Close X
Monday, September 30, 2024
ADVT 
National

Winnipeg Police Arrest Boy In Serious Attack On Girl, Both In Foster Care

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 02 Apr, 2015 02:39 PM

    WINNIPEG — Police have charged a 15-year-old boy in an attack that left a teen girl under the care of Manitoba Child and Family Services in critical condition.

    Just a day after the girl was found seriously assaulted and left for dead in downtown Winnipeg, police say they have a youth in custody who faces charges of aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault.

    At the time of the attack, police say the girl and the boy were in foster care and were being housed in the same downtown hotel. Police say the two knew each other.

    "Winnipeg Police Service members located the injured female eleven minutes prior to her being reported missing," police said in a release Thursday.

    A tearful Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross promised Wednesday to end the use of hotels to house foster children by June 1.

    The promise has been made before. In 2006, then-family services minister Gord Mackintosh promised to end the practice by July 1, 2007, because "a hotel room is no substitute for a family room."

    Irvin-Ross renewed that commitment in November when 15-year-old Tina Fontaine was killed after running away from one.

    Thelma Favel, Fontaine's great-aunt, wondered how many more tragedies it will take before something changes. The child welfare system should have been fixed years ago, she said.

    "It had to take another young girl to be beaten and left for dead," said Favel, who took Tina into her home in Powerview, Man., and raised her as a daughter for years. 

    "Every time I hear about another child being beaten and left for dead, it breaks my heart."

    Fontaine was reported missing from foster care last August but was picked up at a hospital by child welfare workers after being found passed out in a downtown alley. She was taken to a hotel where she ran away for the last time.

    Her body was found wrapped in a bag in the Red River.

    Social workers didn't take Fontaine inside the hotel but dropped her off outside, Favel said.

    "What kind of care is that?" she said.

    "Tina's death opened a lot of people's eyes, but it had to take my baby to die for them to start to realize there is a problem. But the problem was always there. They just turned a blind eye to it."

    Manitoba has about 10,000 children in care. The vast majority are aboriginal. On any given day, dozens of those children are put up in hotels because there isn't room in a foster or group home.

    The provincial government has been under fire for housing foster children in hotels 15 years.

    Manitoba's Children's Advocate has released several critical reports about the practice since 2000, urging the government to find better alternatives.  

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Kathleen Wynne Proposes National Infrastructure Partnership: 'We All Know The Reality'

    OTTAWA — Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has proposed a sweeping, multi-billion-dollar national infrastructure partnership between the provinces and the federal government, despite growing concerns about the impact of falling oil prices on Ottawa's bottom line.

    Kathleen Wynne Proposes National Infrastructure Partnership: 'We All Know The Reality'

    Premier Christy Clark Demands More Details On Kinder Morgan's Safety Plans For Pipeline Expansion

    Premier Christy Clark Demands More Details On Kinder Morgan's Safety Plans For Pipeline Expansion
    VANCOUVER — British Columbia Premier Christy Clark is demanding Kinder Morgan disclose more details about its safety plans before the province approves the company's $5.4-billion pipeline expansion project.

    Premier Christy Clark Demands More Details On Kinder Morgan's Safety Plans For Pipeline Expansion

    B.C. Privacy Watchdog To Look Over District Software To Ensure Legal Compliance

    B.C. Privacy Watchdog To Look Over District Software To Ensure Legal Compliance
    VICTORIA — British Columbia's privacy watchdog is probing an embattled mayor's allegation that spyware is monitoring his office computer and others in the District of Saanich.

    B.C. Privacy Watchdog To Look Over District Software To Ensure Legal Compliance

    Homebound Snowbirds Oblivious Potential Carriers Of Aquatic Invasive Species

    Homebound Snowbirds Oblivious Potential Carriers Of Aquatic Invasive Species
    RICHMOND, B.C. — Experts are warning that flocks of older Canadians who tow pleasure boats south each winter to sunny U.S. destinations threaten to bring home an environmental and economic calamity.

    Homebound Snowbirds Oblivious Potential Carriers Of Aquatic Invasive Species

    Jersey tossers face fines and one-year bans from all MLSE properties

    Jersey tossers face fines and one-year bans from all MLSE properties
    TORONTO — Three spectators are facing fines and one-year bans from Air Canada Centre after throwing Toronto Maple Leafs jerseys on the ice in a 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night.

    Jersey tossers face fines and one-year bans from all MLSE properties

    Oil-price collapse to cut $4.3 billion from federal revenues: report

    Oil-price collapse to cut $4.3 billion from federal revenues: report
    OTTAWA — A new report by the Conference Board of Canada is predicting the oil-price collapse to cut federal revenues by $4.3 billion this year.

    Oil-price collapse to cut $4.3 billion from federal revenues: report