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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Nunavut woman killed on Portage
In city to support residential school survivor dad
KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image
Police investigate fatality on Portage Avenue near Empress Street on Wednesday. Louisa Sala, who was visiting from Nunavut, was killed.
SHE had come to Winnipeg from Nunavut to not only support her father but also to hear for the first time of his tragic experiences in a residential school.
But Louisa Sala's family is now having to deal with loss of their 20-year-old daughter after she was struck by a truck while wandering on Portage Avenue early Wednesday morning.
Sam Qavvik: ‘It shouldn’t have happened.’ (WAYNE.GLOWACKI@FREEPRESS.MB.CA)
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"(It's) awful. It shouldn't have happened," said her father Sam Qavvik, who was in the city to address an adjudicator who would determine what compensation he is owed from his time in a residential school.
"We were lost. We didn't know the city. We tried to flag down vehicles but they were rude, they kept on going."
Qavvik, 47, shook and his eyes filled up with tears as he described his daughter, a recreation supervisor in the community of about 800 people on the Belcher Islands in Hudson Bay. He said she was a leader for other youth in their northern community.
"She was very active in helping other young people, organizing camping trips and supervising the community hall in the evenings," he said.
Qavvik was watching as Sala walked onto Portage Avenue near the Empress Overpass, trying to hail passing cars in a bid to help her group return to their downtown hotel after a night of drinking at the Viscount Gort.
She was struck by an east-bound pickup truck and Qavvik said she died after doctors spent hours trying to save her life.
"Louisa started trying to hitchhike and trying to stop vehicles, she asked them where to go," he said. "I told her many times (not to), she didn't obey me."
He said he still wants to tell his stories of the "awful" things that transpired in residential school, but it won't be this week as he and his wife will return to Nunavut to bury their daughter.
A police spokeswoman said investigators were looking into the crash.
"Officers have ruled out any impairment issues with the driver of the truck, and there have been no charges laid at this time," said the spokeswoman.
Police asked anyone who may have witnessed the crash and has not spoken to police to call the Central Traffic Unit at 986-6271.
gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 12, 2010 A4
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