Community to honour the memory of slain officer

Flags across the province flew at half-mast on July 21, the day that RCMP Constable Robin Cameron was laid to rest in her home community of Beardy's and Okemasis First Nation.
The 29-year-old police officer died on July 15, succumbing to injuries received on July 7 when she and her partner, Constable Marc Bourdages, were both shot in the head following a high-speed chase near Spiritwood. Bourdages, 26, died on July 16. Forty-one-year-old Curt Dagenais has been arrested in connection with the shootings and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Cameron had to overcome a number of hurdles in order to become a police officer. A single mother to daughter Shayne, now 11, Cameron was forced to drop out of high school when she became pregnant, but returned to school a few years later and earned her diploma.
When she first applied to join the RCMP, they turned her down because of problems with her eyesight. Undaunted, Cameron underwent laser surgery to correct her vision and applied again, this time successfully.
Cameron had been a member of the RCMP for five years. Her first posting was in Beauval, then she transferred to the Spiritwood detachment in 2003.
Since their deaths, tributes to Cameron and Bourdages have been coming in from across the country and thousands of people came out to Beardy's to attend Cameron's funeral. On Aug. 3, residents of Spiritwood gathered together in a high school auditorium to remember and pay their respects to the two officers.
A month after Cameron's death, Beardy's and Okemasis Chief Richard Gamble said the community is still coming to terms with the tragedy.
"We're still feeling the effects of the loss and it's going to take us a while, but we're relying on our Elders for support and to help us negotiate what's happened. But, by and large, I guess, right now we are really feeling the influence of her life and what she accomplished and what she wanted to do."
Gamble had known Cameron since she was a child growing up on Beardy's.
"She was my cousin's daughter. Basically, in our tradition, it makes her my niece, I guess," he said.
Years later, when he first found out she'd joined the RCMP, he said he wasn't surprised.
"She seemed like the type of person that wanted to do so much in life."
The last time he spoke to Cameron was a couple years ago, when they ran into each other in Beauval.
"She was just getting transferred to Spiritwood and she was talking then about going to law school. So to her the sky was the limit. She wasn't going to stop. And so she has become an inspiration for us and her daughter, Shayne. When she was pregnant, she could have given up and got herself in a rut and she didn't want that. She wanted something better for herself and her daughter. And she maintained that attitude throughout," he said.
"Even now, I think back and, you know, here's a girl that probably would have become a lawyer and probably would have done extremely well and perhaps even some day would have been chief of our band. I don't know. The possibilities are endless as far as I'm concerned because she was that type of person."
Plans are in the works to rename the school on Beardy's and Okemasis in Cameron's honour. The renaming would be an ongoing reminder to young people in the community of the example Cameron set by the way she lived her life.
"As far as I'm concerned, what we're doing to the torch is being passed on to the youth," Gamble said. "We're prepared to put the onus on the youth to carry on her legacy and her influence and just build on it. Because, to me, she is the epitome of success and determination."