For Haileigh Laurent, some stories never truly leave a family. They wait quietly, carried through years of unanswered questions, resurfacing when someone finally gives them the space to be told.
Laurent, a Nazko First Nation band member and second-year Bachelor of Arts student at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, recently wrote an essay titled Forgotten Stories: Media Silence and Indigenous Representation.
The paper examines how Indigenous men who go missing or are murdered often receive minimal media coverage and limited public attention, an issue she explores through the deeply personal experiences of her own family in Quesnel.
“This is kind of something I always thought about,” Laurent said. “And when the topic came up in my class that we would be doing something similar to what my idea was in the end, it just kind of made sense for me to write about it.”
Laurent’s essay focuses on two cases: the disappearance of her uncle, Sidney Ryan Boyd, in 2021, and the 2006 murder of her stepfather, Tyrone Douglas Clement. Both cases, she argues, reveal patterns in how Indigenous men are portrayed, or overlooked, by Canadian media.
“I have learned that some stories never get told,” Laurent wrote. “And if they do, they are forgotten almost as quickly.”
Boyd was 27 years old when he was last seen in downtown Quesnel on April 5, 2021. He was reported missing on April 19. Laurent describes him as a loved family member whose life was complicated by addiction, a factor she believes contributed to how quickly public attention faded.
“I think it’s kind of just stereotypes,” she said. “Especially if men are struggling with addictions and stuff. You see something in the news or by word of mouth. You hear something about how a man was in his life when struggling with addiction. It’s not always who he is as a person, and I guess it’s just easier for people to kind of forget and not care as much.”
She said that while Boyd struggled with addiction, that was never the entirety of who he was.
“He’s not always who he is as a person when he’s struggling,” Laurent said. “But there were so many people who didn’t really seem to care because he was living like that.”
Laurent writes that after initial police statements and a handful of articles, coverage of Boyd’s disappearance largely vanished, leaving family members to search for answers themselves.
“The hardest part was seeing how the police treated us when everything was happening,” she said. “It was really disheartening having to do it on our own time and seeing how little they kind of cared.”
In her essay, Laurent situates Boyd’s disappearance within broader discussions around missing Indigenous men, noting that while the national conversation has increasingly focused on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Indigenous men and boys often receive far less attention.
Her research also led her to examine the murder of her stepfather, Tyrone Clement, who was 19 when he was stabbed during an altercation at Lebourdais Park in Quesnel. Clement died the following day, on May 3, 2006. Four men were charged in connection with his death. One was convicted of second-degree murder and received a life sentence, while the others received significantly lighter sentences.
“For Tyrone’s case, it was something I always knew about growing up,” Laurent said. “But I didn’t really know the full extent of what happened.”
She said researching the case forced her to confront details she had never been told.
“Finding out certain details here and there really changed how I thought about everything,” she said. “It was really emotional figuring out finally what actually happened.”
Laurent said that for years, she carried feelings she couldn’t fully explain, especially around the time of year Clement died.
“I always had feelings I didn’t really know what to do with because I didn’t know what happened,” she said.
Balancing those emotions with the expectations of academic writing proved difficult.
“It was definitely hard writing about it and not letting my own emotions get in the way of what the topic was actually about,” she said. “Writing in an academic setting while dealing with something that personal was challenging.”
In her paper, Laurent draws on academic scholarship, including the work of Robert Harding, to examine how media coverage often relies heavily on police statements while failing to humanize Indigenous victims. She also references photographer and storyteller Matika Wilbur, whose Project 562 works to reclaim Indigenous representation through self-authored storytelling.
“I think it’s really important that message she talks about,” Laurent said of Wilbur’s work. “A lot of times Indigenous voices, even pictures of Indigenous people, get used for things that don’t really align with how we believe things should be portrayed.”
For Laurent, writing the essay became a way to reclaim voice, not just academically, but personally.
“It was really important for me to speak out for them when they can’t anymore,” she said. “And just kind of be the voice that they couldn’t.”
Laurent’s mother, Heather Laurent, said reading her daughter’s essay reopened long-suppressed emotions tied to both cases.
“It brought tears to my eyes,” she said. “Seeing the research that she did herself, the people she reached out to, and the quotes she brought forward, it was really heart-warming.”
Heather was Tyrone Clement’s spouse at the time of his death and Boyd’s sister. She said both men were important figures in Haileigh’s life growing up.
“He raised Haileigh as his own for the short time he was part of our lives,” she said of Clement. “And Sidney was Uncle Sidney to the girls.”
She recalled frequently seeing Boyd downtown in the years leading up to his disappearance.
“His eyes would light up when he saw them,” she said. “They would always remind him, ‘Uncle, we love you.’ There was never judgment.”
Heather said the family felt they received little support during Boyd’s disappearance, prompting them to organize searches and follow up on tips themselves.
“It felt like we were doing the job that shouldn’t have been ours in the first place,” she said.
She also expressed long-standing frustration with how Clement’s case was handled, believing systemic issues played a role.
“A life was lost,” she said. “And only one person was truly held accountable.”
For Laurent, the weight of both cases remains heavy, particularly because Boyd is still missing.
“He’s still missing,” she said. “Any little bit of information really does help.”
She hopes readers understand that families continue to live with uncertainty long after headlines fade.
“There are still a lot of people here who would appreciate and cherish even the smallest bit of information,” she said.
Laurent said her goal is not only remembrance, but justice and accountability.
“I just want to see more justice on behalf of Indigenous people, men and women,” she said. “Because it happens so often, and it just feels like you’re always being left to do everything yourself.”
Through her essay, Laurent seeks to ensure that the names Sidney Ryan Boyd and Tyrone Douglas Clement are not forgotten, and that their stories continue to be told, not as statistics, but as lives that mattered.
<!– NUf f c A DFN ZfhKVLpVqySnf –>