writer and actor, in a public Facebook post. “But while his passing is still fresh in everyone’s hearts and minds, I’m feeling a sense of duty to offer up a hard truth that’s being downplayed or overlooked in all this — the reality of what his battle has been these past years.”

Hynes says that his uncle, a folk musician who was the first Newfoundlander to release a full album of original music, battled addictions until his passing from cancer in St. John’s at the age of 64 on Thursday.

“Despite what you may have heard, or thought, or hoped, he remained a hardcore addict right to his final days,” Hynes wrote. “And it killed him. That’s what killed him.”

In writing about his uncle’s ongoing battle with his demons — which the Facebook post says led him to sell his guitars and end up “materially destitute”— Hynes calls for political action and a public outcry against what he says is a provincial battle against mental illness and addiction.

“Ten years ago Newfoundland was suddenly a ‘have’ province. Oil money, people coming home in droves to work,” Hynes wrote. “And with all that money came more drugs than our little island could possibly cope with.”

Mental health and addiction treatment has been a focus in the lead up to the province’s upcoming election on Nov. 30. An all-party committee reviewing treatment options in Newfoundland and Labrador is set to give recommendations next year.

And earlier Tuesday the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary held a news conference about an increase in armed robberies in the province. Drugs are usually a factor in those robberies, Const. Steve Curnew said at the news conference.

Ron Hynes’ passing led to an outpouring of public tributes for a musician whose songs, including “Sonny’s Dream” and “St. John’s Waltz,” are part of the cultural fabric of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The musician’s funeral, held at the Basilica of St. John the Baptist in St. John’s on Monday, brought out some of the province’s most famous artists. Rick Mercer performed a reading, and mourners waltzed in the aisles as former Great Big Sea frontman led the church in singing “St. John’s Waltz.”