Family of Brampton teenager found dead in rural Saskatchewan devastated, wants answers: lawyer
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A family from Brampton, Ont. A teenager is distraught and searching for answers after being found dead near a remote Saskatchewan community, a Toronto lawyer says.
On May 13, Saskatchewan RCMP found human remains near Pelican Narrows, a community that is part of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation, about 420 kilometers north of Saskatoon.
Police identified the bodies as Jay’siiah Webb-Long, 16, who went missing last March, said Shana McCalla, founder of Find Ontario Missing Black Boys, an initiative that shares information about missing children online and helps families.
“The tragedy the family is going through right now, no family should have to go through something like this,” McCalla told CBC Radio. Metro Morning Thursday.
“We were definitely holding on to hope that we would find Jay’Siiah and this news is an unimaginable loss.”
McCalla said the family wants answers about how the boy got to Saskatchewan – an area they have no connection to – and why he was there.
He said Webb-Long’s death is part of the problem of missing Black boys in Ontario, which he hopes will be taken seriously in cooperation with different police actions.
“The way the child got from Brampton to Pelican Narrows is strange,” said McCalla, adding that he believes someone helped him get there as it would have been difficult for the child to get there on his own.
“Josiah deserved a future, his family needs answers and our community needs urgent help if there are no young people at risk.”
The loss of Black boys is a big problem, says the advocate
McCalla said it is touching to see a child removed from his family, home and place he grew up in. It’s a growing problem he’s noticed since he started his organization in 2024 and believes it’s flying under the radar.
There are systemic issues, such as law enforcement treating some children as runaways or lack of contact with other areas, that hinder this investigation, she said.
The family believes that these may be the issues in Webb-Long’s case, as his mother did not communicate with her son from March to May of last year on social media, said McCalla.
Ontario is facing a problem with the loss of young Black men who are being trained by drug-trafficking gangs, says Toronto lawyer Shana McCalla. Last month, he spoke to CBC’s Fifth Estate, which investigated the matter. Now, McCalla is set to meet with the state’s attorney general to push for urgent action and systemic change.
They believe Peel police were slow to investigate her disappearance because she was first contacted, he said.
“If the family says … this is unethical, this child has never been to this place, they should raise the alarm to everyone,” he said.
Earlier this year, McCalla sent a brief to the Solicitor General of Ontario highlighting the issue of missing Black boys in the province, along with 15 recommendations. He says he hasn’t spoken to her yet.
However, he said he has spoken to police across the GTA and hopes a joint task force will be formed to look into the crimes.
Investigation of CBCs The Fifth Estate Concerns were detailed by law enforcement and they discovered that the missing GTA boys were traveling to northern Ontario to work in drug dens.
