First Nations family shaken after Winnipeg toddler left alone in preschool vehicle for over 2 hours

A First Nations family is shaken after their three-year old son was left alone in a vehicle that was supposed to drop him off at his afternoon early education program last month.

Up until July, toddler Elie Keeper's morning routine started at daycare. His mom, Kristin Hernandez-Courchene, says her son's afternoons were then spent at Little Red Spirit, an early education program for Indigenous children. 

The program would pick Elie up from his daycare in Winnipeg's West End, and drive him to the West Broadway community centre where Little Red Spirit is based.

But on June 13, the last day of the program, Hernandez-Courchene said she received a phone call from the program's executive director. 

"She said, 'I'm sorry to tell you, he was actually on the bus for over two hours by himself,'" said Hernandez-Courchene. "Bystanders had heard him screaming and crying on the bus and then somebody called 911." 

The driver of the minibus did not see Keeper sleeping in the back, and had driven home after the stop at Little Red Spirit, she said. 

Hernandez-Courchene rushed to the home, and found police and first responders there. 

"I was worried for his safety — he's a small boy who's 30 pounds with asthma," she said.

She was thinking about how there was "no circulation, no air, him screaming and crying for me and his dad [when] we can't be there for him."

"When I went to go pick him up [he said], 'I'm all by myself and my friends are gone. I can't see my mommy and daddy,'" Hernandez-Courchene said. "That just replays in my mind over and over."

She said once her son got home that night he was lethargic and wouldn't eat or drink anything.

The toddler's father, whose name is also Elie Keeper, said his son was a curious and independent toddler before the incident. Now, he doesn't like to be left alone. 

"He's calmed down a bit, but ... if we see a white van or a white bus, he goes right into reliving the moment and gets very panicky," Keeper said.

"He's fine at home when it's me and [his mom] around, but if we're gone it's still very much a big thing for him to not have us around."