After years of battling mental health issues, Tyler Knockwood was found dead inside Province House in Charlottetown. Here's hoping sharing his story will make a difference for someone else. Guardian fileIt’s not possible to remember every student who occupies a desk in our classroom years after they’ve gone. There’s the age thing – yes, a 65-old brain is a factor.
After all, he wasn’t with us that long. It’s not an unusual thing for a student to try a program like journalism for a few months, then decide it was a bad choice and head off to try something else.Tyler may have found his way into that group. It’s hard to know, since I didn’t get the chance to know him very well in the hurly-burly that so defines the first term of first year. But he was memorable.He was tall. He was good looking. He was bright. And he seemed so full of possibilities.
Reporting on the Indigenous community has always been spotty for journalism. There just aren’t many people from that community in the reporting business, so many of the stories the public gets to see, watch or hear from there are told by outsiders doing the best they can.Trying to tell stories about what it was like to live on a N.B. reserve when corruption and fear seemed to rule the lives of all those not in power was a challenge every day. Asking people to trust you to tell their stories.
He was, she told us, at 34 a father of two who found his passion after leaving our journalism program. He had been working as a carpenter and stone mason at Province House National Historic Site for a number of years, she told a reporter.Tyler Knockwood was passionate about his work at the Province House National Historic Site, says his wife Laura. He worked as a stone mason and carpenter over the years and enjoyed being able to explore the building on his free time, she says.