'My son wasn't in a gang,' says Jannai Dopwell-Bailey's mother

The mother of Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, whose 16-year-old son was stabbed to death outside his school in 2021, insists he was not part of a gang.

Steps from the intersection where her son was killed, Charla Dopwell told reporters Monday that the trial "made illusions of Jannai being part of a gang in Côte-des-Neiges."

"He was in school. He wasn't in a gang," she said, a day after a second person was convicted of the second-degree murder of her son. "To call my son a member of a gang, to quote one of the accused's messages is to further participate in racism, labelling and criminalizing Black youths."

Dopwell-Bailey was fatally stabbed after finishing his school day in October 2021, near the intersection of Victoria and Van Horne avenues, in the Côte-des-Neiges district. He attended Mile End high school, an alternative school in Montreal's west end, located in the basement of another school, Coronation Elementary.

Jannai Dopwell-Bailey was 16 when he was killed in October 2021. (CBC)

Dopwell pointed to a social media message in which her son's murderer referred to Dopwell-Bailey as a "gangster [N-word]."

"I hope that racist slurs like these will be taken into consideration by the justice system and by society because they show that racism and hate kills," she said.

Crown prosecutor Katerine Brabant described his murder as an unfair attack because he was alone, defending himself against two assailants.

Andrei Donet was found guilty Sunday of the second-degree murder of Dopwell-Bailey.

The Crown entered into evidence surveillance camera footage that showed Donet, his accomplice and another person near Dopwell-Bailey's school about 15 minutes before the end of classes. Several videos taken and posted to social media before and after the murder were also put into evidence.

A teen was also convicted of second-degree murder for the same case in December 2023. His identity is protected by a publication ban because he was a minor when he stabbed Dopwell-Bailey.

Though the jury recommended Donet be eligible for parole after 12 years in prison, sentencing will be debated at the end of the month.

Dopwell said the sentence "must be firm and tough" to send a message to the community. 

"No sentence that the court will impose on the two, young, white men who killed my son, Jannai, will be able to bring him back," she said.

Dopwell, an anglophone, noted that because the last trial was held in French, she was prevented from "fully understanding the details of the trial and from having full access of justice."

"I don't understand why the trial was not in English when the accused had the first trial in English without a problem," she said. "While the court did offer interpretation and translation services, this is not enough to give me a full picture of what was being said."

"It was frustrating and a very regrettable experience for me as a victim of violence," she added.

Kevin George is Jannai Dopwell-Bailey's godfather. (Kwabena Oduro/CBC)

Kevin George, the victim's godfather, said the process was made even more painful because re-watching the video of Dopwell-Bailey's killing forced the family to "relive the whole thing over and over again." 

He said the murder has made his own children — aged 12 and 14 — more concerned about violence in situations they "would have never considered before." 

"It impacts their participation in school activities. It impacts them when they see violence on TV," he said. "As a father, it's tough to see that." 

For Jamaica Association of Montreal vice-president Sharon Nelson, what was most striking about the trial was the prosecutor detailing the steps the youths took to kill Dopwell-Bailey.

"They planned each aspect of it and the brutality of it," she said, noting that the killers were especially worried about getting caught. "It was senseless."

Nelson said she'll remember Dopwell-Bailey as a gentle giant and a committed student who was beloved by tutors of the association's tutoring program.

"The biggest loss is the fact that Jannai is not here," she said. "He was such a loving soul, a good human being. And to be treated that way is just very emotional and very hard to take."