REGINA, Sask. – Saskatchewan protective services personnel who lost their lives in the line of duty now have a permanent memorial in their memory.
Saturday marked the unveiling of the Saskatchewan Protective Services Memorial, which will permanently recognize those protective and emergency personnel who lost their lives while on duty. Those being remembered include firefighters, police officers, paramedics, correctional workers, emergency communications personnel, conservation officers and others.
In total, 66 names going back to the province’s creation in 1905 are etched on the memorial, which is located just west of the Legislative Building on Memorial Way. The memorial was developed by the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency at a cost of around $900,000, including a $100,000 contribution from WorkSafe Saskatchewan, with the groundbreaking for the project happening last year.
According to the province, the memorial features an image of the Saskatchewan Protective Services Medal with a "helping hands" structure and a commemorative message, with the design selected from a working group who represented first responder and public service sector organizations.
At that memorial location on Saturday morning were family members and dignitaries reflecting the various protective services organizations in the province, as well as public officials including Lt.-Gov. Bernadette McIntyre.
She told reporters the memorial is “absolutely significant for the people of Saskatchewan. To be able to formally and substantially recognize fallen officers, anybody in the Saskatchewan Protective Services Forces, is so significant.”
The message she hopes the memorial will send to families of those individuals is “that we will never forget. We are so grateful for their service and everything they gave for our protection, and I think it says to the people of Saskatchewan, we will remember them, and we honour them always.”
Candace Curle, who spoke on behalf of families of those fallen individuals at the ceremony, discussed the importance of recognizing those individuals. She noted her brother Robbie Curtis, a paramedic, had died from suicide due to occupational stress from his line of work as a paramedic.
“I watched my brother struggle for over a decade to fight to have his illness heard and recognized, and, you know, unfortunately he died before that happened, but to have his occupational stress injury recognized as a line of service duty and be honoured in that way means so much to my dad and I,” Curle said.
Curle role reporters there is a “personal toll that comes with loving somebody or, you know, being a family member of somebody in the protective service profession, and I come from generations of protective service.”
“My dad was a police officer, my brother a paramedic, and my son's a firefighter, and, you know, there is a toll, a physical and emotional toll, and I think that, you know, the emotional toll is often overlooked and not seen. You know, we need to be aware of those dangers to be able to protect and ensure that that damage doesn't happen and loss of life doesn't occur.”
