Manitoba honours 10th anniversary of Tina Fontaine's death, will release MMIWG2S strategy this fall

As the tenth anniversary of Tina Fontaine's death approaches, the province announced it will be releasing its strategy on missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people in October. 

Part of the strategy includes a $15 million endowment fund to support MMIWG2S+ families which will be managed by The Winnipeg Foundation, the province previously announced on Red Dress Day earlier this year. 

"That endowment fund is going to be a game-changer," Minister of Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Bernadette Smith said at a news conference on Thursday. 

She was joined by Minister of Families Nahanni Fontaine to acknowledge the province's collaboration with MMIWG2S+ families and how the endowment fund will support families who are searching for a loved one and need money to pay for hotels, gas, missing persons posters or to go to a traditional ceremony. 

The fund will also help women, girls and two-spirit people go to school and support Indigenous-led organizations who are working to end epidemic levels of violence against Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit and gender diverse people, the families minister said. 

"Kids that don't have their parents to support education, you know, we want to make sure that that cycle isn't continued, that they have the opportunity to go to school," Smith said. 

The first intake for the program is expected to launch in 2025, and the province plans to work with families, the Matriarch Circle and community partners to determine grant eligibility, the government's news release said. 

"Ultimately our goal is to not create anymore families that need those supports, right? A lot of the things that we do are downstream," Fontaine said. 

"Ultimately, we need to do the work upstream to ensure that we are protecting the lives of Indigenous women, girls and two spirited," she said. 

Next week, the provincial government will announce more details on ways they plan to prevent violence against MMIWG2S+ at The Forks, Fontaine said. 

She will also be attending a community memorial walk and feast for Tina Fontaine in Sagkeeng First Nation on Saturday alongside special advisor Cora Morgan, who assisted in developing the provincial strategy. 

Tina Fontaine's legacy

Smith said she can still remember the day when Tina Fontaine's body was found in Winnipeg's Red River on Aug. 17, 2014. She was in Ontario and rushed home to attend a march on Main Street with her daughter where she remembers thinking "people are starting to get this … that this could be their daughter."

The march brought Smith and her daughter to tears as they walked to support the 15-year-old girl's family. 

"The national inquiry wouldn't have happened without her," Smith said, adding that Tina Fontaine's legacy has brought a lot of families together and created hope for the community. 

"I remember when my sister first went missing and how scattered families were, how there wasn't kind of one place to gather where there wasn't any support, where there kind of were no organizations that had funds to be able to support families," she said. 

Many people and organizations have become involved with MMIWG2S+ because they want to be a part of the solution and to make Canada a safer and better place to live, Smith said. 

The families minister said she also remembers being in Ontario at that time visiting family and coming home to support Tina Fontaine's relatives and community members in Sagkeeng First Nation, where she is also from. 

Fontaine said she told Thelma Favel, Tina Fontaine's great aunt and caretaker, that she would host something in the community to honour her on the tenth anniversary of her death. 

"Tina Fontaine's legacy literally has saved lives," the families minister said. 

"That little girl has saved lives from coast to coast to coast, and it's also indicative of how powerful Indigenous women are, even in death."