Printing the alert this week about James Turgeon's disappearance reminded me of another story in the same vein.
I spent an enlightening, and I have to admit reaffirming, 90 minutes riding around the city with Senator Herb Sparrow early this spring.
The things he had to say were all interesting, and we enjoyed a wide ranging discussion of the newspaper's role and responsibilities in the community.
Among those many topics was Ronald Peequaqua. Peequaqua went missing in June of 2011. He was last seen June 25 setting out to hitch a ride from Red Pheasant First Nation to North Battleford, where he lived. According to Sparrow, Peequaqua, 46, had lived in North Battleford for 20 years.
According to Sparrow's account he didn't live opulently, and spent periods of time homeless, but he did call North Battleford his home.
During the time when the RCMP were issuing media bulletins to draw attention to Peequaqua's disappearance, Sparrow had tried to draw my attention to the mistaken identification of him as a resident of Red Pheasant First Nation. That shot came across my bow, but I admit I didn't really grasp the significance. I think I can probably even be accused of indifference. Did it really matter where the guy was from? The police reports identified him as a resident of Red Pheasant and that was good enough for me.
Of course it mattered. Whatever obstacles the man had in his life, he had family, he had friends, he had people like Sparrow, who wanted to know what had happened to him. It was frustrating, and likely hurtful, to them that Peequaqua was not identified as a citizen of North Battleford.
Peequaqua's body was discovered Dec. 7 in an unoccupied house in North Battleford where he was found by a caretaker checking up on the property.
It was a sad end to a sad story and I am not proud to have had a hand in further marginalizing an already marginal existence.
Sparrow, who has a nose for intrigue and malfeasance in the community, has his theories as to why the police insisted Peequaqua was from Red Pheasant, not North Battleford. I won't go into that. I will say, it was wrong to not give this man the dignity of being linked with his home community, especially when there was still some hope he would be found alive.
