It was an unimaginable tragedy those in the town of Spiritwood, Sask., will never forget.
It’s been a decade since two of its RCMP constables — Robin Cameron and Marc Bourdages — made the ultimate sacrifice.
“I think that Marc very much deserved to be able to raise his family, see the son that he was proud of and see what a wonderful child we created together and of course the other difficult part that I think is Luca deserved to be able to know his dad,” said Natasha Szpakowski, Bourdages’ widow.
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Luca was nine-months-old at the time of the shooting — as he learned to walk, his father lay in a coma.
Now he keeps his hero in his heart.
“Looking at the pictures and being able to remember what he looks like and I think when I go to Quebec on Saturday, I’m going to ask them play some videos so I can remember what he sounds like,” said Luca Bourdages, Marc’s son.
The two RCMP officers were gunned down in the line of duty and a massive manhunt followed to catch the killer.
At one point, 250 officers converged on the area searching high and low for Curtis Dagenais. He was found after 11 days on the run in a farmer’s field and surrendered to police.
Thomas was one of the officers who located them after the shooting and says he’ll take that night with him to the grave.
“The support that this community gave us in 2006 and even to today, 10 years later, is unbelievable,” Thomas said.
On Wednesday, a ceremony was held to remember and honour the fallen members not too far from where the community of Spiritwood would like to place a memorial statue.
“My later father-in-law, he always spoke of acceptance … to not waste your good energy on the negative and to be able to let go, to forgive and move forward and being 10 years later that’s exactly what we did as a family,” said Leroy Laliberete, Robin Cameron’s brother-in-law.
Dagenais is currently serving a double murder conviction and one count of attempted murder.
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