La Loche mourns teenage brothers killed in mass shooting

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First, mourners filled the powder-blue wooden pews on the main floor of La Loche's old Catholic church. Then they crowded the pews in the balcony. When the sanctuary was full, they stood packed in the church's entrance, and when that was full some stood on the stairs leading up to the balcony.

The hundreds gathered here Tuesday to mourn Dayne and Drayden Fontaine, the teenage boys shot in their grandparents' home on the shore of Lac La Loche. Archbishop Murray Chatlain led the service, with many in the congregation unable to hear or see because so many people came to say goodbye. A handful of RCMP members attended, dressed in ceremonial red serge.

Dayne, known as "My Boy," was 17. Friends called Drayden, 13, with chubby cheeks and glasses, "Lul." One mourner briefly addressed the congregation, sharing memories of the boys: Bananagrams, Rubik's cubes and a story about how one of them was so concerned about a teacher's love life, he suggested the instructor check out the online dating site eHarmony.

The boys died on Jan. 22. Two adults were also killed that day, in the town's high school, allegedly by the same 17-year-old boy accused of killing the Fontaines. The shootings drew international attention to La Loche's social problems, which range from drug abuse and broken families to suicide. While scores of residents in this Dene community about 600 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon resent the focus on the area's social woes, a family member, speaking at the teenagers' funeral, asked fellow mourners to change in order to better their remote northern home.

"We need to change our negative behaviours," she said in the Our Lady of the Visitation Roman Catholic Church. "We need to rethink all the addictive activities that are happening in our community. If we do not make positive change, we may face more tragedies."

Residents, she said, must respect and love one another. "Let us use that love to make our community a healthy place for our children to raise their children," she said while addressing mourners in English and Dene. "We cannot let this pain be in vain."

Dayne and Drayden were buried in matching coffins adorned with hunting camo. Pallbearers placed one coffin in the bed of a grey Chevy Silverado 4x4, another in the bed of a matching brown truck. The pallbearers sat on the trucks' boxes when transporting the boys to and from the church. Bells rang when the coffins arrived at the church Tuesday afternoon. Incense wafted through the blue and white building when mourners took communion.

Marie Janvier was one of the adults killed in the La Loche Community School on Jan. 22. Her funeral, also in La Loche, took place Jan 30. She was 21 and a teachers' aide. Adam Wood was also killed in the school. He was a 35-year-old teacher from Uxbridge, Ont., new to La Loche. His funeral is scheduled for Feb. 6. in Ontario.

Residents around La Loche, home to about 2,600 people, held auctions to raise money for the victims' families. The events garnered $15,233 for Drayden and Dayne's relatives, and $18,000 in Ms. Janvier's honour, according to CHPN Radio's Facebook page.

The community also raised more than $10,000 to help cover Mr. Wood's funeral expenses. Further auctions raised thousands of dollars for the family members' of people injured in the shootings.

The people donating money have little themselves. La Loche and surrounding towns are part of the Keewatin Yatthé Regional Health Authority. Here, the median after-tax income is $17,320 a year, roughly $12,000 less than the provincial average, according to the agency's most recent annual report.

The alleged shooter cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The RCMP charged him with four counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder, one for each person who was shot in the school and had to be sent to hospital. Some of those victims needed surgery; not all have been released from hospital.