The Empty Shoes Project

Follow and reflect on the footsteps left behind by the tragic victims of impaired driving.

Six people lose their lives to a drunk driver in Canada every day. That’s 2190 people every year – 450 of them children. Those numbers don’t capture non-fatal injuries or the pain of survivors struck by tragedy when someone is killed by an impaired driver. Families and friends of victims are left with layers of loss and memory, and pairs of empty shoes offer a touching reminder of departed loved ones and their personalities.

Julie Wynen started her Empty Shoes Project to honour her daughter, Gracie, who was killed by an impaired driver. She is also determined to connect with other survivors and citizens who are concerned about the flaws in a judicial system in which only 22 per cent of drunk drivers who kill other people are prosecuted.

Explore an assemblage of hundreds of shoes to mark the scourge of impaired driving.