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'We want answers'

Jack Danylchuk
Northern News Services
Friday, July 13, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The disappearance of their 15-year-old son has left Darlene and Randy Leisk Sr. with many questions.

Randy Jr. and Michael Luzny, 18, were last seen eight days ago, swimming in the frigid waters of Great Slave Lake towards what they thought was the Sacred Fire Healing Camp at Old Fort Rae.

NNSL Photo/Graphic

Randy Leisk Jr., at age 14, with best friend Goldie. - photo courtesy of the Leisk family

Alerted late last Friday afternoon that the youths were missing, the RCMP and Coast Guard spent the weekend scouring the lake's rugged North Arm.

There was no trace of Leisk and Luzny, who were wearing life preservers when they entered the water, and police ended their search Monday. Volunteers who took up the search found two bodies Thursday.

Foremost among questions going through the minds of Darlene and Randy Leisk Sr. is why Bertha and Grant Blondin, the camp operators, left their son and several other youths without adult supervision.

"My son was supposed to be glued to her hip," Darlene Leisk said this week. "Instead, she went to a meeting in Fort Providence, and he went to work at his job at Diavik."

The camp was an alternative to youth detention for Randy, who was in breach of probation on charges that followed his conviction in youth court earlier this year after a rash of snowmobile thefts.

Leisk said that Judge Brian Bruser ordered her son to spend two months working at the camp, which would cover what he owed in fines and an order to perform community service.

The person left in charge of the camp was Michael Luzny, according to his aunt Betty.

"He's got CPR; he's been trained in basic bush skills," she said. "He knows the rules on the water, he knows the lake, he knows that she takes what she wants and doesn't give it back unless she wants to. He knows to stay with the boat, but they are teenagers. They think they're invincible. They saw land and they thought they could swim for it.

"They (the Blondins) had too much faith in him," she concluded.

Michael Luzny also had brushes with law and had spent time at the Blondins' camp. He had been known, when bored with the quiet and isolation of the place, to take the boat to Rae and then catch a ride into Yellowknife so he could hang out with his friends.

"They were told not to go into Rae unless it was to get supplies," said Betty Luzny.

"Those three boys decided on their own. There was a quad but no fuel, and you know teenagers. They had to have fuel for that quad. There was no real adult supervision so they behaved like teenagers: they did what they wanted to do."

According to Darlene Leisk, after the Blondins left the camp on the Tuesday following the Canada Day weekend, Randy, Luzny and Nazon Goulet, 19, took a small aluminum boat and headed for Behchoko for supplies that included "some weed."

The trio made it back to Old Fort Rae, but then attempted a second trip to Behchoko and ran out of gas.

They spent the night on an island in the North Arm and the next day set out to paddle back to the camp.

When they saw land, Luzny and Leisk left Goulet in the boat and attempted to swim to shore.

Betty Luzny said the youths left behind at Old Fort Rae had a satellite telephone, and might have alerted authorities if they thought there was trouble.

"But they just assumed that the boys got a ride to Yellowknife," she said.

Bertha Blondin has since returned to the camp but could not be reached by telephone.

In an interview earlier this year, Blondin told Yellowknifer that the organization that runs the camp, Nats'eju' Dahk'e, which translates as "place of healing," blends aspects of holistic healing and traditional aboriginal activities. She described it as a charitable organization that since 2002 has been running sacred circle programs.

Nats'eju' Dahk'e is listed in the phone book and a voice message promises to return calls.

Its address is listed as 5103 51 Street but Blondin told Yellowknifer that difficulty in keeping the office staffed prompted her to relinquish the space.

The Sacred Fire Healing Camp operates from facilities donated by the North Slave Metis Society.

Blondin also told Yellowknifer that Nats'eju' Dahk'e gets funding from the federal and territorial governments as well as the city, various businesses and churches.

Public accounts for the territorial government's Department of Justice show that taxpayers spent $135,000 over the last two years to provide wilderness camp operators with funding for "on the land programs."

Meghan Holsapple, a spokesperson for the NWT Justice department, referred requests for information on funding criteria for the lodges to court administrators who declined to discuss the matter without a written request.

Betty Luzny describes Bertha Blondin as a "calm, humble and embracing woman," but the Leisks are angry with the lack of supervision at the camp.

"We have issues, we have questions, we want answers," Darlene said.

The Luzny and Leisk families carried on with their search through the week with the help of volunteers from Frank Channel and Behchoko.

They combed the waters and islands of the North Arm on foot and by boat with the aid of trained dogs.

Wednesday evening, as a brisk wind pushed meter-high waves onto the rocky shore, the Luznys waited for calm in the shelter of their trailer at North Arm Park where Nazon Goulet, the sole known survivor, drifted ashore last Friday.

The Leisks combed the shore several kilometres west of North Arm Park, in an area wild with bears, wolves and wolverines.

"He's out there; he's alive," Darlene insisted.

Randy Sr. was less optimistic.

"The chance of finding them are slim, I know that now, but there is still a chance," he said Thursday while appealing for help from "anyone who can come out and give us a hand."

The next day, the Leisk family's faint hopes were dashed. Searchers found Randy's body, Betty Luzny told Yellowknifer.

"His body washed up in the same area where the boat and a life jacket were found," she said.

Late Thursday afternoon Michael Luzny's body was found nearby.

"At least now, we all know," said Betty Luzny.

"The families can now get some closure on that."