Arrest brings new optimism for grieving sister

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/12/2015 (3927 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The sister of an indigenous Manitoba woman who has been missing for seven years says news of an arrest in the 2014 slaying of Tina Fontaine brings feelings of hope and jealousy.

“I had a range of emotions,” Bernadette Smith said Friday. “You’re happy for her family. But you wonder if he is responsible for any other cases, or possibly even your own loved one’s.”

Smith’s sister, Claudette Osborne-Tyo, disappeared in Winnipeg in 2008. Her family claims police ignored their initial attempts to report her as missing.

Smith said she is jealous because her sister’s case is unsolved. But she added the arrest of a 53-year-old man in Tina’s homicide gives her hope police may find answers in her sister’s case.

“It shows the police are actually doing something,” she said. “I think a lot of people have given up hope.”

Smith was in Ottawa Friday to attend a meeting between federal cabinet ministers and families of missing and slain indigenous women.

They are working on the upcoming national inquiry into violence against indigenous women. RCMP have a database of more than 1,200 cases of indigenous women and girls who have gone missing or been slain in Canada since 1980. About 200 of them are Manitoba cases.

The families and ministers were in a sharing circle when they received news a man had been charged with Tina’s slaying.

Nahanni Fontaine, an adviser on indigenous women’s issues to the Manitoba government, received a text message and shared it with several of the families.

“Everybody just gasped,” said Fontaine, who isn’t related to Tina. “There is relief. There is shock. There is concern for the family.”

Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett told reporters she hopes news of the arrest comforts Tina’s family.

“But it is also a reminder of the serious and tragic events that continue to occur to indigenous women and girls across the country, and it only underscores the necessity of moving ahead with the national public inquiry,” Bennett said.

She said Tina has become the face of the issue.

“Tina Fontaine’s death galvanized a nation.”

Nahanni Fontaine agreed, saying Tina’s homicide touched a nerve with the public and police.

Bennett will continue next month to lead the consultation phase of the inquiry.

Smith said having three federal cabinet ministers sit and listen to the families is a big change from how the Tory government acted.

“I feel more hopeful,” she said. “I hope this was just a little snippet of what is to come.”

Indigenous women account for about four per cent of the female population, but 16 per cent of homicides in Canada.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca