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By Martin Cleary
As the month of April started to fade, there was no better place in the world to be than Quebec’s Boucherville Curling Club for the dynamic Shauna Petrie.
A two-time Ontario wheelchair curling champion, the Ottawa-born-and-raised Petrie was competing at the Canadian wheelchair curling championship for the first time as a skip in a sport she started later in her life.
At age 16, Petrie was in a parachuting accident, causing paraplegia. But she wasn’t overcome by that moment. Instead, she charged into that new life with determination, positivity and the desire to be creative, productive and happy. Those traits followed her for the next 41 years as she made her mark in an array of areas.
She was thrilled to experience her second national wheelchair curling championship with her rink of third Billy Bridges, who gravitated to the sport two years ago after the end of his storied para hockey career as a six-time Paralympian, second Jeff Harris, lead Sheri Roberts, alternate Chris Rees, a seven-time Ontario champion, and coach Graeme McCarrell, the 1998 Brier and world men’s curling champion with skip Wayne Middaugh.
The Toronto Wheelchair Curling Team, which plays out of the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, was the Ontario representative at nationals. It lost its first game to Alberta by a wide margin April 28, but the co-ed team looked forward to its next match a day later.
Unfortunately, it would be the team’s last match together.
Petrie, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, took ill during the match against Quebec No. 2. Doctors determined her cancer had returned. Petrie, who was a member of the Dixie Curling Club in Toronto, passed away on May 10. She was 60.
“What a nightmare,” offered Bridges as he started to describe the difficult day Petrie was facing and how it affected her teammates.
“Shauna was a bit ill and had chills. In the second game, she started to turn yellow and was having health problems. We forced her hand to go to the hospital. She was driven back to Ontario. Unfortunately, her cancer had come back.”
Focusing on curling became a secondary matter for Bridges, Harris and Roberts as the team followed Petrie’s wishes to continue competing at the national championships. The Ontario team finished fifth in pool A at 1-4 and lost the ninth-place classification match 8-4 to Nova Scotia.
“She said we had to stay. We were all there because of her,” Bridges added.
“Obviously, to get into (the playoffs), we had to win all our matches. But that was the last thing we were thinking about. We were thinking of Shauna. You could see how much it meant to not only the other players, but also the whole wheelchair curling community.”
For the final three games, Bridges took over the role as skip. As a high-performance athlete in para hockey, wheelchair basketball and athletics, he was familiar with pressure and controlling excitement. But keeping Petrie in his thoughts was necessary, but also unnerving.
“I tried to keep the team level and be positive,” he explained.
Petrie contacted Bridges only a few weeks before the start of the Ontario wheelchair curling championship in mid-March at the Galt Curling Club as player Chris Rees was unable to join the team. Bridges only started curling two years ago at the Oakville Curling Club as a competitive and social outlet, after retiring from para hockey, where he was a four-time Paralympic Games and nine-time world championship medallist.
Bridges, who has spina bifida, took the advice of a neighbour and tried curling. It was like he had won a large lottery. He fully embraced the sport and is the skip for three different teams, plays in two leagues, competes in doubles and is a spare for other teams.
Petrie, who played the third position when the Rees rink won the 2018 Ontario wheelchair curling title, read about Bridges’ enthusiasm for the sport, contacted him and asked him to join her team.
“She was wonderful. She knew right away what shot to take,” Bridges said. “She played to everyone’s strengths and had a knack for making the game fun for everyone. Everyone could be themselves.
“She had extremely high expectations for everybody, but only because she had the same expectations for herself. If you made a bad shot, she’d let you know it. She was incredibly knowledgeable about the game.”
Bridges called her “an absolute force,” which was stamped on many parts of her life.
As a pre-teen, Petrie delivered newspapers, scooped ice cream in the night shift for Baskin-Robbins and enjoyed a good prank. As a student at J.S. Woodsworth Secondary School, she was part of the first French immersion class in Ottawa, receiving a specialized honours degree in French, and earned her bachelor and masters degrees in éducation en français.
She became the first French immersion teacher in Canada to use a wheelchair, which was uplifting for her students and colleagues. She was a strong advocate for people with disabilities and received an Ontario community activism award from the Governor General. Queen Elizabeth II also attended the tea party at Rideau Hall.
Petrie and her husband Dave Krook started a travel company for people with disabilities to improve the quality of their vacations.
Her leadership was evident as she was a member of several boards of directors and enthusiastically planned family adventures.
She also became a fanatic in the board game Scrabble. Petrie was a nationally-ranked Scrabble player and enjoyed international matches as well as staging a week-long Scrabble camp for her three nieces and one nephew.
She was attracted to many wheelchair sports – downhill skiing, tennis, curling, hand cycling, boxing and squash – to maintain her fitness and stretch her boundaries.
Her family and friends will remember Petrie for her laughter, a mischievous sense of humour, triumph, resilience and unstoppable spirit.
The Toronto Wheelchair Curling Team is planning to gather on Sunday in Toronto to remember Petrie as a remarkable person and a committed curler.
“We must make sure her legacy doesn’t fall by the wayside,” Bridges added. “We can take that back to our clubs and make sure it doesn’t dwindle.”
Here are three tributes from people whose lives were touched by Petrie:
“My deepest sympathy to you, Bruce (Petrie, father). I lost contact with you over 40 years ago, but never forgot the accident that left Shauna a paraplegic. She turned out to become a most remarkable woman with accomplishments beyond human expectations, a most extraordinary example of character.” – Guy Leclerc
“Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to curl on the same team with Shauna as we were both skips. She was a fierce competitor with her signature weapon … a draw. Shauna epitomized a warrior whose challenges were always met with optimism. You will not be forgotten.” – Judy and Arne Pfeiff
“My deepest sympathy to Shauna’s family on your loss. Shauna was a student of mine in French Immersion during those early years at J.S. Woodsworth Secondary School. She was then, as she was throughout her life, a bright and strong-willed person. Her accident sent shock waves through the school community, so it was wonderful to meet again, many years later in the school board’s parking lot, and learn that she had been hired to teach. It was clear from her enthusiasm that Shauna’s life would be defined by a forward trajectory of her own making. I am deeply saddened that her life has ended far too soon.” – Angie (Spence) Kelly