WINNIPEG – Crown prosecutors will review the results of a Winnipeg police investigation into the conduct of two officers involved in the Tina Fontaine case, Chief Devon Clunis said Friday morning.
“This is obviously a very serious event and so we are moving it forward,” Clunis said at a news conference.
The two officers pulled over a car being driven by an allegedly impaired man on Aug. 8, shortly before Fontaine’s final disappearance.
READ MORE: Tina Fontaine in car stopped by police just before she disappeared
Although Fontaine had been identified as an at-risk missing child after she failed to return to her foster home, she was released by police.
Her body was later found wrapped in a bag in the Red River. Her death is being investigated by the Winnipeg police homicide unit and sparked renewed calls for an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada.
The investigation into those officers’ conduct has been completed and is being referred to the Crown for an opinion about whether charges should be laid against the officers.
A move AMC Grand Chief Derek Nepinak supports, saying, “I don’t think it’s creating a spectacle of the issue, I think what it’s doing is it’s demonstrating professionalism and accountability to the public and the family of the late Tina Fontaine.”
It’s that kind of accountability that Fontaine’s family is looking for.
“The skeletons are starting to come out and people will find out what’s really going on in there and who’s doing their job and who’s not,” said Thelma Favel, Fontaine’s great-aunt and guardian.
The news conference was called following a report in the Winnipeg Free Press that said the supervising officer on duty on Aug. 8 was also under investigation by the force’s professional standards unit.
There is “absolutely no link” between the Tina Fontaine homicide case and an internal investigation into a police supervisor who the Winnipeg Free Press reported is accused of sexual harrassment, Clunis said.
The linking of the human resources matter to the killing of Fontaine is deeply disturbing, Clunis said.
“There is absolutely no link whatsoever between the Tina Fontaine investigation and the ongoing human resources investigation,” he said.
“The supervisor had no direct interaction in terms of the actions that were taken relative to the contact of those members with Miss Fontaine.”
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