The monument on the Highway of Tears remembering all those we lost

By Tommy Osborne

MMIP

“A great first step:” locals react to new cell towers on Highway of Tears

Dec 19, 2023 | 4:24 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Rogers recently turned on three new cellular towers along Highway 16, also known as the Highway of Tears, providing cell service for Rogers customers and 9-1-1 access for everyone. Covering a combined 50 kilometres of previous dead space, one tower at Seeley Lake Park is providing 13 kilometres of coverage while an additional two towers between Seven Sisters Mountain and Pacific will provide 37 kilometres of coverage.

Carrier Sekani Family Services (CSFS) is happy to see safety improvements for the Highway of Tears, and notes it was one of 33 recommendations CSFS gave during a symposium back in 2006.

“Rogers is doing its part to fulfill number eight of those recommendations, which back in the day, we actually called for phone booths to be installed along the highway,” said CSFS Director of Justice Julie Daum.

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Cameron and Charity West, who previously walked across the country and the Highway of Tears to raise awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP), and both agree it’s great to see action being taken to improve safety, but say more needs to be done.

“We did walk across a lot of the dead zones and and the impact of 50 kilometres is quite good, but it’s not enough,” Cameron said.

“It’s a great initiative, it’s a great move. I know it’s going to help a lot of people, but it doesn’t help everybody,” Charity added.

Daum echoed this sentiment, and she hopes this move is just the first of many to prevent more community members from going missing.

“We certainly hope that this is a springboard for more collaboration. One of the projects we’ve been working on is getting information kiosks so people have information about the dangers and some of the safety things that we have implemented on the highway. We’ve also invested in billboards to change the messaging that it’s all of our responsibility to keep Highway 16 safe,” Daum said.

When speaking on the responsibility of everyone, Daum explained there are several things the community can do. This can range from more active things like watching for anyone who may be fleeing danger if you’re driving down the highway, or things like challenging stereotypes when it comes to MMIP. As for Cameron and Charity, they think some form of an official community watch could be a huge help in improving safety.

“I think stuff like safe spaces on the highway too is an important thing to have. I think it would be really great if they had people along the way that we designated as safe spaces … just to have a point of contact for people fleeing domestic violence, if they had people along the way that were designated to contact and they could get them in touch with local resources it would be great,” Charity said.

With the additional 50 kilometres recently added, Rogers says it provides service for 252 of the 720 kilometres the Highway of Tears spans.