**Jolly, Joanna. (2019). Red River Girl: The Life and Death of Tina Fontaine.
Toronto: Viking Press.**

Reviewed by: Abby Odegarden, MacEwan University

Joanna Jolly's book, "Red River Girl", is a biography of Tina Fontaine that includes police notes, face-to-face interviews, transcripts of recordings, and trial testimonies of her murder. In her book, Jolly emphasizes the complications in the child protection services and the regularity of the victimization of Indigenous women in Canada by not only discussing the murder of Tina Fontaine, but also briefly mentioning similar murder cases. She also notes differing perspectives, from those who argue that the Indigenous women chose the "high-risk lifestyle", to those who advocate for the missing or deceased Indigenous women. Jolly gives insight on the case, including the procedures conducted and the fine details that were not revealed to the public. This murder investigation was unique from others as the detectives assigned to the case shocked the public by showing genuine concern: "This is a child that's been murdered. . . Society would be horrified if we found a litter of kittens or pups in the river in this condition" (p. 17). The concern portrayed resulted in Tina Fontaine becoming the face of the numerous Indigenous women who went missing or were found dead.

Jolly states that high-risk youth are put into hotels until other arrangements were made, however, "the hotel environment provided little protection against exploitation, drug use, and problems arising from mental health issues" (p. 90). Unfortunately, a lot of youth run away from
Child and Family Services (CFS) when they are just trying to help them. Despite a member of Complete Care, a private agency contracted by the welfare agency, advising Tina to stay and rest, Tina disregarded her and left the hotel, which she had done numerous times, to meet her friends (pp. 94-95). Youth who are staying in hotels under CFS are given a curfew, and Tina missed the curfew and was reported missing for the final time in the beginning of August. While CFS, among other youth services, aims to protect endangered children, they are physically unable to keep them from leaving their protection without good reason.

Jolly emphasized the regularity of violence in Canada and its relation to poverty, substance abuse, historical racism, and marginalization. Throughout the book, she mentioned only a snippet of the hundreds of brutal murders of Indigenous people, most of which remain unsolved. Indigenous women left their reserves to move to the cities where they began a life dominated by sex work and substance abuse. This lifestyle was subjected by intrinsic and systemic racism. Intrinsic racism is the acceptance, by racially stigmatized people, of the negative perceptions about themselves. Nahanni Fontaine, an Indigenous activist, stated that many women who live in this vulnerable lifestyle suffer from intrinsic racism (p. 25). To make matters worse, there was a long-established pattern of systemic racism within the Winnipeg Police services, specifically when officers were using racist language and the disproportionate representation of stopping and searching Indigenous peoples (p. 58). By definition, systemic racism is a form of racism that is embedded as normal practice within society. Jolly emphasizes that this racism occurred before Sergeant John O'Donovan, the lead detective in Tina Fontaine's case, joined the Winnipeg Police, as they were beginning training in cultural sensitivity to make amends with their past malpractices.
Jolly is a BBC journalist who was impassioned to write a story about the investigation and murder of Tina Fontaine and approached O'Donovan to gather information. In great detail, O'Donovan told her the case in its entirety. With little evidence it was difficult to find her killer. However, they had a lead named Raymond Cormier who was heavily involved with drugs and was quite close to Fontaine in the months leading up to her death. Fontaine had left the Sagkeeng reserve to see her mother in the North End of Winnipeg, which had a high population of Indigenous people and was dominated by poverty, illness, and drug and alcohol abuse, which leads them to a "high-risk lifestyle" (p. 19). Fontaine was assumed to be involved in drug use and trade and was potentially sexually exploited, as many other young women were in the North End.

There appears to be a strong positive correlation between drug use and violent crime: "...white men harassed Indigenous girls for sex. If the girls refused to cooperate, it was assumed that a bit of alcohol or violence would change their minds. ..." (p. 20). Many women are coerced into sexual activity through the use of drugs. Raymond Cormier, who was hardly ever sober and had withdrawals when arrested, had been said to have made moves on Fontaine and offered her a crack pipe to smoke from (p. 137). Cormier told his friend, Ernest DeWolfe, that he had slept with her but Cormier later denied it when questioned by the police.

Throughout the book, Jolly gives insight into the procedures of the case: The Winnipeg Police force had forensic teams on the crime scene, sent DNA to the labs for testing, and gained information on Fontaine's last months of her life. Additionally, the detectives conducted "Project Styx", an operation often referred to as "Mr. Big", which was used to attempt to get a confession from the suspect. Without a confession, they later charged Cormier with second degree murder,
however, he was declared not guilty. To thoroughly inform her readers, Jolly even notes the cost
of a murder investigation, which is shockingly expensive. Aside from the DNA tests and other
costs, “Project Styx” cost $120,000 alone. This illustrates the lengths the Winnipeg Police went to
try and serve justice for Fontaine’s family and the hundreds of other Indigenous victims.

Jolly ensured that the information she gathered from O’Donovan was detailed and accurate
to give insight into the case and how it was truly conducted. By doing so, Jolly illustrated the effort
and genuine concern of the Winnipeg Police and gave the public answers beyond the verdict of
“not guilty”. Jolly’s book is organized into chapters that tie the events of solving Fontaine’s case
together in chronological order. She wrote her book with great detail, explaining any details that
might have been ambiguous, such as explaining that THC is an active component in cannabis (p.
65). In addition, Jolly fully executed the story of Fontaine’s life from infancy right up to her death,
including all the interactions she had in the few months before she passed. This gave a foundation
to the story, illustrating how an average Indigenous individual’s lifestyle can be flipped around.
To go a step further, Jolly even included an entire chapter based on O’Donovan’s life; she included
information about his birthplace and childhood in Ireland, his life with his wife before and after
moving to Winnipeg, and the jobs he had leading up to his job as a detective constable. Jolly
focused on the facts and maintained a neutral stance without any bias towards the individuals
involved in the case.

Jolly concludes by offering her interpretation of the murder investigation reviewed
throughout the book — tying everything ultimately to the victimization of Indigenous people. Her
conclusion reads in part:
Tina's killing has had a significant impact on the policy and practice surrounding Canada's treatment of its Indigenous peoples. Her case was instrumental in the establishment of a National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls which, in June 2019, found that the country was complicit in a “race-based genocide” against Indigenous women. Blaming the crisis on deep-rooted colonialism and state inaction, the inquiry put forward more than two hundred “calls for justice” to the police, government, and Canadian public as a whole. It urged immediate action, saying those who had opened up and told their story feared the report would “gather dust on a shelf” and that the recommendations would be left unanswered (p. 275).

Complete with police notes, face-to-face interviews, transcripts of recordings, and trial testimonies, all detailing the events leading up to Tina Fontaine's death and procedures the Police conducted to solve the case, Jolly's book accomplishes two main goals. First, it highlights the regularity of the victimization of Indigenous women in Canada by not only discussing the murder of Tina Fontaine, but also briefly mentioning similar murder cases. Second, it offers insight as to how police investigations are conducted. Jolly accomplishes these goals by drawing on evidence from the case and ongoing trends in Canada.

"Red River Girl" is an eye-opening story about a girl, among many others, who lost her life and whose case was almost tossed in the big pile of other unsolved missing persons cases and murders. Jolly's intended readership is namely sociologists, anthropologists, scholars, and any other individuals who are intrigued by true crime and biographies that especially give rise to ongoing social problems in a community. I found "Red River Girl" informative, extremely intriguing but tragic, I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in Sociology or Criminology.