It's been a sad week in Tofino with the loss of seven year old William. He was visiting Tofino with his parents and younger brother from Bellingham, WA. It was his little brother's birthday and for whatever reason William was left alone for what I have heard may have been nearly twenty minutes on a trail near the ocean and forest and when his father returned, he was gone.

I felt physically ill the first couple of days thinking about it. I couldn't not think about it. The helicopters flew over and around the hostel, you could see the Search and Rescue boats going out every morning and coming back in every evening. Posters were everywhere and it was all anyone in town could really talk about. I saw familiar faces being interviewed on the news and reporters were walking up and down Campbell Street. I made a few photocopies for the Search and Rescue team and watched them search the bushes around the hostel.

It really upset me when the posters came out and when the story was being reported on the news that there was such focus on the fact that William had Attention Defecit Disorder. It seemed as though they were suggesting that due to his relatively common and treatable mental illness, he was likely to jump off a cliff into the water or run away into the forest. Furthermore, a seven year old boy is a seven year old boy whether he has been labelled "ADD" or not and a seven year old boy should NEVER be left alone for three minutes or for thirty.

It's such a tragic situation that could have easily been avoided, but I am not a parent and I do not think I have a right to say whether a parent made a fatal error in this situation. All I can hope for now is that William's body can be returned to his family and that they can find strength during this awful time. May William rest in peace.