A pair of officers encountered Tina Fontaine at a traffic stop on Aug. 8, just days after she had been reported missing from foster care and about a week before she was found dead in the city’s Red River.Lyle Stafford/The Globe and Mail
One of the two officers who had contact with Tina Fontaine the last day she was seen alive has returned to duty after several months on administrative leave, while the other remains suspended without pay as the Winnipeg Police Service continues to deliberate disciplinary action.
The pair of officers encountered the indigenous teenager at a traffic stop on Aug. 8, just days after she had been reported missing from foster care and about a week before she was found dead in the city's Red River.
The WPS launched a professional-standards investigation last fall and forwarded the matter to the Crown for consideration of charges under the Criminal Code or the Child and Family Services Act. No charges were laid, but in March the police service announced one officer had been suspended without pay and that the other was still on administrative leave.
"Given the serious nature of this matter, one of the officers has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the discipline process, while the other remains on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the discipline process," the WPS said at the time.
On Friday, the police service told The Globe and Mail that while the process for the suspended officer is ongoing, the other officer has returned to duty. "We will not be commenting further," WPS spokesman Constable Eric Hofley said in an e-mail.
Reached at her home in rural Manitoba on Friday, Thelma Favel, Tina's great-aunt and the woman who raised the teen, said she was upset by the development and has several questions for police, including why the two officers have not faced the same consequences.
"I'm just shocked," said Ms. Favel, adding police did not update her about the officer's change in status. "I wanted them to lose their jobs completely. They didn't do their job that night to protect Tina – that's how I feel, and that's how I'll always feel."
The teen's still-unsolved killing spurred renewed calls for a national inquiry into Canada's murdered and missing native women. It also prompted fresh scrutiny of the child-welfare system and helped provoke an overhaul to the province's emergency-placement program.
Police, paramedics and a child-welfare worker all had contact with Tina the last day she was seen alive. In September, the police service said it was unclear whether the officers knew at the time they were dealing with Tina, who was reported missing July 31 and again Aug. 9, or whether they took her briefly into custody.
But Ms. Favel has said the lead investigator, Sgt. John O'Donovan, told her the officers ran Tina's name through a police database, which would have listed as her missing, but let her go. Ms. Favel said she will always wonder whether Tina would still be alive had the officers taken her into their care.
"It's hard knowing they had her but let her go," she said.