Indigenous Services prepared response to Raymond Cormier verdict, monitored Gerald Stanley trial: emails
Official questioned if department should comment on outcome of trial in death of Tina Fontaine
Indigenous Services officials prepared responses in advance of the Raymond Cormier verdict, despite internal concerns the department shouldn't be commenting on the court case, records show.
Officials in Indigenous Services's Manitoba regional office finalized media lines in response to questions on the Cormier verdict on Feb.19, three days before the jury came back with its decision. Cormier was facing a second-degree murder charge in the death of Tina Fontaine, 15.
The media lines included responses for a guilty and a non-guilty verdict, according to emails and a memo obtained by CBC News through the Access to Information Act.
Cormier was found not guilty of killing Fontaine by a jury on Feb. 22.
Fontaine's body was found in Winnipeg's Red River wrapped in a duvet cover weighed down by rocks on Aug. 17, 2014.
Fontaine, who was originally from Sagkeeng First Nation, was in the child welfare system at the time of her death.
Concerns over need to respond
There was some internal disagreement in head office over whether the department should be commenting on the verdict.
"Hi all, maybe I'm missing something, but as this isn't a case against the department, I don't think we should be speaking to this," wrote Alicia Weiss, a senior communications adviser at Indigenous Services headquarters in Gatineau, Que.
Weisse wrote that the department did not comment on the Gerald Stanley verdict.
Stanley was found not guilty of second-degree murder 10 days earlier in the shooting death of Colten Boushie in Saskatchewan. Boushie was killed on Stanley's farm by a bullet fired from Stanley's gun in August 2016.
"For that case any media calls were referred to the minister's office," wrote Weisse on Feb. 19, after the media lines had been forwarded to headquarters.
Officials believed the Cormier case was linked to First Nations child welfare services and the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, according to the records. The media lines prepared by the Manitoba regional office referred to Ottawa's commitment on reforming child welfare services and the national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
While the department did not prepare media lines in anticipation of the Stanley verdict, officials were keeping an eye on the trial and subsequent fallout.
Gerald Stanley case discussed
The trial began Jan. 29 and the case was discussed during the Jan. 22, 29 and Feb. 5 weekly conference calls between senior officials with Indigenous Services's Saskatchewan regional office, according to records of the meetings.
On Feb. 9, at 8:39 p.m. local time, an email was sent to several senior regional department officials with the subject line "Update-Gerald Stanley trial."
The message was one line: "FYI, the jury came back tonight and announced a 'not guilty.'"
At 3:08 p.m. the next day, Robert Maguire, associate regional director general, sent an email to six officials asking if "any issues being reported."
One official reported that Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde had spoken about the issue and that the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations said Boushie's family would be travelling to Ottawa to meet with Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.
Another official reported a gathering at the Saskatoon courthouse.
"Looked like quite a number of people from the Facebook posts," wrote Corine Isbister, an associate director with the central budget office in Prince Albert, Sask.
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