Playground built to honour victim of Saskatchewan mass stabbing two years later
Children have been swinging, sliding and climbing on a playground built to honour one of the victims of a mass stabbing two years ago northeast of Saskatoon.
Chelsey Erickson, who organized the playground project, says Wesley Petterson's name is to be emblazoned on a metal sign at the structure in the village of Weldon.
In 2022, Myles Sanderson killed 10 people and injured 17 others on James Smith Cree Nation before fatally stabbing Petterson, who was 78, nearby in Weldon.
Erickson says flower beds have been placed around the playground to remember Petterson.
She says he was heavily involved in the community and would cut the town's grass and gather people for coffee.
“He was such a kind man. He’d give you the shirt off his back because that’s the type of person he was. I knew him my whole life because our families spent a lot of time visiting one another,” Chelsey Erickson, one of the co-directors of the Weldon Playground Project told CTV News in April.
The park and playground is intended to provide a safe and fun space for children in the community.
“We need a safe space where our children are free to play and have fun away from traffic. It would be a gathering place for families,” Erickson said at the time.
The Weldon Playground Committee, a team of five, had set a fundraising goal of $150,000.
At James Smith Cree Nation, a powwow ceremony is planned for Friday to honour an RCMP officer who took down Sanderson's stolen truck during a high-speed chase before he died in police custody from a cocaine overdose.
--With files from Stacey Hein.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Trudeau calls violence in Montreal 'appalling' as NATO protest continues
Anti-NATO protesters gathered again in Montreal on Saturday to demand Canada withdraw from the alliance, a day after a demonstration organized by different groups resulted in arrests, burned cars and shattered windows.
7 suspects, including 13-year-old, charged following 'violent' home invasion north of Toronto
Seven teenage suspects, including a 13-year-old, have been arrested following a targeted and “violent” home invasion in Vaughan on Friday, police say.
These vascular risks are strongly associated with severe stroke, researchers say
Many risk factors can lead to a stroke, but the magnitude of risk from some of these conditions or behaviours may have a stronger association with severe stroke compared with mild stroke, according to a new study.
Widow of Chinese businessman who was executed for murder can sell her Vancouver house, court rules
A murder in China and a civil lawsuit in B.C. have been preventing the sale of multiple Vancouver homes, but one of them could soon hit the market after a court ruling.
Cher 'shocked' to discover her legal name when she applied to change it
Cher recalls a curious interlude from her rich and many-chaptered history in her new book 'Cher: The Memoir, Part One.'
Black bear killed in self-defence after attack on dog-walker in Maple Ridge, B.C.
A black bear has died following a brawl with a man on a trail in Maple Ridge, B.C.
Retiring? Here's how to switch from saving for your golden years to spending
The last paycheque from a decades-long career arrives next Friday and the nest egg you built during those working years will now turn into a main source of income. It can be a jarring switch from saving for retirement to spending in retirement.
Canadian neurosurgeons seek six patients for Musk's Neuralink brain study
Canadian neurosurgeons in partnership with Elon Musk's Neuralink have regulatory approval to recruit six patients with paralysis willing to have a thousand electrode contacts in their brains.
Police thought this gnome looked out of place. Then they tested it for drugs
During a recent narcotics investigation, Dutch police said they found a garden gnome made of approximately two kilograms of MDMA.