Death of Tina Fontaine

In 1994, Duck described to her caseworker feeling "depressed," "suicidal," "isolated, alone, and unloved."

In the spring of 1996, at the age of 14, Duck gave birth to her first child, who was immediately and permanently taken from her by Child and Family Services.

Tina Michelle Fontaine (1 January 1999 – c. 10 August 2014) was a First Nations teenage girl who was reported missing and died in August 2014.

Her case is considered among the high number of missing and murdered Indigenous women of Canada, and her death renewed calls by activists for the government to conduct a national inquiry into the issue.

Tina Fontaine was born on 1 January 1999 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

She was her mother's second child; in June 2000, her mother gave birth to a third.

When she was one year old, Tina was removed from her family's care for the first time by Child and Family Services.

It happened again when she was two, after which she was returned to the care of her father.

When Fontaine was five years old, her father placed her and her younger sibling with her great-aunt and -uncle, Thelma and Joseph Favel, through a private guardianship arrangement.

Fontaine lived with her great-aunt and -uncle for nearly a decade in Powerview-Pine Falls, Manitoba (next to Sagkeeng First Nation), except for a brief stay in Selkirk.

In 2011, when she was 12, her father (age 41) was beaten to death; his two assailants were convicted of manslaughter.

Fontaine's aunt recalled that her father's violent death deeply affected the girl: "She was very hurt, very lost. That's when she drifted away."

Despite being eligible, she did not receive grief counseling following her father's death.

In early 2014, at the age of 15, Tina Fontaine went to Winnipeg to visit her mother.

By that time, Duck had lost custody of her children as a result of her involvement in sex work and her struggling with alcoholism.

On 17 and 18 July, Fontaine was under Child and Family Services (CFS) care in Winnipeg, housed at a downtown hotel.

On 31 July 2014, Fontaine was reported missing to Winnipeg Police Service (WPS).

Her aunt Lana later said that Fontaine had stayed with her during the August long weekend (1–3 August).

On 5 August, Fontaine telephoned her CFS worker and was subsequently picked up by members of CFS and WPS.

What happened to Fontaine between 5 and 8 August is unclear, but she remained a missing youth.

In December 2015, a suspect was charged with second-degree murder in her case.

However, no forensic evidence or eyewitnesses that could directly link him to her death was presented and the cause of her death was never established.

The case of Tina Fontaine helped prompt the Canadian government to commit to creating an independent national inquiry into the issue of murders and violence against Indigenous women, which was started in 2017.

Fontaine was buried on Sagkeeng First Nation next to her father.

Fontaine's paternal grandfather was a residential school survivor, and his experiences as a child led to years of severe alcoholism and violence.

At the age of 12, her father Eugene Fontaine left his home in Sagkeeng First Nation, 121 km northeast of Winnipeg, to move to Winnipeg, where he fended for himself on the streets.

In Winnipeg, he developed an addiction to alcohol.

Fontaine's mother, Valentina (Tina) Duck, was raised in Bloodvein First Nation, 250 km north of Winnipeg.

Starting at the age of six, Duck was removed from and returned to her mother several times by Manitoba Child and Family Services.

He was acquitted by a jury in February 2018.

Duck experienced a number of significant traumas as a young child, which the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth said in a 2019 report "were not appropriately addressed."

At the age of 10, Duck was taken from her family permanently.

After that, she was moved repeatedly, began to be sexually exploited by adults, and started to use alcohol and drugs.

The Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth says little was done to intervene and protect her.

When Fontaine's parents met, her mother was a 12-year-old child in care, and her father was 23.

Child and Family Services records show that it knew their relationship was sexual and knew that Fontaine's father had a past that involved violence and severe addictions.

Files noted that her mother would frequently run away from her foster placements to stay with Fontaine's father.

In a 2019 report, the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth noted that Child and Family Services was clearly aware that she was struggling in the period between her father's death and her own.

Records from the time document Fontaine being increasingly absent from school, missing assignments and being suspended from school, getting into verbal confrontations and physical fights that resulted in police being called, getting medical treatment for self-harm, and being reported missing three times.

During this period, her family repeatedly asked for help from child and family services.