Canada Journal – News of the World Articles and videos to bring you the biggest Canadian news stories from across the country every day
Family and friends of Tina Fontaine gathered near a Manitoba First Nation on Saturday afternoon to remember the life of the 15-year-old girl whose body was found in the Red River in Winnipeg almost a week ago.
Thelma Favel, her great-aunt, said it was heartbreaking to say goodbye to the little girl she raised as her own. “I feel I want to just die with her because I have to go home again without her. I brought her home Wednesday and took to her home where she was always safe,” she said.
It was a week ago that Fontaine’s body was pulled from the Red River, wrapped in plastic, a little over a week after she was reported missing on Aug. 9; police have made no arrests in her murder.
Favel has one message to anyone who knows what happened: Tell someone.
“Even the littlest thing, just to let the police know, because even the littlest thing can turn into the biggest thing ever,” she said.
“It’ll never bring her back, but it’ll bring a little peace.”
Fontaine’s death has galvanized the nation, renewing cries for a national inquiry into Canada’s missing and murdered aboriginal women.
Favel believes something has to be done so this doesn’t keep happening.
“It is not going to bring Tina back, it is not going to bring the aboriginal women that are missing back, but something has to be done to find out why this is happening, especially to aboriginal women — there are so many more of them that are vulnerable,” she said.
The funeral at one point turned slightly chaotic, after Tina’s biological mother — angry that she could not sit in the front row — stormed out of the church.
“Anyone can give birth to a child, but it takes a mom to raise a child,” Favel said of asking Fontaine to move.
Favel will always remember her niece as sweet girl, who was easy to love, with a nurturing spirit that made her dream of one day working at a daycare.
Fontaine’s body was cremated on Saturday and eventually laid to rest next to her father Eugene at the cemetery adjacent to the church.
Agencies/Canadajournal
