Policing critic to guide province on missing, murdered women

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This article was published 04/12/2010 (5470 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of Manitoba’s most outspoken critics on policing will advise the Manitoba government on strategies to deal with unsolved cases of missing and murdered women as part of her new job.

Nahanni Fontaine, the former director of justice for the Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO) is now a special adviser on aboriginal women’s issues to the province.

“As an aboriginal woman and as a mother, I feel and connect with families that have lost or are still searching for their loved one,” said Fontaine. “When you hear of another woman that’s gone missing, it absolutely breaks my heart.”

Fontaine comes into the role as the Winnipeg Police Service deals with two more recent cases of local women who’ve disappeared without a trace.

As far back as 2003, Fontaine highlighted the issue of murdered and missing women to members of the European Union and the United Nations.

“It just adds tragedy upon tragedy that aboriginal women and girls are not safe,” said Fontaine, who reports to the provincial cabinet’s aboriginal issues committee.

“If aboriginal women and little girls aren’t safe, none of us are safe.”

She said she hopes to play a liaison role among victims’ families, government and police agencies, in what she calls a “massive” justice system.

“People get lost in it,” she said.

Fontaine’s experience includes roles on the now-disbanded Winnipeg Police Advisory Board and the Sexually Exploited Youth Community Coalition.

In 2007, Fontaine and family members of slain 17-year-old Fonassa Bruyere called for a dedicated police task force to look at a cases involving missing and murdered women.

By 2009, the task force was created following mounting public outrage after the deaths of Cherisse Houle, 17, and Hillary Angel Wilson, 18. In all three cases, the girls’ bodies were dumped in fields.

Police haven’t announced charges in any of those deaths.

For friends and family members of Amber Guiboche, 20, and Mildred Flett, 51, fear grows as the days mount without hearing from the women. Flett was last heard from in early June, according to police. Her family hasn’t seen her since.

“Nobody knows where she is,” said Wesley Flett, Mildred’s brother, who lives in The Pas.

He said he’s grown frustrated trying to reach police for updates about the case, and said it’s unlike his sister to go six months without contacting family.

Another case to hit headlines recently is Guiboche’s disappearance.

According to interviews by the Free Press, Guiboche was last seen on Nov. 10 climbing into a red truck near William Avenue and Isabel Street at about 11:45 p.m.

Police said they are “very concerned” about her whereabouts after an intensive investigation hasn’t turned her up.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca