La Loche teen appears in court on murder charges

According to the province, officials are working their way through a litany of issues facing the community.

As per the school’s Facebook’s page, La Loche community school is from pre- kindergarten to Grade 12, and it houses not less than 900 students in two buildings.

Witnesses at the school described screaming and more than half a dozen shots. A 17-year-old youth allegedly shot two brothers to death at the home on Friday.

“It’s not something you ever imagine happening here”. He said the accused was a nice person who he didn’t think was capable of violence.

Immediate medical aid is hard to get in La Loche. Four of the people have been airlifted to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, while 3 others will be airlifted in the coming days. “You have to leave town to work. The whole community, province and country has been affected and we will all go into mourning”, said Cameron. The empty emergency duty worker job is an on-call position, requiring someone in the community to be available weekday nights and weekends, for a salary that tops out at $27.45 per hour. People are asking questions and searching for answers.

The 17-year-old, who can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, faces four counts of first degree murder, seven counts of attempted murder and unauthorized possession of a firearm.

“Hundreds of families in La Loche are waiting for affordable housing, leaving existing homes desperately overcrowded”. He said it was important for the community to help itself.

In the global community, many have given their condolences to the La Loche shooting, with USA ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman writing in an e-mail that, “We have experienced similar tragedies far too often in the United States and understand all too well the heartache and sadness that result from such a horrific event”.

“We’ll hug our daughters tighter tonight, as I’m sure many Canadians will”. We need more infrastructure. Things do happen in this community, we acknowledge that, and people are there to help each other.

Wood started teaching at the La Loche Community School in September.

Two First Nations leaders who attended court say the easy victim-perpetrator dynamic does not apply.

“It is a huge challenge”, said LeBlanc “It’s a tragedy, what happened in La Loche”.

Perry Bellegarde, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, the main political group representing the country’s aboriginal people, said that in the wake of the La Loche shootings he would put pressure on Trudeau to deliver on election promises to his community.

The report also noted population in the region remained young, with 27 per cent less than 15 years of age and only seven per cent over 65. Compared to 10 years ago, it wasn’tlikethat.