Northern Manitoba family making funeral plans for fatally stabbed teen girl

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This article was published 21/12/2023 (627 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Loved ones of a 14-year-year-old girl who was stabbed to death in downtown Winnipeg are preparing to hold her funeral a few days after Christmas.

A viewing is being held in a northern Manitoba community Friday afternoon, ahead of a memorial service next week, a family member said.

“It’s devastating,” the relative said during a brief phone interview before departing on a long drive to the community.

The girl was killed in a daylight attack on a Graham Avenue sidewalk, west of Fort Street, at about 1 p.m. last Friday.

A 17-year-old boy is charged with second-degree murder.

The Winnipeg Police Service said the girl was stabbed multiple times during an argument with a youth who was with her and two other girls.

The boy appeared in youth court Wednesday before provincial court Judge Kusham Sharma, the same judge who presided over a bail hearing for the victim one day before she was killed.

Sharma, at the request of the boy’s lawyer, Brett Gladstone, ordered a forensic psychiatric report to be completed by Jan. 3. The teen’s next court date is Jan. 5.

During the girl’s bail hearing Dec. 14, Sharma expressed alarm over the lack of appropriate housing supports to keep her safe. The teen was in the care of a child and family services agency.

She was in custody after being charged with biting an outreach worker on the arm and a handful of curfew-related offences.

When she was granted bail that day, a firm placement had not yet been secured for her, court heard. A foster home or emergency placement were among the options for her.

Sherry Gott, Manitoba’s advocate for children and youth, will review the girl’s death and her circumstances, given the victim’s involvement in the child welfare and youth justice systems.

An inner-city youth worker said outreach staff, who help some of the province’s most vulnerable children, were heartbroken by the girl’s death.

“It was devastating, what happened here with this girl,” he said. “I’ve seen too many of these. The system, it’s just failing them.”

The Indigenous child was moved from northern Manitoba to Winnipeg in the months before her death, living in multiple foster homes during her lifetime, according to a former foster mother.

It’s a “setup for failure” when children in care are moved from an isolated northern or rural community to Winnipeg, “where they have 100 times more access to anything,” said the youth worker.

He helps kids who are experiencing one or a combination of challenges, such as mental-health issues, drug addiction and various forms of trauma. Some are affiliated with street gangs.

There aren’t enough youth treatment centres to meet the need, he said.

The youth worker also expressed concerns over the untold number of children carrying knives or other weapons. Some carry a blade for protection, while others arm themselves because “they think they’re gangsters,” he said.

Winnipeg community activist Sel Burrows raised similar concerns, following last week’s slaying.

“We’re seeing it time and time again,” he said of knife attacks involving young people.

Drug dealers are preying on vulnerable kids, exposing some to meth or other drugs at young ages, the youth worker warned.

“These gang members are not the same anymore,” he said. “Back in our day, there was a respect. You don’t give the kids, the pregnant girls (drugs).

“Now, these guys don’t care. They’re giving (drugs) to 11-year-old kids.”

— with files from Dean Pritchard

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca