'I eat, I sleep, I breathe — I think of Jannai,' says mother of slain teen at march

Emotions ran high as several dozen people gathered on Saturday at a rally and march in celebration of the life of a 16-year-old boy who was killed in October outside his school.

Attendees gathered at the Mile End high school in Côte-des-Neiges where they laid candles, toys and flowers. It was there that Jannai Dopwell-Bailey was fatally stabbed. 

"I send my son to school and he never returned, and I have to face that every morning when I look at his bedroom and he's not coming out to greet me," said the victim's mother, Charla Dopwell. 

"I miss him. I eat, I sleep, I breathe — I think of Jannai." 

On Oct. 18, according to police, there was a fight outside of the school on Van Horne Avenue, and Jannai was stabbed in the upper body. He went into the school to seek help and was rushed to hospital, where he later died. Two suspects have been charged with second-degree murder, and police are looking for a third.

Onica John organized Saturday's march in memory of her little cousin and to give people a final chance to get to know him. 

"He was loved by his family, he was loved in his community...he loved to dance, he loved rapping," she said.

Clutching blue balloons, marchers made their way to Martin-Luther King Park — Jannai's favourite hangout spot — where they were released in remembrance.

John said what happened to Jannai is tragic and something "no human should have to go through," but the day wasn't just about him. 

"We have two other kids...that unfortunately went out due to violence," she said, referring to Thomas Trudel, 16, who was shot dead in Saint-Michel in October, and Meriem Boundaoui, 15, was shot in Saint-Leonard in February.

On Thursday, a shooting in Anjou left a 20-year-old man dead and a 17-year-old teenager injured.

"It has nothing to do with complexion, it's the same pain," John said. 

In recent weeks, both Montreal Mator Valérie Plante and Quebec Premier François Legault came under fire for the treatment of Dopwell's case, saying race played a role in how they handled the deaths. 

Both officials attended a makeshift memorial that was set up for Trudel, a white teenager, while neither of them appeared for initial memorials for Jannai. 

On Thursday, Dopwell met with Plante to talk about her son's death. While she preferred to keep the meeting private, she said they discussed how few services exist for young people in the borough.

"There's no place for them to go. There's no basketball for them to play. There's no place for them to play music," she said on Friday. 

'I feel robbed,' says victim's older brother 

Friends and family members who marched Saturday in Jannai's memory say one thing that could be done to honour him is for officials to create more programs for kids to get active in their communities.

John, Jannai's cousin, said if kids are left to their own devices, "you're going to find them doing stuff that they're not supposed to be doing." 

Tyrese Dopwell-Bailey, Jannai's older brother, also called for more action from government, schools and elected officials to take violence among youth more seriously, something he says starts with more programs for them. 

"He was just a little boy, a teenager figuring out life," he said of Jannai at the march  "I just miss him completely."

Being just four years apart, Tyrese says he misses the "sibling rivalry" he shared with Jannai and was looking forward to watching him grow up. 

"He was always making fun of me, I was always making fun of him, we would make fun of our mother and our parents together ... I feel robbed."

As the community comes together to begin the healing process in the wake of the tragedy, Dopwell says there won't be a point in time when she won't feel the hole left by her son. 

"It's like a roller coaster. Morning, evening, night, and day, I think about Jannai," she said.

"For the rest of my life, my life is upside down."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.