Hello.  

Today, I stand before you with a heavy heart but also a heart full of gratitude and hope. Life has taught me, as it teaches all of us, that there are moments when we must embrace our anger, our sadness, and our gratitude. These emotions are not just part of our human experience; they drive us to seek justice, to cherish our loved ones, and to strive for a better world. 

I am grateful for you all being here today supporting this Rally. I am grateful for the changes that will be made to this intersection. I am grateful for the city of Saskatoon and Martensville for stepping up with pilot projects to make their vehicles safer. I am grateful for Saskatoon’s and Martensville’s support advocating for laws that will make it illegal to drive large vehicles in our cities where the drivers cannot see pedestrians and cyclists. I am grateful for the progress we’ve achieved together, and for the lives that these changes have undoubtedly saved. Our community has come together in the past year to advocate for safer streets, better infrastructure, and policies that protect our most vulnerable and drivers from what happened here. Thank you. It is because of our collective efforts that we have seen improvements, and for that, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. 

Yet, standing here today, I am also filled with an overwhelming sense of anger. My wife, Natasha Fox, the love of my life, was killed right here. It was here where she died in front of her children. Her death could have been prevented. This was not an accident. Yet the truck that killed her is still on the road, a constant reminder of how much work still needs to be done. How many more lives must be shattered before our city has just the most basic infrastructure for cyclists, pedestrians and motorists? How many more families must endure the unbearable pain of losing a loved one due to negligence and inaction? My anger, our anger, is not just personal—it is a call to action for us to demand change and demand it now. 

I am sad, deeply sad, knowing that it takes a death for our demands for change to be heard. My wife’s death, like so many others, should not be the catalyst for action. It should never take a horror like this to make our leaders realise that something needs to be done. Every death on our roads is preventable, a life cut short, and a family left to pick up the pieces. Yet it keeps happening. 

But today, I am channelling my sadness and my anger into a clear and simple demand. We cannot, we must not, wait for another death to make our city safer. It is unacceptable to be passive when we have the power to prevent such tragedies. I am demanding that the city stop waiting for a death to do something. I am demanding that the city take immediate action to fix just three intersections this year. Three intersections—an achievable, realistic goal that can save three lives and protect three families from the devastation that mine has endured. 

We know our city has dangerous intersections. We know where the accidents happen. We know there are intersections that pose unacceptable risks to those we love. Fixing three intersections is not a monumental task—it is a necessity. It is a moral obligation. It is an act of compassion and responsibility. Imagine the lives we will save. Natasha and Darin. Imagine the families who will not have to receive that dreaded phone call, who will not have to experience the emptiness and heartache that comes with losing someone they love.  

We are not asking for the impossible. We are asking for basic safety measures that will make our streets safer for everyone. We are asking for what any civilised society should provide for its citizens: safety. 

So I stand here today, not just as an angry grieving husband, but as a voice for change. I call upon our city leaders, our elected officials, and all those in positions of power to listen to our plea, to know our pain. Fix three intersections this year. Save three lives. Protect three families. Do it in honour of those we have lost. Let us turn our grief into action, our anger into advocacy, and our sadness into a catalyst for change. 

Thank you. 

https://ride.regfox.com/2024 

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