Winnipeggers critical of police for not doing more for Fontaine

Winnipeggers are reacting with anger and frustration over the news that Winnipeg police officers had contact with Tina Fontaine within 24 hours of her final disappearance.

Two officers spoke with the teen during a traffic stop on Aug. 8. She disappeared the next day and was found dead in a bag in the Red River on Aug. 17.

Winnipeg police Chief Devon Clunis addressed the media Thursday.

"I was informed of this discovery on Sept. 3 and immediately directed the professional standards unit to commence an investigation."  

Bernadette Smith, who leads the Drag the Red initiative, said the information comes as yet another sign of cracks in a system meant to protect children.

“Even if they did check in the car and she was on the missing person's list, to let her go, I mean, they have to take some responsibility for that,” said Smith.

Smith's sister, Claudette Osborne, disappeared in 2008.

• Family marks sad anniversary of missing Winnipeg woman

She wants to see steps taken to fix the fractured relationship between police and the aboriginal community.

"There is no sense,” said Thelma Favel, Tina's great aunt. “They don't care, nobody seems to care when it comes to aboriginal children."

Favel said she believes her niece would be alive today if everyone had done their job.

"To hear that about the Winnipeg police, especially when they're supposed to protect and serve the people of Winnipeg or anybody," said Favel.

"For them to just let her go knowing... I don't know why they let her go but it must have come up on their system she was a runaway."

Superintendent Danny Smyth with the investigative operation unit said there is a protocol for officers coming in contact with a missing person.

“If officers come across a person who has been reported missing, I would expect them to take that person into their care,” said Smyth.

Favel also just found out paramedics picked Fontaine up by ambulance out of an alley on Ellice Street the same day police claim to have last made contact with her niece.

“The officers that have been desensitized through the years," said Smith. "Same issues, same people; they just turn their blind eye to it and don't want to deal with it anymore.”

Child and Family Services also played a role in allowing Tina Fontaine to slip through the cracks, said Smith.

First Nations leaders shocked

First Nations leaders are shocked Winnipeg Police were in contact with Fontaine Aug. 8.

Grand Chief David Harper said it was neglect on the part of officers who stopped a car Fontaine was in 24 hours before her final disappearance

• Tina Fontaine died because police, CFS failed her, family says 

Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Derek Nepinak said it comes down to systemic problems.

“I was really shocked and saddened," said Nepinak. "I was hurt, and I had to go through my own grieving in recognizing the failure of the systems that were supposed to be in place to protect."

Both Harper and Nepinak said this is yet another reason to hold a national inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women.

“Whether it be CFS or the public health system or the Winnipeg police, we've taken it for granted that they're always going to make the best decisions and that they care," said Nepinak. "Often times we find, especially in the case with young Tina, that it's not too hard to fall between the cracks.”

The two officers involved in the Aug. 8 contact with Fontaine have been reassigned to non operational duties.