I was first contacted last fall by JF Bastien, regarding his brother Yannick. Yannick Bastien has been missing since September 21st, 2019, when he took off alone in his canoe in Lake Minnewanka, in Banff National Park, Canada. Banff Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), could find no sign of 26-year-old Yannick, except for his canoe and a few small miscellaneous items located on shore, on a central part of the lake. The canoe was approximately 5 1/2 miles from the launch area. His strong family and their friends launched an extensive search on land and in the water with divers and other sonar experts, with no success yet. I informed JF that we would be able to search in the summer, if still needed after their other efforts.
Beth and I left on July 26, 2020, for Banff. Taking the RV, boat, and all equipment we are a heavy load. The trip is approximately 1500 miles. We were allowed entry over the Canadian border with a request from the Canadian National Parks, on behalf of the family. Otherwise, entry is not currently allowed due to Covid 19. We were continually questioned while on our trip, regarding our reason to be there, including a policeman being sent to the RV. The RV is a new addition to the searches we do. We quite often would need to find somewhere to stay on long drives or doing searches. That meant getting a hotel extremely late at night at times and not getting truly proper rest or food. The RV proved to make everything better and timelier. We had all the equipment we needed right there, our own food and necessities.
We arrived Tuesday at the Park and met with the family. Different family members have been here since Yannick’s disappearance. None of them live in Banff. Yannick’s mother, Chantal, along with his father Serge, brother and sisters have made an amazing effort.
We developed a plan for our search patterns and began early the next day. We covered a large amount over the next few days until the weather began give us wind issues. Most of our days range are around 12 hours on the water. If the water is too rough the sonar towfish does not give clear images. Lake Minnewanka has many abrupt changes of depth, making it exceedingly difficult to run the towfish at a deep depth and then recover it to a safe height prior to another rocky level. This along with some windy weather made searching harder than usual. We spent the next 17 days on the water looking. We do not take time off. We did some evening target checking back at the RV as well. We were thankful to have the assistance a few times from Jean-François (JF) Bastien, Yannick’s brother. His family was constantly present and busy doing other investigations with dog teams, buoys, drones, land searches. We got to know his strong and loving family; they were next to us at the camping area. This has been a long battle for them.
Unfortunately, after a very vast covering of this lake area, we were unable to locate Yannick at this time. This makes it extremely hard to leave the family, but our return home was necessary. We have hours and hours of data that can be reviewed from home at a better slower pace, on a larger screen. On the way home we stopped in North Dakota to purchase an 8k AI large screen tv to do clearer reviews. This new technology of TV is supposed to be the highest definition available currently. Drowning victims have been found off site, in review, by Bruce’s Legacy before. We have by no means given up.
We would like to thank the hospitality and strength of the family first. Also, on our list of thanks is Karen and her team, the Brewster Boat Company, the Park itself, and Erik of Best Buy of Minot, ND for his guidance. We also want to thank all the people back home that keep things going- Sandy Blackdeer, Christie Mathews, Dale Ann Bohac, JoAnn and Theron Sweet, Jolene Darst, Ed Filner, Bill and Maggie Selves, Tammy Overlien, Tony Connell, there are many more. We appreciate each one of you. Please keep your prayers coming for this family.