Delorah Morris has been waiting for answers for more than a decade.
Her nephew, 15-year-old Jethro Anderson, drowned in November 2000. The Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School student from Kasabonika Lake First Nation was living with Morris at the time. She describes her nephew as a quiet, easy-going teen who always came home on time or called if he was going to be late.
"He was like my own I had him when he was eight years old and on and off during that time," Morris said outside of MPP Michael Gravelle’s office Friday afternoon, where she gathered with dozens of others to demand answers about Anderson and the deaths of six other First Nations teens in Thunder Bay.
"He was really close to us. He called me Mom."
Two months after Anderson’s death, when she didn’t like the answers she was hearing, Morris complained to Thunder Bay police.
"’He’s just out there partying like every other Native kid.’
“Those are the kinds of comments I was getting," the soft-spoken Morris said. "It was just a really quick answer we got after he was found that he died from drowning … I never believed he died from drowning because of the suspicious marks he had on him."
Protestors spilled onto Van Norman Street on Friday afternoon, armed with signs asking questions about why a particular coroner’s inquest – for 15-year-old Reggie Bushie who drowned in October of 2007 – is taking the province so long to start.
The answers police have given parents of all seven dead students, most recently 15-year-old Jordan Wabbase who was found drowned in the Kaministiquia River on May 10, are too quick and not thoroughly investigated enough, Morris said.
The grief from those unanswered questions never goes away she added.
"It feels just as bad as the first day," Morris said.
Protest organizer Anna Betty Achneepineskum said people from all over the region joined the voices Friday asking for the Reggie Bushie inquest to proceed and raise awareness about the deaths of all seven teens.
"As grandmothers as parents you know it’s our responsibility as well to ensure safety of our children and to advocate on their behalf," Achneepineskum said. "These children are entitled to a safe environment so that they can be here for the purpose that they are here for, to attend school."
Achneepineskum said the Bushie inquest was supposed to take place in 2009, but the provincial government has been delaying it. An inquest could help bring equalization in Aboriginal education and start getting programs and resources in place for teens, she said hopeful of it happening, but no convinced it will anytime soon.
"We don’t have a date yet and even today there’s talk of it being delayed more," Achneepineskum said.
Gravelle said he was honoured the protest was staged outside of his constituency office. While he acknowledged the people of Thunder Bay want the inquest take place, the veteran MPP and minister of northern development, mines and forestry said there are good reasons for the delay.
"I can only say that we are obviously hoping the process of the inquest can move forward. There are some legal proceedings and coroner’s inquest details that I’m not able to comment on but (Aboriginal Affairs Minister Chris Bentley) certainly is working to move that forward."
The province has called on the federal government, which is responsible for Aboriginal education, to hold a summit on the issue Gravelle said.
"The fact that Aboriginal communities are not funded to the same level in terms of education on their First Nations reserves is something that just is wrong and I think a summit is necessary," Gravelle said.
