Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers!
(c) Cheryl Lynne Bradley 2010

People either love or hate Wal-Mart. By the packed parking lots at any of the local Wal-Mart’s I have shopped at or driven by, it looks like there is a lot of love for Wal-Mart. I am only an occasional Wal-Mart shopper, I must admit to having ambivalent feelings for the corporate machine that is Wally World. There is one thing that they do at the Wal-Mart stores in Canada that other retailers should definitely follow suit; they have a dedicated policy and program oriented on keeping our children safe. I am sure all retailers have a policy on how they handle a child going missing within their store and many have children’s identification programs which they either host or sponsor, but Wal-Mart stores in Canada are the only ones I have seen with a dedicated Missing Children’s Wall.

Wal-Mart actively participates and co-operates with the RCMP’s National Missing Children Services and the Missing Children’s Network. Every month in each store new posters with pictures and descriptions of missing children are posted on these special walls in their stores and in their corporate offices. That is a lot of exposure for these sad stories; potentially millions of people in the month before the posters are changed for a new set of missing children. The numbers of missing children in North America are staggering, the numbers of the just plain missing are overwhelming. Often missing children are part of a custodial dispute and have been taken by the non-custodial parent. Children run away. They may be the victim of a stranger abduction, human trafficking or a misadventure. One thing is certain, the world isn’t flat and they didn’t fall off the edges.

Every time I am in a Wal-Mart store, I stop and look at these prominently displayed posters. The store closest to me has them on the wall between the washroom entrances at the front of the store right above the water fountain. They are between the Customer Service Desk and the MacDonald’s. They are clearly visible from every cash register in the store. Someone has taken the time to neatly arrange and post the 12 notices on this wall. They are clean and orderly as if someone has paid very special attention to the task. Despite this prominent placement, I never see anyone look at them. I stand in front of them for at least 5 minutes every time I am there. People bustle by me and never even raise their eyes. We live in a busy and businesslike world, so wrapped up in our consumerism and our rush to get our Rolled Back item and then off to the Tim Horton’s for a coffee, we don’t even take 30 seconds to stop and look at the faces of these innocent children who have families and friends frantically worried for their safety.

On the wall today were a missing local boy, not seen since October. Another young man from Quebec, last seen in Manitoba last February when he approached a trucker and asked for a ride back to Montreal but was turned down. Three other missing children from the USA with no real information, one girl has scars on her hands, one has had her appearance change (there is a picture of her after she went missing) and another young man has a speech impediment. The rest are all family abductions. One case was involving one child who may be in Toronto, another with 2 children and the others with 3 children. One Father had taken his children, but the rest were all Mothers – all non-custodial parents who didn’t return the child after a visit.

They could be those nice kids living up the hall or around the corner. They could be on the local transit with you. They could be at the playground with your children or attending the same school. They could be with that group of teenagers you don’t even acknowledge or look at when you walk by. They could be anywhere, but if you never even looked at a poster how would you know?

Somewhere, somebody is crying over their missing kid. How heartbroken and devastated would you be if your child, your grandchild, your niece or nephew, just disappeared and you were powerless to do anything about it? You would place a lot of hope in those posters and in people to be vigilant and observant.

People don’t want to get involved. If a situation doesn’t personally involve us, we generally don’t give it much thought. This type of public apathy is the biggest obstacle in missing persons cases whether it be a child or an adult. The police are under resourced and the government isn’t interested. We are still waiting for a National DNA Registry for Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains. It has languished in Parliament through the legislative process for several years. It is called Lindsey’s Law. Telephone, write or email your MP and push to get this legislation through but for heavens’ sake, don’t ever walk by another Missing Person poster without stopping and taking a good long look. You, the regular, ordinary Wal-Mart shopper, could end up being a hero. Isn’t that better than rolled back pricing or rolling up the rim to win?

Porchlight Canada for the Missing and Unidentified

The Charley Project

The Doe Network

The North American Missing Persons Network