PAGC Memorial Walk continues to raise awareness for missing, murdered loved ones

While the focus of the event is to try and bring to light any new information that could lead to a missing person being found, there’s another purpose to this event that is even more important.

All over the walk were families carrying signs for their missing loved ones, and while most of us can separate ourselves from a missing person’s report, the families have to live with that uncertainty every day. Parenteau said that having a community around them provides a lot of healing opportunities.

“It helps them. That’s why we’re going to keep continuing every year to have these. There’s other people doing walks and there’s other people advocating for the families. So a lot of people are doing whatever they can, right? So I’m glad to see that.”

(Image Credit: Nick Nielsen/paNOW Staff)

Parenteau added, “You can just feel the support and you can feel the good energy. That’s what we need for our families because a lot of them are hurting still and I can’t imagine. I’ve lost loved ones in a violent way, but when you lose a family member and you haven’t heard from them and you haven’t seen them for years. I really feel for the people that are missing and they need to find their families.”

When asked if there’s any other initiatives they want to see to help find these missing people, Parenteau said that it’s all about education. So many people in the First Nations community have fallen into addiction because of the ripple effect left by residential schools, and Parenteau believes that more education around residential schools, and their lingering effects, would help make people more empathetic towards their cause.

“People need to be aware that they didn’t just get up and wanted to become a drug addict or alcoholic and be in that situation. It happened because of residential schools and all the history there. People need to know what happened to our people.”

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com

by Nick Nielsen

PAGC Memorial Walk continues to raise awareness for missing, murdered loved ones

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