Bringing Mackenzie home: Paul Trottier reflects on 1,319-day journey to recover daughter's remains
CBC
Paul Trottier says it was the conversation he waited three-and-a-half years to have with his daughter Mackenzie.
But it wasn't how he planned on it taking place.
Mackenzie Lee Trottier was last seen by her family on Dec. 21, 2020, catching a ride-hail from their Saskatoon home.
On Aug. 1, 2024 — 1,319 days later — searchers recovered the 22-year-old's remains from the city's landfill.
Paul Trottier picked up his daughter's cremated remains from the funeral home after police finished their forensic work in early August, wrapping the container that held her ashes in a jacket and buckling her into the front seat of his Subaru.
He says he offered her a cigarette and said his piece to her.
"Three years is a long time, not talking to your child," he said in an interview.
"There was laughter, there was sorrow, there was remorse. All those things were part of the conversation.
'You're home. We got you home.'"
What exactly happened to Mackenzie Trottier after she left home that day — where she went, who she met, how she died — may never be known.
Today, Paul Trottier is not sure any of that is important.
"What mattered was getting our daughter home. That was the only thing we wanted at the end of the day," he said.
"A lot of people — media, friends and family, associates — they all ask the question, 'What happened?' It doesn't matter. She's not with us.
"It matters for the sense we don't want this to happen again. What do we have to do to ensure that those things don't happen? Let's try and figure that out, rather than spinning in nastiness."
Sona Lakhoyan Olivier has been excluded from Quebec’s Liberal caucus for the duration of an investigation led by the National Assembly’s ethics commissioner, the party announced Thursday.
The head of the William Whyte Neighbourhood Association hopes a city plan to crack down on vacant properties leads to a transformation in his community.
Saskatchewan's justice minister is rejecting the latest legislative proposal from the NDP Opposition, one that the NDP says is a necessary check on government power.
The provincial government is proposing sweeping changes to citizen-led referendum questions that could put a stop to an active court case about whether it’s constitutional to ask Albertans if they agree with separating from Canada.
A proposal for a hydrogen-powered passenger rail connecting Calgary and Banff has been submitted to the federal government in the hopes of having it fast-tracked.
The P.E.I. Green Party is calling on government to release the fall fiscal update. The checkup on the province's finances is typically released sometime in October.
A main road in Inuvik, N.W.T., is closed and water is shut off for part of the town after a utilidor leak.
Immigration Minister Lena Diab sparred with her Conservative critic at a tense House of Commons committee meeting Thursday as the two disagreed on everything from immigration levels and deporting non-citizen criminals to what kind of salad they prefer.
A report by the City of Calgary presented to councillors says blanket rezoning has so far required only "minimal" upgrades to infrastructure.
Changes are coming to residential recycling in Toronto starting in the new year, two councillors announced on Thursday.
Before a bitumen pipeline from Alberta to British Columbia’s northwest coast can be built, there's another box that needs to be checked: a massive investment in carbon capture and storage in central Alberta.
Jeremy Tunraluk, president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), is on leave from his position after he was charged with assault.
The head of Canada's Leaders' Debates Commission says the independent body should stop organizing post-debate news conferences and will make changes to how it decides what leaders to invite after this spring's leadership debate was surrounded by controversy.