NorthOttawa city council has approved a motion to rename the park in honour of Mary Papatsie, an Inuk woman from Pangnirtung, Nunavut.Ottawa city council approved the change on Oct. 8CBC News · Posted: Oct 14, 2025 4:50 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoMary Papatsie, from Pangnirtung, Nunavut, disappeared in Ottawa in 2017. Her remains were found on a construction site in Vanier in 2022. (Submitted by the RCMP)A park in Ottawa’s Vanier neighbourhood will soon be renamed to honour an Inuk woman whose remains were found at a nearby construction site in 2022. Mary Papatsie, from Pangnirtung, Nunavut, had moved to Ottawa as a child. Papatsie disappeared in 2017. Five years later her remains were discovered at a construction site in the Vanier area. In September, Ottawa city councillors considered renaming Emond Park in Vanier after Papatsie and on Oct. 8 councillors approved the motion to make it happen. Stéphanie Plante, councillor for Ottawa’s Rideau-Vanier riding, introduced the idea to rename the park years ago after Papatsie’s funeral. Emond Park on Sept. 21, 2025, days before a city committee vote to rename the park after an Inuit woman Mary Papatsie whose remains were found nearby. (Ben Andrews/CBC)”There was a lot of people who felt this was about time, who felt like, you know, Mary deserved this,” Plante said. The motion says the park’s renaming is “to honour the Inuit community in Vanier, to honour her life and death, and to honour the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.”Plante said her next step is to consult Inuit organizations in her riding about the possibility of developing the park into a dedicated space for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. “People in general seem very fond of Mary and are very much looking forward to honouring her,” she said.With files from Anchal Sharma
Ottawa park to be renamed after the late Mary Papatsie
