Micah Messent, an employee of the B.C. Parks Service, has been identified on social media as one of 18 Canadians killed in Sunday’s Ethiopian Airlines crash.
The Courtenay man was headed to a United Nations Environment Assembly in Kenya when the Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliner crashed near Addis Ababa shortly after takeoff, killing all 157 people on board.
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On Friday Messent, who was Metis and worked as an Indigenous Relations analyst, posted to Facebook: "Pretty stoked to announce that I‘ve been selected by @unacanada as a member of their delegation for the 4th @unitednations Assembly of the Environment! Im headed to Kenya TOMORROW where I'll have the chance to meet with other passionate youth and leaders from around the world and explore how we can tackle the biggest challenges that are facing our generation."
On Instagram, he posted a similar message: "I'm so grateful for this opportunity and want to thank all of the people in my life who have helped me get this far. Wish me luck!"
There are now dozens of comments under that post offering condolences.
"An unbelievable tragedy and I am frozen with disbelief," one post said.
"If anyone was going to change the world it would have been him," another wrote.
A third simply posted, "Rest in peace Micah."
According to an online profile, Messent was the youngest of five siblings raised in the traditional territory of the K’omoks peoples in the Comox Valley.
He graduated to G.P Vanier Secondary School in 2013, and got a Bachelor of Arts degree in Indigenous studies at Vancouver Island University.
In that profile, he wrote: "Growing up I spent much of my time exploring various communities across Vancouver Island with my family and sailing around the islands and inlets located throughout the Salish sea (the ocean between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island), learning the rich histories and teachings associated with various traditional territories.
"My grandparents settled in a small town called Ucluelet on the West coast of Vancouver Island near Tofino and because of this a great deal of my time was also spent on the beautiful and biodiverse shorelines between the two towns. A passion for the natural world and its preservation stemmed from all of these adventures."
A CTV News reporter reached Messent’s mother by phone, but she didn’t want to speak and asked for privacy.
