REGINA – Just over a year and a half after Lee Bonneau’s death shocked the country, a public inquest is underway to determine how the tragedy could have happened.
A jury of three men and three women will make recommendations to try and prevent a similar unthinkable incident from ever happening again.
Six-year-old Lee Bonneau was found beaten to death on a Saskatchewan reserve in August of 2013, allegedly at the hands of a ten-year-old boy.
Both the boys and their families had been referred to social services several times in the past. Last May, Saskatchewan’s advocate for children, Bob Pringle, said the two young boys fell through the cracks of the system.
Lawyers representing six parties including the Ministry of Social Services, the Yorkton Tribal Council, the RCMP, the father of Lee Bonneau, the accused and his parents will question more than 30 witnesses over the next two weeks.
Lee Bonneau’s mother, Stacey Merk, was the first to take the stand on Monday. She and Lee’s father separated in 2011 following a 12 year common-law relationship.
Merk testified she suffers from severe depression. She began crying when asked about the day her son was taken away from her in June of 2013 and placed in care.
She said she was feeling overwhelmed that day and mistakenly told a social worker she felt suicidal: “I don’t know why I said what I said. I was just venting,” Merk testified. “And then they took my son away.”
The day Lee was taken away was less than three months before the child’s death on August 22, 2013.
Lee’s father David Bonneau also took the stand on Monday. He accused social services of tearing his family apart.
“If anything, they wanted to tear this family apart and they did a damn good job of it,” said Bonneau.
The inquest is scheduled to continue for the next two weeks.
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