Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 10, 2024, Winnipeg, Manitoba www.venviliving.com/thewellington Feast, Drink & Be Merry Friday, August 23 • 5:00-7:15pm Seating is limited. Call 204-831-0788 to RSVP! Admission: $50/person 3161 Grant Ave, Winnipeg • 204-831-0788 presents From bratwurst to brews, we’re celebrating authentic German flavours with food and drinks along with enjoying live entertainment from The German Club Band. Expand your view of the world Space to explore. Stories to inspire. humanrights.ca WINNIPEGFREEPRESS.COM ● A7 NEWS I LOCAL SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 2024 Without all the public attention on the experiences of Indigenous women and girls and the MMIWG inquiry, there would likely have been less support for the search-the- landfill movement that helped lead to a different party winning last fall’s provin- cial election. Wab Kinew, who credits what happened to Tina Fontaine as motivating him to enter politics, is now premier. Two women who came to prominence advocating for people like Tina — Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine and Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith — are in his cabinet. The five-year anniversary of Tina’s passing also saw federal legislation seeking to directly address Tina’s experiences (and TRC call to action No. 4) take effect. The legislation, which had been called Bill C-92, enables Indigenous governments and groups to take control of First Nations, Inuit and Métis child welfare. I have mentioned only the obvious changes. There’s much more work to do, of course. Racism, institutions and govern- ments are hard to change. Yet, anyone who works and lives in Man- itoba is aware that nearly every resident, including politicians and business leaders, knows the name Tina Fontaine. We all owe her a deep debt of gratitude. niigaan.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca SINCLAIR ● FROM A6 The 115-page document calls for sweeping improvements to child-welfare agencies, youth addictions treatment and schools. Au- thor Daphne Penrose called Tina’s struggles part of a “shameful legacy” rooted in colo- nialism in Canada. “Children are going to die if we don’t make changes,” she said at the time “This can’t be another report that gets shelved.” Her story was one of many that inspired the national inquiry into MMIWG, which pro- duced 231 calls for justice in 2019. Five years later, few have been completed. Hilda Anderson-Pyrz leads the National Family and Survivors Circle, established in response to the inquiry. Some of the most important calls that have yet to be completed, she says, focus on estab- lishing independent accountability measures outside of the federal government, agencies that could receive complaints and concerns from Indigenous groups and individuals. “(Without that), we’re going to continue to see a lack of action and that lack of action results in the continuance of the violence we experience, how we go missing and how we end up murdered,” she says. A report commissioned by the federal government published in June said many of the 600-plus people interviewed for the report believed there was “little action compounded by a lack of accountability” on the issue and outlined a timeline that could see a national ombudsperson and 13 regional counterparts in place by 2025. Investments into the calls for justice and improved supports for at-risk Indigenous youths have been made since Tina’s death, but limited progress means more suffering. “The change has been very slow. Is it fast enough? Absolutely not… the nation should be deeply concerned that this national crisis is still ongoing,” Anderson-Pyrz says. ● ● ● Raymond Cormier, the man acquitted in 2018 of second-degree murder in Tina’s death, died in Ottawa in April. Cormier met Tina in 2014 and he admitted to arguing with her shortly before she died but denied killing her. The investigation that led to his arrest included surveillance bugs in his apartment and interviews with undercover police offi- cers. No DNA evidence was ever found. When Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee thinks about Tina, he also thinks about injustice. “That is the thing that is so unfortunate about her passing, is that there’s no justice for Tina Fontaine and that should never happen in this country,” he says. He believes Indigenous youths are made vulnerable because of things that aren’t entirely obvious to people outside of First Na- tions communities. A recent concern brought to his attention, for example, is young girls forced to evacuate their homes with their families because of wildfires. Some have been approached in city hotels by adults who could be predators, he said. In 2017, MKO created its MMIWG liaison unit with the goal of establishing a safe place for families to find comfort and support with each other. The unit provides counselling, shows up to trials and tries to provide holistic, culturally informed support to at-risk youth, Settee says. “That’s what we are doing, preventative measures and being proactive,” he says. “That needs to continue to happen.” Statistics Canada data released in 2022 found that Manitoba had the highest rate of Indigenous homicide victims in the country. Community members in Gods Lake Nar- rows still gather where 15-year-old Leah Anderson was found brutally beaten to death in 2013 to call for justice. No arrests have been made in relation to her death. Last week, 18-year-old Kendara Ballan- tyne’s loved ones held their annual walk in her memory. She was found dead in The Pas in 2019 and her case is still unsolved. Tina’s legacy is in those walks, in the advo- cacy work MKO and other organizations do and in families fighting to keep Indigenous women and girls safe, Settee says. “I think it woke us up,” he says. “It woke up the nation and showed that this is a real epidemic and that something must be done, and leadership must be involved.” malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca A DECADE OF DISTRESS ● FROM A6 RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS Elroy Fontaine looks out over the Alexander Docks just off Waterfront Drive where the remains of his sister were found 10 years ago. ;