Sekwun McLeod said she had no choice but to walk and hitchhike from Saskatoon to Stanely Mission. (Facebook/Sekwun McLeod)

By Teena Monteleone

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Absence of STC leaves northern resident with few safe options

Jul 3, 2019 | 5:00 PM

Sekwun McLeod was stuck in Saskatoon. Unable to find a ride back to her home in Stanley Mission about two weeks ago, she decided to make a point – one that she said ended up being both empowering and political.

“I was having a hard time getting rides on those travel posts on Facebook and friends and family were unavailable to give me a lift,” she said. “I missed my kids because I had been away from them for about three weeks while I was helping my sister in Saskatoon and I needed to get back home.”

McLeod decided to walk and hitchhike the more than 450 kilometre trip from Saskatoon to Stanley Mission. With recent news of human trafficking in the province, McLeod said she needed to protect herself.

“So, I made two posters on neon green paper and on one I wrote, ‘I will not be a missing, murdered Indigenous woman’ and on the other poster I had my name and where I was from.”

She also posted a video on Facebook before she left to let family and friends know her plans and that she’d make an updated post when she got to a certain location.

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“I had to do that. There is no STC. It would have been easier to get a bus ticket and jump on a bus even just to get to La Ronge,” McLeod said. “But its hard because a lot of people need to go to appointments in the city and if they are from the north its difficult for them to get there.”

The provincial government closed the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) two years ago after it was deemed an additional $85.5 million would be needed to operate the company for five more years. Since then, the NDP has called on the province to revive STC. In May, NDP Leader Ryan Meili cited a paper from a University of Regina business student that looked at who was affected most by the closure: Elders, disabled, chronically ill and economically disadvantaged.

McLeod said she was lucky. She didn’t have to walk for very long before being picked up on the outskirts of Saskatoon. She hitchhiked to La Ronge, then to Sucker River and finally to Stanley Mission thanks to rides offered to her by a number of people including a teacher and former Chief of a Saskatchewan First Nation.

“It was dangerous what I was doing but I didn’t have any other options. I was lucky to find amazing people to give me rides. A lot of these missing and murdered Indigenous people were trying to get back to their families and they never made it,” she said. “Even though they didn’t get home…maybe with this [trip]… I made it for them.”

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teena.monteleone@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TeenaMonteleone