New safe-ride program in The Pas honours missing woman found dead

Weeks after a young woman's remains were found near a post-secondary school in The Pas, a new community initiative is making sure women in the area have a safe way to get home on the weekend.

The organizers of Nisiiminan Safe Rides are hoping to do their part to keep women who live in The Pas, the nearby Opaskwayak Cree Nation and the surrounding rural municipality of Kelsey out of potentially dangerous situations at night. 

The initiative also pays tribute to Kendara Ballantyne, 18, whose body was found on Aug. 6, said Paulene McGillivary, who helped launch the safe-ride program.

McGillivary said she wanted to give the Ballantyne family a way to get involved with the safe-ride program, so she asked them to come up with its name.

They chose the word "Nisiiminan," which means "my little sister" in Cree.

It's a tribute to a life lost too soon, but it's also a reminder of why the safe ride program is so important, said McGillivary.

"[Kendara] was a member of our community," she said. "We don't want to lose any more of our sisters."

Few details about Ballantyne's death have been made public. She was last seen walking down Cathedral Avenue in The Pas in the afternoon of July 18, and was reported missing on July 26, Manitoba RCMP said in a news release. Her cause of death has not been released.

Right now, the group is run by a handful of volunteers who drive McGillivary's own car and truck as safe-ride vehicles. She said she hopes to draw a larger volunteer base and eventually apply for grants that will allow the group to expand.

McGillivary said there are many women in the community who are out after dark because they're going home from work at night or out with friends on the weekend. She said she hopes the safe-ride program will help these women avoid the kinds of violence she said seem to be becoming more common in their community and across the province.

"[Women] are experiencing incidents of violence, sexual exploitation. We've had young people go missing," she said. "[The safe-ride initative is] just to provide a sense of safety, and knowing that there's people out there providing that."

The safe-ride program launched on Saturday, and picked up 13 people from all over The Pas, Opaskwayak Cree Nation and the RM of Kelsey in its first night on the road — even staying out until 5 a.m. to give one last woman a ride home —and McGillivary said it will be far from its last.

"It wasn't just a one-time thing," she said. "We're going to continue it for as long as we can."

Nisiiminan Safe Rides runs every Friday and Saturday night from 11:30 p.m. to 4 a.m.