A pedestrian killed Sunday near the underpass on Wellington Street West was a father who once had a promising music career, says the mother of two of his children.
Joanne Perrault answered the door in the early morning hours yesterday to a Sault Ste. Marie Police Services officer asking to come inside.
The officer told her the father of her two boys — Ancil Dedier, age 37 — had been killed as a pedestrian in motor vehicle collision.
“I thought he got into an accident, that ran through my head. I didn’t think he was dead,” said Perrault.
The police report says the collision occurred at 1:51 a.m., just minutes after the last time Perrault says she spoke to him by phone.
“He’s like, ‘Joanne I love you, I’ll see you tomorrow,’” recalled Perrault.
“But tomorrow didn’t come for him.”
Perreault said she was the one to break the news to her children, and to their older half brother.
"I don’t know where I got the strength from. How do you tell that to someone?” said Perrault.
The last time her boys — Jahiem, age 6, and Kymani, age 3 — spoke to their father was by phone Saturday night.
“He said goodnight to the kids after trick-or-treating. We were supposed to go see him but the kids were so wet and cold,” Perrault.
Although Perrault and Dedier have not lived together for the last two years, she said they remained close.
Perrault is first to admit the relationship was far from perfect.
“We had a lot of ups and downs but we were still together for the kids. We looked after each other,” she said.
She added, “He knows I never stopped loving him, through all we have been through I never stopped loving him.”
“It didn’t matter if we were together or apart — we had each other’s back,” she said.
The couple came together in a long-distance relationship about ten years ago after meeting online.
“He came up, he was supposed to stay for three days. Three days turned into two months and I sent him back to Toronto and I got phone calls every night,” said Perrault.
She said Dedier — who was born in Trinidad and took an active part of the underground hip hop scene in Toronto — fell in love with her First Nation culture, especially the traditions.
“He cherished my culture because my culture is about togetherness and about family always sticking together,” said Perrault.
Dedier would attend local pow-wows with her boys, and encouraged them to dance to the drums.
“It’s a lot like his Trinidadian culture, he loved it,” said Perrault.
She said Dedier, who went by Des or his stage name Destro Diggy Des, was adept at freestyling — a freeform style of rap where lyrics are made up on the spot.
“Boy could he freestyle,” recalled Perrault.
Dedier was a member of Monolith, a Scarborough-based crew of MCs, some of whom went on to bright music and acting careers.
Fellow crew member Daniel Faraldo — who goes by stage name Dan-e-o — said Dedier was a key member of the group, especially in their live shows.
"To be a good freestyler you need to have a good vocabulary. A lot of freestylers get caught up saying the same thing over again because they can't think on the spot. Destro's vocabulary was pretty impeccable, it's insane some of the things he would come up with on the spot. It would really wow you," said Faraldo.
Although Monolith no longer perform together as group, Faraldo said they are still like a family — some members act as best man at another's weddings or godfathers for children born to other members.
“There’s no greater love than the love you have for your kids and [Dedier] was the perfect guy to show it. It kills us and breaks our hearts especially because of the kids,” said Faraldo
He said members of the crew got together in Toronto yesterday for an impromptu tribute to their fallen crew memeber.
“Everybody that ever met that man — and there’s a lot of people have met that man — he touched them. Even if he couldn’t see it in himself, he made other people see it,” said Perrault.
She said not everyone saw Dedier the way she did.
“His heart and his inner love are what I saw from day one and nobody could see it. He was complex,” said Perrault.
In a news release sent Sunday, city police said initial invesigation revealed a pedestrian was struck in the westbound lane by a Dodge Caravan travelling westbound.
EMS had arrived at the scene and transported the victim to Sault Area Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Westbound lanes were closed for approximately six hours and the investigation is being done under direction of the Ontario Coroner.
A friend gifted Perrault with an eagle feather to use in smudging rituals during her grieving.
Her youngest son fanned the smoking sage with the feather during the interview for this article.
“My culture gives me great strength, my beliefs. It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be hard but it’s going to be okay,” she said.
Previous SooToday coverage of this story:
Accident on Wellington West. Pedestrian seriously injured (update)
(TOP PHOTO:Joanne Perrault and son Kymani look at photos of Ancil Dedier, who died early Sunday in a motor-vehicle collision. Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday BOTTOM: Ancil Dedier, better known as 'Des' Photo Submitted)