Family, community honour Tina Fontaine as 10-year mark since her death nears

Members of Tina Fontaine's family and community gathered to honour her memory Saturday night, a week before the 10-year anniversary since she was found in Winnipeg's Red River.

"Tina was a sweet, sweet girl," said her brother, Elroy Fontaine, 18, while addressing the crowd at the Alexander Docks near where her body was found in 2014.

"She had a very big heart and she taught me so much in my life. Howtolove and care for people, how the love the ones who've hurt you the most and how to keep going," said Fontaine. "I never lived with Tina, but we spent a lot of time of visits, weekend visits and at family visits and I always looked forward to going to those visits.

"She was the only sister that ever ... treated me like their younger sibling," Fontaine said.

Some of those visits included bus rides to the north Point Douglas area, forSlurpees cream soda and Pepsi flavours and to play atthe park, Fontaine said.

"[We'd] just get away from the visit, from all the drama," said Fontaine. "She was very good at that, keeping me away and safe from the drama that came along with it."

Red ribbons were tied to a fence along theAlexander Docks, a red dress mural on the pavement was touched up and a cedar tree was planted. Drummers also sang and people lit candles to honour the late teen'smemory.

Words to describe the supportall these years later were hard for her little brother to find.

"It means a lot actually, like more than I could ever express," said Fontaine.

Tina was 15 years old when her body was found wrapped in a duvet cover and weighed down in the river by rocks. Police arrested Raymond Cormier and charged him with her murder, but he was acquitted in February 2018, and no one has ever been convicted in her death.

Cormier died in Ottawa in early April, police in the nation's capital said at the time.

Tina, who was from Sagkeeng First Nation, was in the care of Child and Family Services when she died. She began to struggle after her father was murdered in 2011, and soon fell into a world of addiction, homelessness and sexual exploitation after she went to Winnipeg to reconnect with her mother.

The night before she was last reported missing, she was dropped off with a contracted care worker at a downtown hotel, but she later walked away.

Tina's death led to national outcry and her death also helpedgalvanize the federal government into launching the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The inquiry's final report waspublishedin 2019, listing 231 calls for justice in areas including education, health and justice.

ACBC analysispublished in June 2023 saidonly two of thosecalls for justice have beencompleted and more than half hadn't been started.

Additionally,in2019, the Manitoba advocate for children and youth report made five recommendations on how the government and other public bodies could better support youth like Tina, touching on education, mental health, justice and child welfare.

The provincialgovernment also recently said it will be releasing its strategy on missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people in the fall.

"When I was younger, I didn't understand why her face was everywhere ...I was only eight when everything happened," said Fontaine. "It's sad, but I'm glad it started a movement, I'm glad it's opened people's eyes and everything and that people are coming to their senses now."

Kattie-Lee Fontainesaid when she woke up Saturday morning, it "just felt like it was yesterday" when her grandmother got the call that Tina had been found dead.

"When I woke up this morning, I still felt like I could hear my granny's whimpering downstairs, so like that's all that was on my mind today, and my granny haspassed on so I just stayed with my family," she said.

"She was my little cousin," she said. "Mysisters grew up with her, they were like all little sisters."

Kattie-Lee said it meant a lot to her that people are still coming out to support the family. One of them in attendance Saturday was Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who kept a low profile at the gathering.

"I was actually kind of shocked seeing him here because when Tina first passed, me and my sisters did a lot of these marches and these gatherings here."

"We did the first four years because we honour the medicine wheel and we do everything in fours, it was just the way I wasbrought up and taught," she explained. "I never [saw] any of those people come stand up, so I was actually grateful to see him come and stand here without being all famous. He was here as himself."

Kattie-Lee also said she keeps fond memories of Tina close.

"There's a video on Facebook, it gets shared every single year and she just says my name the way she says my name and says she loves and misses me," she said. "It's just something I'll cherish forever."

Meanwhile, Elroy hopes his sister is watching proudly as many keepher memoryalive and continue to fight for justice.

"I hope she feels good that she's never going to be forgotten," said Fontaine. "Even if the whole world forgets her, I'm never going to forget her."