Going home in a coffin

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/02/2005 (7645 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD Preston Martin came to Winnipeg two months ago from a northern Manitoba First Nation.

He’s on his way home in a coffin.

A judge sent him here in the care of Child and Family Services for behavioural problems.

A 13-year-old boy has been charged with manslaughter in his shooting death. He told court earlier this week the shooting was an accident.

Preston’s mother, who was in jail when she learned of his death, is demanding to know who was supervising a group of youths when the gun that killed her son was being passed around like a toy last Friday inside a Sherbrook Street apartment.

The suite was provided to a 17-year-old tenant by a private social-services agency.

The suspect and the tenant of the apartment were both under the supervision of B&L Youth Services, a for-profit agency that receives more than $4.7 million a year in government funding.

The tenant was receiving training in independent living from B&L, which operates group homes. The agency also recruits, trains and supports foster parents and provides a variety of other services for CFS.

Preston, however, was under the care of Project Neecheewam Inc., a not-for-profit organization that also provides services for CFS.

“How could they get a hold of a gun? Where could it come from?” his grieving mother, Brenda Martin, asked late yesterday, just before leaving Winnipeg for Moose Lake First Nation, about 100 kilometres east of The Pas, where she is now preparing for her son’s burial.

The boy’s funeral will be held in the northern community tomorrow.

“They told me there were five (teenagers) there at the time of the incident,” she said. “The oldest was 17 and it was his own place… that he was under CFS care.

“They were playing with a gun, passing it around, and (Preston) was shot accidentally.”

In 2003-04, the provincial government and Winnipeg Child and Family Services paid B&L almost $3.3 million for various services. Last week, Family Services and Housing Minister Christine Melnick announced B&L had won an additional contract for 35 new foster-care beds, at a cost of around $1.3 million.

The 13-year-old suspect was living in a B&L group home at the time, said his lawyer, Stan Nozick, who also confirmed that the tenant was receiving help from B&L.

Nozick’s client is in custody at the Manitoba Youth Centre pending a bail hearing.

A Winnipeg spokeswoman for B&L declined comment, and officials with Neecheewam couldn’t be reached.

Melnick wouldn’t comment on the manslaughter case yesterday, except to say “it’s a very upsetting event.”

She said there is a process in place to investigate, and any decision about additional investigations won’t be made until that initial process is complete.

A judge in The Pas had ordered Preston sent to Winnipeg Dec. 16 to live in a group home operated by Project Neecheewam Inc., according to an official with Manitoba Keewatinook Ininew Okimowin, a group that represents northern aboriginal bands.

Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard was visiting The Pas yesterday where he said he was confronted with a barrage of questions from native leaders.

“Why are we shipping our kids down to Winnipeg to get killed?” Gerrard said he was asked repeatedly.

He said he was told the boy was sent to Winnipeg because there weren’t proper facilities for him in The Pas.

Gerrard said he is calling for an independent operational review of the provincial Child and Family Services Department.

“Why were these boys not being adequately supervised?” he asked. “And why are children from northern Manitoba being shipped to Winnipeg?”

Tory family services critic Mavis Taillieu also called for a review.

“Ultimately, it’s the province who is responsible if these kind of things are going on,” said Taillieu. “We’ve already seen one kid die. If they’re not willing to get to the bottom of it, the auditor general should.”

Rene David Bertrand of British Columbia, listed as B&L’s director and president, could not be reached for comment.

The dead boy’s family is considering hiring a lawyer.

Preston’s grandfather, John Martin, an elder with the Moose Lake First Nation, said the family’s attention will turn to finding answers once the boy has been laid to rest.

“They told us he was being looked after,” John Martin said. “Now, to hear the news, it’s terrible. After he’s buried, we’ll get after the people that were supposed to be taking care of him. We’ll seek some answers.”

He said he spent most of the summer with his grandson, who enjoyed camping and attending traditional aboriginal ceremonies.

“He was a pretty good kid,” said Martin, who works part-time at the University College of the North in The Pas.

Brenda Martin was in the Winnipeg Remand Centre when she received the news of the death of her son early Saturday morning.

“I took it very hard,” she said.

She was released yesterday, but is still facing an assault charge that stems from an incident last November.

Donald Norman, who lives across the hall from where the shooting occurred, said a worker from B&L left her card under his door a week before the incident, wanting to know how the 17-year-old tenant was behaving.

Norman said the teen played loud music and there were always people coming and going, but he seemed fine otherwise.

On the night of the shooting, he said, he heard only a loud “thud.” He said he didn’t know the tenant well and he didn’t know the other youths at all.

Janet Mirwaldt, head of the Children’s Advocate office, said she was monitoring the case to ensure the 13-year-old is properly treated by the system.

She said a further review by her office could be held, depending on the outcomes of investigations by the chief medical examiner’s office and Child and Family Services.

Both agencies are reviewing the incident, she said.

Under the Fatality Inquiries Act, the chief medical examiner must conduct an investigation whenever a child in the care of a CFS agency dies. The investigation must include an assessment of the quality or standard of care provided to the child, an examination of the agency’s records and a review of the actions taken by the agency, both with respect to the child.

Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra, the chief medical examiner, said that as well, all unnatural deaths are considered by the inquest committee of his office to determine whether an inquest is necessary.

An inquest would not take place until after criminal proceedings in the case are complete.

No decision on an inquest has been made.

B&L is the last for-profit agency with Manitoba government contracts for youth services. It has operated for 25 years, but has grown rapidly in the last five years.

Most of B&L’s homes are for Level 3 children — usually teenagers with behavioural or substance-abuse problems. Six to eight kids normally live in a group home.

	dave.o’brien@freepress.mb.ca
	jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca