Fontaine verdict called shameful
Three-block-long march went from court to spot at Red River where teen’s body was found
WINNIPEG— Hundreds marched through the streets of Winnipeg a day after a jury acquitted a man accused of killing a 15-year-old Indigenous girl whose body, wrapped in a blanket and weighed down by rocks, was pulled from a river.
The three-block-long march in support of Tina Fontaine’s family began Friday in front of the courthouse and wound its way to the spot at the Red River where the teen’s body was found in August 2014.
Supporters carried signs reading “No Justice No Peace,” “Justice for All” and “Love for Tina.”
On Thursday, a jury found Raymond Cormier, 56, not guilty of second-degree murder.
“We did what we could to bring justice for my baby girl,” Thelma Favel, Tina’s great-aunt who raised her, told the marchers. “Tina, I know, is beside me right now and she’s looking at you and appreciating everything that you’re doing.”
Indigenous leaders speaking at the march reiterated that social services and the justice system are failing Indigenous youth. Fontaine was in government care and staying at a hotel when she disappeared. “This is 2018. Canada, you’ve got to wake up. You talk about reconciliation. Now’s the time to do it,” said Chief Derrick Henderson of the Sagkeeng First Nation which was Tina’s home.
Chief Kevin Hart, speaking to reporters after the jury delivered a non-guilty verdict, said “everybody right now across this country should be ashamed of themselves for the injustice that just occurred here.”
Anishinaabe elder Chickadee Richard said Indigenous youth must be protected.
“Tina represents our babies and our babies are not safe out there,” she said. “There’s monsters out there hurting our babies . . . when is this going to stop?”
There were also calls for Cormier to face other charges related to his relationship with Tina.
“He should have been charged . . . for at least rape and exploitation,” said Marilyn Courchene, a Sagkeeng councillor.
The Crown had argued that a possible motive for the killing was that Cormier had found out how old Tina was. He admitted on undercover police tapes that he had sex with the teen and was heard saying he bet Tina was killed because he found out she was only 15.
The defence had argued that the tapes were hard to hear, that the transcriptions could be wrong and that Cormier’s denial to police of any involvement was the real truth. There was no DNA evidence linking him to Tina and experts could not determine how she died.
Scott Newman, a spokesperson for the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba, said the jury came to a just conclusion.
“There were significant holes in the case that the Crown simply wasn’t able to close. It’s unfortunate that Mr. Cormier was held in custody and put on trial for a case that was as weak as this,” Newman said Friday.
David Milward, an associate professor of law at the University of Manitoba, called the acquittal an injustice.
He said juries usually convict when they hear confessionary statements such as the ones Cormier made, even if there are other gaps in the case.
Niigaan Sinclair, who teaches native studies at the University of Manitoba, said Fontaine’s experience is linked to the unrelenting, brutal violence faced by Indigenous women and children.