20 years after disappearance, search for Tamra Keepness continues
CBC
Twenty years ago, the disappearance of five-year-old Tamra Keepness shook the city of Regina.
She was last seen around 10:30 p.m. on July 5, 2004, at her home on the 1800 block of Ottawa Street, and was reported missing the next day.
Despite thousands of hours of work by investigators, hundreds of interviews and a $50,000 reward, she has not been seen since.
Tamra was last seen sleeping in her room at the home where her family was living. Her disappearance led to the largest search effort in Regina's history.
On Friday, communities gathered in a Regina park for the annual barbecue held to honour Tamra Keepness and remind people that her case is still open.
As Ivy Kennedy sat at a picnic table and chatted with other grandmothers, she reflected on her memories from 20 years ago, when Tamra disappeared.
Kennedy is the founder and director of Women of the Dawn Counselling Centre. The Keepness family came to her organization for help, but at the time, they didn't have any services to offer, she said.
So Kennedy went to Edmonton, where there was a task force for missing and murdered Indigenous women and children. When she got back to Saskatchewan, she shared what she learned in the hope that the province could offer something similar.
"We lobbied the provincial government in Saskatchewan to get a task force for missing and murdered women and children," Kennedy said. Those efforts were successful, she added.
Kennedy says events like the barbecue are vital for the community, so they know the search is ongoing.
"It's so sad to think about that time," Kennedy said. "She would have been 25 today. Tamra would have been involved with the community, because a lot of her family is involved with Women of the Dawn and other agencies.
"So it's hard to think about what has happened to our children, but Tamra is one of those young ladies we'll never forget, as a community."
Chastity Delorme is a community advocate from Cowessess First Nation who lives in Regina.
After Tamra's disappearance, she said, she saw people out on the street looking for the child and flags tied around trees to mark where they had searched.
A retired judge tasked with investigating allegations about Alberta health contracting says Alberta Health Services (AHS) renegotiated a contract to procure children’s medication for $7 million more and forensic accountants can’t justify why.
The B.C. NDP government has responded to a video posted by the B.C. Greens accusing the minister of state for artificial intelligence of a conflict of interest for investing in a fund containing AI stocks by saying a Green MLA owns similar investments.
The Canada Revenue Agency is using the court system to attempt to collect $100 million it says Islanders and Island businesses owe to the federal government for unpaid taxes.
The regulator for Alberta’s lawyers says it will no longer mandate Indigenous cultural competency training in advance of what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith calls the “Peterson law” coming into force.
Thousands of people gathered at a Eid festival in Toronto on Friday to celebrate the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but an organizer says many people did so with heavy hearts.
The Islamic Centre of Yellowknife came alive early Friday morning as worshippers arrived to pray and celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan.
Health P.E.I. is adding 20 new temporary beds at six long-term care homes across the province in an attempt to alleviate pressures on the health-care system.
Advocates are raising concerns amid a sharp increase in hate incidents targeting London's South Asian Community, with several cases involving violent offences.
Canadian military members and civilians are among the personnel NATO has pulled out of Iraq as the country faces retaliatory attacks from Iran along with other Gulf countries during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
The lone supervised consumption sites (SCS) in Calgary and Lethbridge will close at the end of June, the provincial government announced on Friday.
Memorial University Students' Union’s (MUNSU) executive committee is recommending the shuttering of the campus radio station — and its fate could be decided next month.
Ontario will not have a policy in place to publicly fund all medically necessary services from nurse practitioners by April 1, as ordered by the federal government, leaving some patients paying out of pocket for primary care.
RCMP officers in Lower Sackville and Cole Harbour, N.S., posed as panhandlers to catch drivers who were committing traffic offences this week.