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Wednesday, June 12, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

Artist brings Red Dress Campaign home Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca Heather Potts is a fibre artist who knows the power of a dress. The First Nations clothing designer specializes in the colours black and red. After the final report was released from the National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Potts felt moved to create. She was already well aware of the Red Dress Campaign (also known as the REDress Project), a visual touchstone across Canada that draws attention to the issue of too many female victims of violence. As someone who works with fabrics and fashions dresses, this billowed in her mind along with the personal grief she suffers. It all blew out onto her front yard this week. Her Killarney Drive home is now a backdrop for a piece of public art, acting as a visual response. “I have been thinking about this, turning it over in my mind, for quite some time,” she said, and even purchased a red dress she saw one day that had the elegance she was looking for to accomplish her artistic purpose. “It finally came to me. I put the red dress out on a stand I had for displaying clothing. I put it between two birch trees. One arm is outstretched, lifted up to the Creator. The Canadian flag is wrapped behind her because Trudeau said he would help. I’m taking him at his word. He has to respond. The Canadians have suffered, too, not just First Nations. It’s mostly First Nations victims, but not all, and it affects us all. We are all together in our suffering. We must be all together in solutions. I put all this out there, then lo and behold, I looked down and saw that it was all above some lily of the valley. Jesus has sometimes been symbolized by the lily of the valley, so I took that to mean Jesus was holding all of this up.” The public art expression has a mental meaning to Potts as an Indigenous elder and longtime fibre artist, but it also has a

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Heather Potts and the public art red dress display she has installed on her front yard at her Hart Highlands home. direct streak of pain that comes from her heart. Her niece Amber Potts-Jaffary was last seen in 1988 after a teenaged conflict with her parents. The Etobicoke teen flagged down a stranger for a ride, following a rebellious argument and was never again seen or heard of by her loved ones.

It happened right in the midst of a serial rapist spree in that same area that turned out to be perpetrated by Paul Bernardo. Was Potts-Jaffary one of this killer’s victims? Or, as in the case of the Highway of Tears experience, it is possible there were mul-

Murder pleas entered in double homicide

Smithers-based gymnastics coach charged with sex offences against teen Postmedia A former Regina gymnastics coach has been charged with five sexual offences involving a then-teenaged gymnast over a six-year period in the early 2000s. Marcel L. Dubroy, now of Smithers, is charged with sexual exploitation in a position of trust, sexual interference, invitation to sexual touching, sexual assault on a person under the age of 18 and sexual assault, according to a news release issued Tuesday by the Regina Police Service. “It is not common practice for the Regina Police Service to include information about an accused person’s occupation but, in this case, the alleged offences are the result of the position of authority and trust held by the accused over the alleged victim during the years that he was her gymnastics coach, living and working in Regina,” police said in the release. “The access to numerous young persons by virtue of a coaching position, combined with the nature of the alleged offences, prompted this decision to release information about the occupation of the accused.” Regina police first received the report of an alleged sexual assault in November, via the Ottawa Police Service, which was the agency that took the original report. The complainant, now a 30-year-

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old woman, alleged her gymnastics coach had, over a period of years, committed sexual offences against her between Jan. 1, 2002 and April 30, 2008. Both Dubroy and the then-teenaged gymnast lived in Regina at the time of the alleged offences. When Dubroy was interviewed by Regina Police Service, he was residing in Smithers and still coaching young athletes. In Feb. 2016, a Smithers newspaper ran a story about Dubroy returning to the club where he first started coaching. It mentions that Dubroy coached in Toronto and Vancouver in addition to Regina, where he was the long-time head coach at QCK Gymnastics. As a result of their investigation, Regina police officers requested a warrant for Dubroy’s arrest. He was arrested without incident and subsequently charged. Dubroy, a Gymnastics Saskatchewan competitive coach of the year in 2002, was provisionally suspended by Gymnastics Canada on May 21 for alleged code of ethics and conduct violations. “This provisional suspension is made in conjunction with an ongoing investigation being conducted by the Regina Police Service for alleged activities while Mr. Dubroy was a coach in the province of Saskatchewan,” the organization said in a press release. “(Dubroy’s) membership is suspended nationwide and he may not coach in any provincially-affili-

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ated member club across Canada.” In a statement, Gymnastics Saskatchewan CEO Klara Klesmarky Miller said the organization is “deeply concerned about these allegations. “The safety of all Gymnastics Saskatchewan members is our primary concern and we support Gymnastics Canada’s swift action to ensure that Mr. Dubroy is banned from all activities involving any gymnasts pending the outcome of the judicial process,” Miller said. The release notes that people with concerns related to Dubroy are encouraged to contact their local police department immediately. “There is no place for harassment, sexual misconduct or abuse of power in any gymnastics facility and we continue to work vigilantly to protect the safety of all our members,” Miller said. Gymnastics Saskatchewan is “actively taking additional measures to ensure its members participate in safe environments, with the principal aim of of empowering its member clubs with the tools, knowledge and resources to protect children and youth from abuse,” the release said, adding that the organization is currently promoting policies and reporting/investigation systems that will be “critical to driving change.” Dubroy is due to make his first appearance on these charges in Regina Provincial Court on July 17.

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tiple predators at work. “Both her father and her mother have passed on, now,” said Potts. “She has been heavy in my heart. She was so young when she went missing, and it has been more than 30 years now.” — see ‘IT IS, page 3

Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca Two men have each pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in relation to a drug-related double homicide. Seaver Tye Miller and Joshua Steven West entered the pleas Monday during a B.C. Supreme Court hearing at the Prince George courthouse for the Jan. 26, 2017 shooting deaths of Thomas Burt Reed of Burns Lake and David Laurin Franks of Prince George. On May 30, Aaron Ryan Moore pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal negligence causing death while Perry Andrew Charlie continues to face two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder with a firearm. A trial for Charlie is set to begin on July 2. On the day of the incident, RCMP responded to an early-morning report of shots fired and found a vehicle off the side of the road near the intersection of Foothills Boulevard and North Nechako Road. Reed and Franks were pronounced dead at the scene. A third victim, whose name has not been released, was also shot but survived. Moore and West were arrested within the hour while Charlie was apprehended the next day. Following a flood of tips, Miller was apprehended 15 days after the shooting. Prince George RCMP Supt. Warren Brown has said both the suspects and the victims were involved in the drug lifestyle “consistent with activities that could lead to gang involvement.”

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