Amanda Vaughan
Northern News Services
Published Monday, January 7, 2008

YELLOWKNIFE - Friends are mourning a Yellowknife couple killed in a car accident late last month while visiting family together on their Christmas vacation.

Fifty-one year-old Karen Tomasta and 50-year-old Dennis Monsigneur were visiting Monsigneur's family in Vernon, BC, and were on their way to her family in Lethbridge, Alberta Dec. 28 when they lost control of their Jeep Liberty near Revelstoke, BC. that afternoon.

Karen Tomasta and 50-year-old Dennis Monsigneur were on their way to her family in Lethbridge, Alberta Dec. 28 when they lost control of their Jeep Liberty near Revelstoke, BC.

The vehicle crossed the centre line before colliding with two other vehicles.

The two are already memorialized on the ubiquitous social networking website Facebook.com, where the outpouring of grief and sympathy is a potent indicator of how involved the two were in many organizations in Yellowknife.

"She loved this town," said co-worker Hendrika Brown of Tomasta.

Brown worked with Tomasta in the Department of Public Works and Services (PW&S). She said Tomasta first worked for the government in 1989, but also spent 12 years working for Northwestel before returning to Public Works three years ago.

Brown said Tomasta and Monsigneur met through work after he began working for the department in late 2005, and their relationship had begun fairly recently.

"They moved in together in October," Brown said.

She added that she had only known Monsigneur through Tomasta, but said her impression was good.

"He made her happier than I had ever seen her," she said.

Tomasta was also very involved with the Yellowknife Broomball Association, leaving an indelible mark there which earned her a lifetime achievement award for her involvement in the sport in 2005, according to Val Pond.

"She was a player, she was a fundraiser, and an organizer, she was on the executive," Pond said, noting that Tomasta had been involved in the sport for ten or 15 years, and was well liked.

"Karen was a bundle of fun. She just always had a big smile on her face," Pond said.

According to Brown, Tomasta was also involved in several other community organizations, including the Catholic Women's League, the Chamber of Commerce and the Yk Slopitch Association. She was also a member of Ecology North, where Monsigneur had been serving on the group's board of directors since coming to Yellowknife.

Ecology North's program director, Doug Ritchie, said that Monsigneur had made a significant impact on the board in his time.

"He took on the role of being the treasurer at an important time, while we were working to get our charitable status back. It was a consuming task," Ritchie said, adding, "Dennis has been a very key member in the past nearly three years, and he will be sadly missed."

Public Works deputy minister Mike Aumond told Yellowknifer that the department expresses their condolences to the family and friends of the couple.

"It's a blow and a shock to all here at Public Works and Services, and they will be sadly missed," Aumond said.

A funeral service was held for Monsigneur in Vernon, BC last Friday, and there is a service for Tomasta today in Coaldale, Alberta.

Brown said Friday that there were no details on a service to be held in Yellowknife yet, but said it was likely to happen as the two, particularly Tomasta, had touched many people in Yellowknife.

"A lot of people are going to need to say goodbye," she said.