Canadian police arrest man in Aboriginal teen's murder

By Rod Nickel
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Canadian police have
arrested a man in the murder of a 15-year-old girl, whose death
last year focused attention on the country's problem of
indigenous women disappearing or being killed.
Tina Fontaine's body was found in a bag in Winnipeg,
Manitoba's Red River in August 2014. Her death also focused
attention on Manitoba's child welfare system, as the thin
Aboriginal girl had run away from government care in a hotel.
More than a year after her death, Winnipeg Police Service
said on Friday that it had charged Raymond Joseph Cormier, a
53-year-old unemployed man, with second-degree murder. He was
arrested Wednesday in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Fontaine, lonely and confused over the earlier death of her
father, ran away from her Winnipeg hotel and was "highly
vulnerable and exploited while on the run," said Winnipeg Deputy
Chief Danny Smyth. Police would not elaborate on how she was
exploited.
"This was particularly horrific," said Sgt. John O'Donovan,
of the discovery of Fontaine's body. "When you see the pictures
of this little kid before she died, (it's clear) she's just a
little kid."
Manitoba's government proposed legislation this month that
would involve indigenous communities more closely in care of
children who need protection. It said last month that it no
longer uses hotels to house children in care.
Aboriginals, who make up 5.0 percent of Canada's population,
have higher levels of poverty and a lower life expectancy than
other Canadians, and are more often victims of violent crime,
addiction and incarceration.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in 2014 that 1,017
Aboriginal women had been murdered between 1980 and 2012.
Another 108 are missing under suspicious circumstances, with
some cases dating back to 1952.
"We are just as shocked and outraged by the violence we
observe directed against women in general and the violence we
observe directed at indigenous women and children in
particular," Smyth said.
Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this week
his government would set up an inquiry on missing and murdered
indigenous women.