Memorial walk planned for 10th anniversary of Tina Fontaine’s death in August

Great-aunt calls for all missing and murdered Indigenous peoples to be honoured.

APTN News: For nearly a decade, Thelma Favel has kept the curtains in her living room closed.

It stops her from looking out the window and waiting for her grand-niece Tina Fontaine to come home.

“Not a day goes by that she’s not on my mind,” Favel told APTN News. “What would she be doing today? Would she be a mother, or what kind of career would she have? Just stuff that parents, grandparents wish for their kids.

“But (her life) was taken away when she was 15. And she’s frozen at 15.”

Tina was from Sagkeeng Anicinabe Nation, 120 km north of Winnipeg, where Favel still lives today. Her body was discovered in Winnipeg’s Red River on Aug. 17, 2014, wrapped in plastic and a duvet cover. She has been reported missing on July 17, 2014.

She was just 15 years old.

Raymond Cormier, the man charged with second-degree murder in Tina’s death, was acquitted in 2018. He died in Ontario on April 3.

In Favel’s home, portraits of Tina – from school photos to paintings created in her honour – hang on the walls.

Recently, Favel began conversing with one of them, as if Tina was in the room.

“I was sitting in my room, and her picture is above my bed, and I was looking at her and I said, ‘Ten years is coming up, baby. What more do you want me to do?’” Favel said in an interview.

As she continued speaking to the spirit, Favel says an intense feeling washed over her, as her late grand-niece responded with a wish.

“She wanted a feast, a walk – not just for her, but for all murdered and missing women, girls, men, boys. She wants them all remembered,” Favel said.

Turning grief into action

Favel was determined to make Tina’s wish a reality.

She reached out to Marilyn Courchene, a former Sagkeeng band councillor and long-time advocate for MMIWG2S+, who quickly sprang into action.

Now, they’re inviting families and supporters to Sagkeeng Anicinabe First Nation on Aug. 17 – the 10-year anniversary of her death.

They’ll host a memorial walk to honour Tina and all missing and murdered Indigenous peoples starting from the Sagkeeng Catholic Church.

Tina’s community has the highest number of unsolved MMIWG2S+ cases of any First Nation in Canada, according to its Chief E. J. Fontaine.

MMIWG crisis

Her death threw a spotlight on the crisis and prompted people across the country to take action, and is often credited with pushing the federal government to launch the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Ten years on, Courchene says things look more hopeful.

“Now you see the red ribbons along bridges in Manitoba. You see prayer walks and (sacred) fires going, you know, feasting going for families that are starting to engage on their own,” she said.

However, since the national inquiry’s final report was released in June 2019, warning the continuing violence was a sign of genocide, Favel says there’s still a long way to go.

“When we lose someone, or there’s someone going missing, it can’t just be the family,” she said. “We need a unit where they will come to the family and say, ‘we’re here to help.’”

Domestic violence shelter needed

Recently, the chief says Sagkeeng was denied funding to open a women’s shelter through a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation initiative.

“We have lots of our women go missing…they come from violent and abusive situations, so they reach out to the community for shelter and we have no place to put them in the community,” Fontaine told APTN over the phone.

“They migrate to the city to find shelter and they find out many times that the shelters are full, so what happens is they end up roaming the streets, going into vulnerable situations.”

Fontaine said the community is asking CMHC to overturn its decision.

But CMHC told APTN there wasn’t enough funding available to support all of the communities that applied.

Letting go, but never forgetting

As the community gears up to fulfil Tina’s wish, Favel has one for herself, too.

She hopes to muster the courage to open those living room curtains – letting go, but never forgetting her grand niece.

“This is my way of honouring Tina,” she said. “To let her know that she’ll never be forgotten. The (Manitoba) premier called her the face of change, and which she was. She woke up everybody.”

The walk is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. on Aug. 17, starting from Sagkeeng Catholic Church.