Couple passes through Sault on cross-country walk for missing, murdered Indigenous people

A married couple from northern British Columbia is walking across the country in order to educate the public on missing and murdered Indigenous Peoples in Canada.  

Cameron and Charity West began their cross-country trek in Alberta this past May, taking turns walking and driving anywhere between 30 and 50 kilometres over the course of each day.  

The crux of the walk is all too familiar to the Wests, having gone through life losing numerous people around them — from people they went to high school with to close family members — without any resolution or closure.     

“Living along the Highway of Tears, you hear about it all the time — and it wasn’t until it happened directly to me and my son that it’s never been more real,” said Charity, speaking with SooToday from the outskirts of Thessalon, Ont. Friday. “It took me a long time to speak about that, and to be okay with being able to be open about that.”

Her son Tyrrehz lost his father, Barry Blaine Thomas Seymour, after he went out to visit friends and family in Prince George, B.C. in 2012. It was Tyrrehz’s ninth birthday when his father suddenly went missing.  

“He went out, and we never heard from him again,” Charity said. 

The 2018 murder of Cameron’s cousin, Jessica Patrick, has yet to be solved. Her body was found outside of Smithers, B.C. on Hudson Bay Mountain after searchers noticed birds circling around an object.  

No arrests have been made in the death of the 18-year-old member of Lake Babine First Nation.   

“This isn’t just family, it's people that we grew up with as well,” Cameron said. “The amount of people who aren’t alive right now is staggering.”

“We’re way too young to have this many losses in our life,” added Charity. “It’s insane that a lot of people that we went to high school with have either gone missing or have been murdered, and that these things continue to happen nationwide.”

The married couple are using those losses to fuel their walk across the country, all in an effort to share with those who have lived through similar experiences and to educate people — especially non-Indigenous Canadians — about missing and murdered Indigenous Peoples. 

They spent some time in the Sault Ste. Marie area earlier this week, meeting with members of the area's Indigenous community.  

They’re inviting members of the public, in addition to journalists and government representatives, to join them for stretches of their walk as the couple continues to travel east to St. John's, Nfld. before driving back to British Columbia to symbolically finish their walk along the Highway of Tears — a 720-kilometre corridor between Prince George and Prince Rupert where a number of Indigenous women have either went missing or have been found murdered. 

“We want to create a comfortable space for non-natives to come and have a conversation with us,” Charity said. “We want to create a comfortable space for an uncomfortable conversation.”

More information can be found on a social media page that has been created for the walk.