Families gather to remember missing loved ones in Regina

Alongside pins of red dresses and a pin of hope on Carson Poitras’ hat is a pin showing Happy Charles, who’s been missing for just over seven years.

Carson and Regina Poitras travelled from La Ronge to Regina Tuesday to take part in the Walk to Honour the Missing in Wascana Park, in honour of their daughter.

“She was happy,” Carson said with a laugh.

“Goofy,” Regina chimed in.

“Liked to help others,” Carson continued. “Always cared for her fellow human beings.”

Happy was last seen in Prince Albert on April 3, 2017.

“We’ve had a tough investigation where we can find nothing, not even her clothes – because she did take some clothes with her, bags of clothes. She was going to go do some banking and then go into detox in Prince Albert. To date, we have found absolutely nothing,” said Carson.

Ever since then, Carson, Regina and their family have been searching. He said they still get tips every now and then, but haven’t had anything substantial. They do what they can, but Carson said it can get expensive paying for things like gas, hotels and meals as they try to follow up on the tips.

“Our daughter went missing in the city, and we’re from La Ronge, so it’s a two-and-a-half hour trek for us to go to (Prince Albert) and go searching for her in that area,” said Carson.

A number of organizations have been getting money to work on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, but Carson said that money hasn’t been going to the families of missing woman, and they could really use it.

“If we had that kind of help instead of promises of dollars that are being out there for the families, which really isn’t, that would help,” he said.

Charles’ family made the trek to Regina for the walk in order to get together with other families going through the same thing.

“We’ve been here before when they’ve had over 20 families, and that helped us a lot, when we had that big group of families,” explained Carson. “When we’ve got a missing person like this, it’s almost like we’re alone. And then to hear other families going through the same thing as we are, then we sort of belong to another family.”

He said it helps to deal with the daily stresses of their situation.

“Almost every day we get something that triggers that our daughter is missing, or we get a tip, or we get going as to ‘what if?’ All these different questions.”

Carson said they just want to find out where Happy is; they don’t want anyone convicted.

“The way the justice system is, what’s the use? Because (if) we find out who did something to our daughter, we don’t want to go to court and have to have those wounds and be re-traumatized each and every time we go to court. All we want to do is bring our daughter home,” he said.

FSIN Vice-Chief Aly Bear took part in the walk. She said these kinds of events are truly important for healing.

“Every single day the majority of them are waking up by themselves, and they’re thinking about their loved one who’s still missing. But when we gather, we show them that they’re not walking alone too, that we support them, that we stand with them, that we will fight with them,” said Bear.

Hopefully, she said, the families can find some justice and closure.

In Saskatchewan there are more than 140 long-term missing persons – those missing for longer than six months – and even more who’ve been missing for less time. There are 160 files of various ages sitting with Sask. RCMP alone.