Noreen Agnew says she doesn’t want her 17-year-old daughter’s death to be in vain, so she’s leading a healing walk today along Highway 11 to raise awareness about concerns for pedestrians’ safety.
Markenna Agnew died on Nov. 28, 2025, after being struck by a transport truck while walking from Long Lake #58 First Nation to Longlac in northwestern Ontario. The family is from the First Nation but lives in the neighbouring community.
The only way for pedestrians to get between Long Lake #58 First Nation and Longlac is by foot, going roughly three kilometres along the highway.
Agnew said she and her husband rushed to pick up Markenna after learning about her highway walk that night, but it was too late. When they arrived, Markenna was being put into an ambulance.
“There’s a lot of questions still for us as we try to navigate through our grief and try to understand how it happened or why,” said Noreen.
Markenna was a student at Migizi Miigwanan Secondary School in Long Lake #58. Her mother said she had many close friends and always helped out around the house. She had plans to get her driver’s licence, graduate from Grade 12, and travel to Los Angeles and New York.
“She was very strong willed, she was very determined,” her mother said. “She controlled the house — she was the boss, she made the rules.”
An investigation into what happened to Markenna on that highway is ongoing and no charges have been laid, Erin McCrea, a spokesperson for Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) North West Region, told CBC News in an email.
After Markenna’s death, the First Nation took swift action to address highway safety concerns, advocating at the provincial and federal levels with support from the municipality where Longlac is located, Greenstone.
“Nobody else is going to do it unless we raise the issues,” said Long Lake #58 Chief John O’Nabigon, co-chair of the Highway 11 Safety Table.
“We can’t go through another winter without taking safety measures.”
Just over 560 people live in Long Lake #58, an Anishinaabe community about 300 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. Longlac’s population is roughly 1,300, according to the last census.
Dakota Brasier, a spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation (MTO), said in an email to CBC News on Tuesday that the province took “immediate” steps to enhance safety along this section of Highway 11.
Long Lake #58 First Nation is located along Highway 11 in northwestern Ontario, about 300 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay. (Marc Doucette/CBC)
They include installing speed display radar signs, upgrading pavement markings, increasing “enforcement blitzes” and enhancing commercial vehicle enforcement, the statement said. The province will also continue to work with Long Lake #58 First Nation as more safety enhancements are developed and put in place along the highway corridor, Brasier said.
The province is also looking to reduce the speed limit to 50 km/h in this area and improve roadway lighting, O’Nabigon added.
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For the long term, Long Lake #58 is leading efforts to build a pedestrian crossing and walking path between Long Lake #58 and Longlac. Planning studies are underway as the First Nation develops a community safety shuttle program, with support from Indigenous Services Canada (ISC). It’s unclear what that support will entail, but it’s hoped the program will be in place by November.
Greenstone Mayor James McPherson said the number of people and traffic in the area has grown substantially in recent years.
“Markenna is not the first person to have had an accident fatality along that stretch,” he said. “It is imperative that we find a means of getting people away from the highway.”
Greenstone Mayor James McPherson says the municipality will continue to support Long Lake #58 First Nation’s efforts to address safety concerns along Highway 11. (Municipality of Greenstone)
While Greenstone backs efforts to build a pedestrian crossing, it would be a big undertaking due to the highway’s proximity to the lake and Canadian National Railway line, McPherson said.
“It’s an elevated stretch of highway, so the logistics of separating people and traffic are going to be huge.”
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McPherson hopes for quick action to address decades of safety concerns as the highway gets busier.
“We’re out of sight, out of mind, yet we’re a community that just about everybody in the country has driven through,” he said.
Thursday’s walk will take place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET, starting at the First Nation and ending in Longlac with support from the OPP. A sacred fire will be lit, and participants will stop at the spot where Markenna died to sing a song in her honour before making their way to a community feast.
“That will also signify completing the walk [home] for her,” said Noreen.
People are seen paying their respects to the late Markenna Agnew, wearing hoodies that say ‘Forever Seventeen’ with a picture of Markenna’s face on them. (Submitted by Noreen Agnew)
With the one-year anniversary of Markenna’s death approaching, Agnew said it’s important that she not succumb to grief.
She also plans to raise money to have a billboard installed along Highway 11 that warns of the safety risks.
“I don’t want anyone to ever have to bury their child again.”
Mental health counselling and crisis support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat at www.hopeforwellness.ca.
