VCA Comments on Renaming Émond Park in Mary Papatsie Memory

Ottawa Community Services Committee (September 23, 2025)

Remarks by the Vanier Community Association (VCA)

Thank you, Mme Chair, my name is Chris Greenshields, president of the Vanier Community Association (VCA).  I am pleased on behalf of the VCA to reaffirm our support to rename Vanier’s Émond Park in memory of Mary Papatsie as indicated in our letter to city staff last April and to support the motion to this end before this committee.

As members of the committee are aware Vanier has a large Inuit population along with other First Nations and Métis residents.  There are a number of key Inuit institutions in Vanier: the Inuuqatigiit Family Centre, the health clinic and more recently the Tungasuvvingat Inuit (TI) has expanded its presence close to Émond Park.  St Margaret’s Anglican church, also nearby, has an Inuit congregation and minister.  It is long-time past, that recognition in the form of naming a city park is made to reflect Vanier’s Inuit population.  Mary Papatsie lived close to Émond Park and disappeared in 2017.  Her tragic death was discovered in 2023 in the building in which she had lived.   My wife and I were privileged on the VCA’s behalf to attend the service in her memory.  We learned much of her community engagement, her sense of humour and how much she was loved by her family.  She was a member of the group of Émond Park neighbours who sought to make this park a better place.  These neighbours support the renaming, in her memory, also as part of the healing process in our community.

The epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women is a tragedy in Canada and in Vanier.  Last May on the occasion of Red Dress Day, the Vanier neighbourhood commemorated the day, thanks to financial support also from the City of Ottawa.  The list of names of women lost in the community was read out on that occasion. The list is too long.   In 2021 the national action plan for missing and murdered indigenous women and girls called for culturally appropriate spaces for victims, their families, survivors and descendants, as both a reminder and commemoration of those who never came home.  This park in Mary’s memory could become such a space.

To this end, the VCA also supports the motion’s details, including provision of a new sign (the current one is spelt wrong and in bad shape) and perhaps located closer to the corner as part of the improvement of the public realm.   The VCA’s Beautification Committee which has adopted the park is happy to help support the Émond Neighbourhood Watch in this regard

Thank you / merci