Quebec bill helps Indigenous families track disappeared loved ones, but some remain wary

By Ghazal Azizi Kashi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Investigative Journalism Foundation Norman Wapachee was born around a decade after his sister Hattie, but he never got to meet her. Instead, he grew up hearing their mom tell stories about her brief time on Earth. In 1955, Wapachee’s parents took their seven-month old daughter to a hospital in Roberval, QC to treat her pneumonia. Soon after, the Wapachee elders received a call informing them that Hattie had died. “The hospital didn’t actually show [my parents] the body. But my mom recalled something was wrapped up. And they also told my parents to wait at the graveyard where they were going to bury my sister. ‘We were at the grave site for that whole afternoon, and nobody showed up.’ I heard this…

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