School shootings prompt calls for support, change
‘The link is hope. Every community needs that’
LA LOCHE, Sask. — The family of a teacher who was among four people killed in shootings in northern Saskatchewan says the country must listen to the community, act on change that is needed and ask how to prevent anyone from experiencing similar loss.
The family of Adam Wood said in a statement what happened in La Loche gives the country an “opportunity to examine ourselves and hopefully, come out better and stronger as a community and a nation. We feel sadness and remorse but rarely do we use that to fuel change.”
The family says the leaders of the village need to be heard to prevent similar losses in the future.
“Rather than looking for someone to blame, or coming up with outsider opinions of reasons why this occurred, we must stop and listen to the voices of La Loche.
“The leaders and members of the community know what types of support and changes are needed. Our responsibility as a nation is to listen and respond to create lasting systemic change.”
La Loche is an isolated community connected by one road from the south and can be reached by an ice road from Fort McMurray, Alta., in winter.
A report from the area’s health region in 2007-08 noted the sprawling geographic region in the province’s northwest had a suicide rate three times the Saskatchewan average.
Archbishop Murray Chatlain of Keewatin-Le Pas also made an appeal Sunday for the community to find hope for its young people.
On Saturday night, Chatlain met with the family of a 17-year-old boy charged in the shootings, which left seven other people in critical condition, to offer support in this “nightmare experience that they’re going through and (try) to offer them the support of the community.”
“We’re not blaming them ... It’s just, this has happened and now how do we bring healing and support and try (to) find ways for our young people to have more hope?”
The 17-year-old boy, who can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted murder and unauthorized possession of a firearm. He is scheduled to appear Monday in Meadow Lake provincial court.
Saskatchewan RCMP say during an eight-minute period in the La Loche Community school on Friday afternoon, nine people were shot.
Wood, 35, who began teaching at the school in September, and teacher’s aide Marie Janvier, 21, died after they were shot at the school.
Brothers Drayden Fontaine, 13, and Dayne Fontaine, 17, were discovered by the RCMP in a home not far away.
Premier Brad Wall and federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale met with community leaders in La Loche Sunday.
After the meeting, Wall said the community will get the support it needs from the province to help people struggling after Friday’s tragedy, as well as in the longer term for its infrastructure, education and health care needs.
“The link is hope. Every community needs that,” he said. “Certainly, young people need a sense of hope and I think a lot of mental-health issues flow from a lack of hope for people, not all of them but some, and so those are quality of life issues with respect to the education system and the health-care system.”
“It’s just, this has happened and now how do we bring healing and support and try (to) find ways for our young people to have more hope?”
— Archbishop Murray Chatlain