As part of the 10 year anniversary of the murder of Tina Fontaine, the Manitoba government announced $986,000 towards a centre to help youth at risk.
“It’s not enough anymore for folks to say yes we believe or support MMIWG2S without putting your money where your mouth is,” said Nahanni Fontaine, minister of Families, Women and Gender Equity for Manitoba.
Tina was a 15 year old girl under the supervision of Child and Family Services that went missing on Aug. 9, 2014. Searchers pulled her body from the Red River in Winnipeg more than a week after she went missing. It is believed she was killed on Aug. 10 of that year.
One man was arrested and tried for her murder. He was acquitted. No other suspects have been identified by police.
Her murder elevated the conversation across country on the plight of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and sparked the conversations for the need for a national inquiry into the systemic problems women, girls and Two-Spirit people face.
Tina’s Safe Haven is a 24 hour drop in centre for at risk youth. This new funding announcement is a joint effort by Manitoba and Canada that aims to end gender violence as part of their National Action Plan.
“It means we can expand those very services and supports including cultural workers, expanding the mental wellness supports that are being provided and of course the biggest excitement is to expand the primary health care services that are available to our young people,” said Shanlee Scott, executive director of Nidinawemaaganag Endaawaad, or Our Relative’s Place in English, the organization that runs the centre.
Amber Laplante, a member of Little Saskatchewan, grew up in Winnipeg’s North End. Like others at the gathering at the forks, she reflects on Tina Fontaine.
“This day, this little girl shook a nation when we all heard about the news,” she told APTN News.
But Tina isn’t the only one Laplante remembers. She thinks of the other women who’ve been found in and around the Red River, just steps away from where the announcement was made.
Including her friend Jana Williams whose remains were dumped along the Red River in March 2021. Laplante was devastated because at the time Williams was six months pregnant.
“I grew up with her. we were a part of the same family, not blood related but the same hood family that I would consider my relatives. To find out what had happened to her and again in the Red River, near that water it was devastating.”
As a survivor of the streets herself, Laplante said she knows the additional staffing and resources at the centre can make a difference.
Tina’s Safe Haven was originally opened in 2018 and was given a blessing from Fontaine’s family to carry her name and legacy.
