‘Every system failed her’: reaction to advocate’s report on Tina Fontaine

SAGKEENG FIRST NATION, Man. – A report into the death of Tina Fontaine paints a bleak picture: a 15-year-old with acute mental health issues denied support and turned away by social agencies.

Manitoba’s Child Advocate Daphne Penrose released her investigation Tuesday with a handful of recommendation to better support services increase accessibility of those services to kids and teens–interventions that came too late for Tina.

READ MORE: Tina Fontaine asked for help before she died: children’s advocate

“Every system failed her,” Thelma Favel, Tina’s great-aunt who raised her, said after Penrose delivered the report to her before it was officially released.

Favel said she is happy with the recommendations and family members hope the report will make sure no other children fall through the cracks.

Tina spent much of her childhood living with Favel at Sagkeeng. But the teen struggled to cope after her father, Eugene Fontaine, was beaten to death in 2011. Two men pleaded guilty to manslaughter and victim impact statements at their trial described how Tina drifted away from the people closest to her after his death.

Favel remembers Tina as kind, funny and healthy, weighing more than 100 pounds when she left for the city. Her body weighed 72 pounds when it was pulled from the river.

During the second-degree murder trial for Raymond Cormier–the man acquitted last year in Tina’s death–court heard details about what happened in the weeks after she left the First Nation.

The teenager was placed in a hotel by social workers. She spent time on the streets and was sexually exploited. She was also treated at a hospital, interacted with police and called 911.

There were still many questions after the trial about what happened to Tina. Favel said some of those answers can be found in the advocate’s report.

“I’m just happy the way they wrote [the report], that they investigated and everything,” said Favel.

WATCH: Politicians react to report

Meantime, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) says the report is only a start. The AMC is renewing its call for an independent inquiry into Tina’s death.

“The tragic death of Tina has been a rallying cry for everyone in Manitoba to deal with the problems First Nations girls and boys face in their lives, and the many services and jurisdictions that deal with First Nations children and youth,” said War Lake First Nation Chief Betsy Kennedy, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs’ Acting Grand Chief in a release.

“An investigation on how to best respond to this sad story was an opportunity for the Manitoba government to work with First Nations on an inter-jurisdictional basis. That did not happen”

Kennedy says while having both the provincial government and the AMC recognize that Tina was not an anomaly and there is a larger problem at play, this report is only a stepping stone.

“The content remains firmly based in a colonial approach as it pushes First Nations aside and advances an investigation from outside provincial jurisdiction, and does not attempt to reconcile working with First Nations and respect our jurisdiction.”

Kennedy also said the report didn’t address all the questions concerns about Tina’s death.

“Manitoba not only must have the political will to only implement these recommendations but also implement what Manitoba First Nations have identified in Families First, as well as fully respond to the report of the National Inquiry into MMIWG.”