Hundreds of Montrealers came out to hold a vigil for murdered Indigenous Winnipeg teen Tina Fontaine.
The vigil comes days after Raymond Cormier was found not guilty of second-degree murder in the August 2014 death of the 15-year-old, and less than a month after a white farmer was acquitted in the shooting death of Colten Boushie, an Indigenous 22-year-old in Saskatchewan.
The gathering called for an overhaul to Canada’s justice and child welfare systems to ensure they treat Indigenous people with equality.
“To wake up Canadians, wake up the people of this country — no matter the province they’re living in — to understand the situations that Indigenous people are put under and that even when we try to follow the rules, the rules fail us,” said Ellen Gabriel, one of the activists at the vigil.
“Canada is failing Indigenous youth, Indigenous people.”
A prayer was also said for Fontaine.
“It really hurts that the person who killed her did not get charged or arrested. We just hope that she gets home back to the spirit world from which we came from,” said one of the speakers.
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