Missing passengers remembered at Gil Island

Relatives and friends gathered Saturday, on the isolated island that claimed the Queen of the North one year ago, as a memorial service was conducted to remember Gerald Foisy and Shirley Rosette.

The Canadian Press provided coverage of the ceremony, seen here from the CTV website.

Memorial held for B.C. ferry's missing passengers
Updated Sat. Mar. 24 2007 11:49 PM ET
Canadian Press

HARTLEY BAY, B.C. -- A year after the sinking of B.C.'s Queen of the North ferry, about 100 people gathered Saturday for a memorial ceremony to remember two missing passengers.
Relatives and friends of Gerald Foisy and Shirley Rosette went by boat to where the vessel went down about 100 kilometres south of Prince Rupert, B.C.

The couple, from Prince George, B.C., were recalled in an afternoon ceremony that took place in the nearby Gitga'at First Nation village of Hartley Bay, whose residents sped to the rescue on March 22, 2006.

Ninety-nine passengers and crew were plucked from lifeboats and rafts that night, with Foisy and Rosette the only two never found.

Those attending the ceremony Saturday were picked up by two small chartered ferries in Prince Rupert and taken to the memorial site - a stretch of rocky shore on Gil Island where the ferry first hit.

Marven Robinson of the Gitga'at First Nation trailed along the vessels in a small fishing boat, with the intention of taking the passengers to the island where two iron crosses have been erected.

In the end, the waters were too choppy to take the risk.

"The waves were just too much," Robinson said in an interview.
"There might be another time. We left the invite that they can return to the village. . .when the weather is not so unpredictable."

Robinson said two younger men, who he believed were immediate family of the victims, managed to get off the ferry to lay a wreath around each cross.

He said prayers were read from the boat and many people were crying when they reached the site.

"I think this will add closure to the whole accident," he said. "But it's still not final. It would have been really nice to get those two people back. That would have finally added closure."

Once on shore, the visitors were welcomed into the village's community centre and given a special dinner and a performance by traditional dancers.

Mona Danes, who helped organize the welcoming ceremony and the meal, said she hugged every visitor who came through the doors.

"We'll always have a bond, knowing that their families are out here in our area," she said. "As they were leaving and I was hugging everyone, one of Gerald Foisy's brothers said he was glad they had a home here in Hartley Bay."

An internal probe of the sinking is expected to be released early next week.

B.C. Ferries president David Hahn said the report will examine the facts involved in the disaster without categorically establishing what happened.

A battery of investigations is trying to discover why the ship, which travelled B.C. North Coast's Inside Passage since 1980, missed a routine course change exiting Grenville Channel.
Rosette and Foisy are likely entombed on the Queen but the couple remain officially listed as missing until the RCMP finish their investigation.

In November, Rosette's sons filed a petition in B.C.'s Supreme Court asking the RCMP to give them their notes on the search for the couples' bodies.

In order to collect benefits, the family is required to present a death certificate to officially declare Rosette deceased.