Canada - First Nations student deaths inquest: 7 youths died in 10 years.

Montjoy said:

OT, and FWIW, 'First Nations' (I like the term too) only refers to one category of Aboriginal Canadians -- there are also the Metis and the Inuit, both of which are distinct. Each of the three categories (FN, Metis, and Inuit) seems much more popular to its members than the broader term 'Aboriginal', which to many seems like a forced abstraction.

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Deep water

Between 2000 and 2011, five First Nations teens died in the rivers of Thunder Bay. All these years later, there are no clear reasons why. One grieving father has developed his own theory for his son’s death — and believes it holds the key to greater understanding of indigenous struggles.

By Jody Porter

April 4, 2016

The part of the McIntyre River that flows past the movie theatre, Intercity mall and the big box stores in Thunder Bay, Ont., isn’t much of a river at all.

It’s part of a man-made floodway built in the 1970s to protect the city from high waters.

But in recent years, instead of saving lives, the McIntyre has been taking them.

In 2005, the body of a missing First Nations teen turned up in the part of the river where the murky water trickles past an industrial parking lot towards a Shoppers Drug Mart.

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Aboriginal leaders say the questions being raised at an Ontario inquest into the deaths of seven First Nations high school students will be echoed by the forthcoming inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women. Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler, shown in a recent handout photo, says some of the main threads at the inquest include how the deaths were investigated and the degree of communication with officials and families. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Nishnawbe Aski Nation)

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Jury verdicts on deaths of seven aboriginals in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Inquest jurors examining the deaths of seven aboriginal youths in Thunder Bay, Ont., have issued their verdicts:

Paul Panacheese, 21, collapsed at home: Undetermined

Robyn Harper, 18, died at boarding home: Accident

Jethro Anderson, 15, drowning, alcohol involved: Undetermined

Curran Strang, 18, drowning, alcohol involved: Accident

Reggie Bushie, 15, drowning, alcohol involved: Accident

Kyle Morrisseau, 17, drowning, alcohol involved: Undetermined

Jordan Wabasse, 15, drowning: Undetermined

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The recommendations included basics: Schools for every single northern First Nation community that wants one. Early childhood education, daycare and schools funded equally to every single other Ontario school. Clean water and working sewers for all northern First Nation reserves. Gymnasiums, music and art class, cafeterias that serve three meals a day to students.

And some of the inquest recommendations were simply heartbreaking: The ability for impoverished students to be given the means to phone their parents while they are away at school in Thunder Bay. The opportunity for these students to fly home in the fall, at Christmas and March Break. Basic standards and inspections in boarding homes for students, including criminal records checks of boarding parents. The removal of asbestos and boilers and a new heating system for Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School, where six of the students went to school.

Bernice Jacob, mother of Jordan Wabasse, spoke of how hard the inquest has been on her family.

“I have three other sons back home. Two of them are in high school. I didn’t allow them to come out to the city to further their education. We have a high school in our community of Webequie First Nation but I’m glad the recommendations recognized we need better funding in our own communities so our kids don’t have to leave until they are older and ready to be on their own,” Jacob said before she broke down into sobs.

“We want everyone to be treated equally as we are all human.”

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Jordan Wabasse

A Grade 9 student and star hockey player from Webequie First Nation, got off the bus at the stop near his boarding house late on Feb. 7, 2011 and he disappeared into the -20C night. A massive three-month search for Wabasse, led by his parents and members of his community, ended when his body was pulled from the Kaministiquia River.

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Kyle Morrisseau, 17

The grandson of the famed Ojibwa artist Norval Morrisseau, who is often referred to as the “Picasso of the North.” Morrisseau was said to be blessed with his grandfather’s talent and by the time of his death, he had already shown his art professionally in galleries. His body was pulled from the McIntyre River on Nov. 10, 2009. Thunder Bay police say his death is still “an open file” as they have three possibilities as to what happened to Kyle, reported the CBC: The man he was last seen with had something to do with why he was in the river

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Had been near a local floodway on Sept. 22, 2005, and was said to have been drinking earlier with friends. His body was found four days later with “evidence of drowning,” the inquest heard. Strang is from Pikangikum First Nation, a reserve struggling with unemployment, no drinkable water and one of the highest youth suicide rates in the North.

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From Keewaywin First Nation, is the only girl of the seven students. She died alone in the doorway of her boarding home after being dropped off by a patrol team from Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School, who picked her up because they found her drunk on the street. She had been at the school in Thunder Bay for only one week

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Was found dead on Nov. 11, 2000, less than one month after his 15th birthday. Anderson, who spoke only Oji-Cree until Grade 7, called the remote Kasabonika First Nation home. Kasabonika is 400 km north of Sioux Lookout in northwestern Ontario. His mother, Stella, reluctantly let her son go to school in Thunder Bay alone so he could realize his dream of becoming a police officer. His death was ruled as undetermined by the inquest jury.

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The oldest of the seven, lived in 10 different boarding houses when he first came to attend high school in Thunder Bay. Lost, he moved from house to house. At one placement, above a Chinese restaurant, six boys were crammed into the apartment and the owners put padlocks on the fridge and cupboards if the boys missed suppertime

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Was last seen at the McIntyre River with his older brother, Ricki, on Oct. 26, 2007. Bushie’s body was found in the river, days later, on Nov. 1. Originally, the inquest into his death was stopped by lawyers for Nishnawbe Aski Nation due to a lack of indigenous representation on the jury. This sparked a greater, provincial review on indigenous participation on jury rolls led by former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Frank Iacobucci. The inquest ruled his death by drowning.

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The day after 145 inquest recommendations were released on the deaths of seven indigenous students in Thunder Bay, Christian Morrisseau woke at 4 a.m., overwhelmed with aching grief.

Morrisseau’s 17-year-old son, Kyle, was one of the seven who died between 2000 to 2011 while they were away attending school.

Kyle’s body was pulled from the McIntyre River in Thunder Bay on Nov. 10, 2009. A coroner’s inquest ruled on June 28 that Kyle’s death was “undetermined,” leaving the family with few answers as to what exactly happened to their son in his final hours.

Morrisseau, 46, thought he would feel some sense of closure after the eight-month long inquest into the students’ deaths finished.

But closure never came.

“I got up before the sunrise thinking, ‘It is over now. What is next?’ There was an emptiness inside me. It didn’t feel over.”

Morrisseau, who learned to paint at the hand of his father, Canada’s great Ojibwa artist Norval Morrisseau, felt he had to do something to honour the memory of his son and the six other students.

That morning, he began to create a painting that came to him in a vision. He spent the next few days painting, non-stop, a gigantic canvas he entitled, Seven Fallen Feathers. His unique style is known as the Woodland School of Art. Strong, black lines illustrate humans, spirits and animals. Bright, deep colours bring Anishinaabe stories and legends to life. Ojibwa, Cree, Algonquin and Oji-Cree are all Anishinaabe.

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