REGINA - Political leaders at the Saskatchewan Legislature have expressed their support and condolences to the community of La Loche following news of the stabbings at the Dene High School last Thursday.
A student and a staff member were stabbed during the incident last week in La Loche and one student has been taken into custody. The high school is to remain closed for this week.
On Tuesday, Government Relations Minister Don McMorris confirmed to reporters that he met La Loche Mayor Georgina Jolibois earlier that day in a couple of different meetings.
He said there was no specific ask from the community that came from those meetings, or from meetings McMorris had last week in La Loche soon after the incident.
They “just wanted to make sure that we stayed engaged,” said McMorris. As more wants and demands of the community come up, he said, they will “certainly be willing to listen to those.”
McMorris said he as well as Athabasca MLA Jim Lemaigre had gone to La Loche last Friday, where they spent time in the school as well as with the RCMP and others there.
He said they had “wanted to show our support for the community. Maybe for us it seems like a long time ago since the last incident there, but for the people who were in the school it was certainly retraumatizing.”
The La Loche high school was previously the scene of a mass shooting on Jan. 22, 2016, in which four people were killed and seven injured.
In speaking to reporters, McMorris made it known he thought the Athabasca riding had excellent representation in Lemaigre, who he noted is from La Loche and knows the community and people there well.
“We look at him as our liaison,” said McMorris, who added that Lemaigre has an open door policy as do the other MLAs.
On Monday, Minister of Education Dustin Duncan described the La Loche stabbing incident as a “tragic situation and we’re thinking about the community.”
Duncan confirmed the government would be having further conversations with the Northern Lights School Division over the coming days.
“My understanding is they’ve closed the school for the week, and are assessing what they need to do to reopen the school next week to ensure that first and foremost the staff and students are safe, but also if there are other things that they need to do in terms of support. So we’ll be a part of that.”
Opposition Education Critic Matt Love also expressed his concerns and condolences regarding the La Loche incident on Monday.
“It’s heartbreaking to hear — you know, another act of violence in the La Loche school,” said Love. “My heartfelt condolences go out to that community as they’re retraumatized, as many are still recovering from the violent acts that took place there in the past.”
Love said his concern was about what actions had taken place following the shooting incident of 2016. “What promises were made, and what supports are needed to be there to ensure that students and staff are safe at school,” he said.
“So there’s certainly some consultation that needs to take place there to ensure that those supports that were promised in the past were in place, and I’ll be doing that with the school officials and local leaders in the community.”
