Archbishop holds service for town after shootings

The 17-year-old appeared before a packed courtroom today in Meadow Lake, about 270 kilometres south of La Loche. The judge asked him whether he understood he is not to contact several people involved in the case.

The remote, northern Canadian community where a shooter killed four people and injured seven on Friday has long struggled under the weight of poverty, high suicide rates and disadvantages that most of the country can hardly imagine.

He faces four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted murder and unauthorised possession of a firearm.

He is scheduled to return to court on 22 February.

“I didn’t know what was going on”, she said. Levy said four people were killed, but declined to give their ages or sex.

Rana Janvier was one of the parents who walked through the halls posting messages such as “We Love You” and “You Are Unique” on the lockers and doors. “I’m just so sad”, he said. Schools with a similarly tragic history in the United States have been razed at the request of the community.

Sharon Kennedy, a teacher at the school whose daughter is also a student, said that bullying can lead to drug and alcohol addiction “because kids who are being bullied are going to try to find a way to cope with what they’re going through”.

“No one has been paying attention to this community”, she said.

Philpott said she was with Angus.

St. Germaine said that authorities received calls from teachers and students at the La Loche Community School on Friday at 1 p.m. about a gunman “discharging a firearm at people in the school”.

The boy’s lawyer, Ian Mokuruk, said he was contacted on the weekend to represent the accused at his first court appearance.

Montgrand said there aren’t strong enough words to describe the heartbreak she is feeling, sitting with another relative who has been a victim of gun violence.

“Homicide and suicide are two sides of the same coin – two sides of violence – violence out of desperation and despair”. This could be any community.

However, guns are more prevalent in northern and rural communities where people use them for hunting and protection from predators.

The approximately 2,600-population town and nearby Clearwater Dene First Nation, with about 800 residents, were still reeling in shock after the shooting at La Loche Community School, which reverberated all the way to Davos, Switzerland, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is attending the World Economic Forum. Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale was part of the meeting and said Ottawa wants to listen and learn from what has happened.

Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose said she was heartbroken by the tragedy and was grieving alongside those impacted.

“On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie and I offer the families and friends of the victims our deepest condolences on this darkest of days”, Trudeau said in a statement on Friday.

“He was such a natural, genuine person”, said Jon Wynn, co-owner of a Thunder Bay outdoor gear store where Wood worked for six years while studying outdoor recreation and education at Lakehead University.

The acting mayor of La Loche has called for the school to be torn down and rebuilt.

“So many of those times that those boys joked around with him about his ears and whatnot, he didn’t get up and say, ‘You boys stop talking to me like this, it’s hurting my feelings.’ He just bottled it up”. “I honestly can’t. He was a person that had faith, drive and [was] adventurous”, said Jeff Jackson.