The Manitoba government’s website continues to identify Environment Minister Kevin Klein as Métis, even though the president of the Manitoba Métis Federation, a prominent Métis lawyer and Klein’s own brother all dispute the claim.
“The basis for stating Mr. Klein as Indigenous is because he has publicly identified himself as a Canadian Métis,” a spokesperson for Premier Heather Stefanson wrote in January.
Klein says he belongs to the Painted Feather Woodland Métis. The entity is not recognized by the Manitoba Métis Federation or the Métis Nation of Ontario. It’s a for-profit company based out of a single-family residence near Bancroft, Ont., just over 250 kilometres northeast of Toronto.
Klein says he claims to be Métis as a connection to his late mother, whom he has publicly identified as Indigenous.
“I’m not self-identifying, nor am I using it, nor am I mentioning it every time I open my mouth. It is a family issue for me and a connection to my mother,” Klein said in an interview during his run for mayor last fall.
Kevin Klein’s Instagram post for Red Dress Day 2022
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Kevin Klein said ‘my mother was murdered by her partner and she was Indigenous’ in front of an installation of red dresses at Winnipeg City Hall on May 5, 2022. Red Dress Day is also known as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Contacted by CBC News, Klein’s brother, Christopher Rout, said he does not consider himself, his brother or his mother Métis.
“I remember learning about Métis in school. I think I would have learned something then and been told something, but no. No, we’re not Métis,” Rout said in an interview with CBC News. He would seek Métis citizenship if he were eligible, he said.
Rout is Klein’s younger brother and although they have the same parents, their surnames are different. Klein officially changed his name from Harold Kevin Rout Jr. to Kevin Elvis Klein sometime before his second marriage in 1994, according to the marriage certificate.
Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand told CBC after a request for comment that he disputes Klein’s claim to be Métis.
“Kevin Klein simply does not meet our criteria. We do not recognize the Painted Feather Woodlands Métis or any other group that claims Métis identity outside our definition. This is no different than any of the other cases where groups or individuals are calling themselves Métis when they really mean mixed heritage,” Chartrand wrote in an email to CBC News.
The flags in this family tree denote the country of birth of Klein’s ancestors. CBC used modern-day flags to represent birthplaces. (CBC )
Genealogical research done by CBC News — some going back five generations — did not find any evidence Klein’s mother has a Métis or other Indigenous ancestor.
Census and other historical records say most of Klein’s maternal ancestors came to Canada from England or Ireland.
His relative who most recently immigrated to Canada was his great-grandfather born in 1889, who came from Jersey, one of the British Islands. Two of his great-grandmother’s grandparents were born in England, the other two in Ireland.
The only one of Klein’s ancestors whose roots were not traced back overseas was his great-grandmother born in 1875, whose death certificate indicated her racial origin is English. Her grandparents, three of whom were born in the U.S. and the other in Canada, all said they were not “Indian” in the 1861 census.
This excerpt of the 1931 census shows Klein’s great-grandparents Richard Winacott and Annie Winacott (née Davis), and Klein’s grandfather Melrose, a.k.a. Mike. The racial origin for all three is listed as English. This is one of dozens of historical records reviewed by CBC News. (Government of Canada)
Premier Stefanson said Klein is one of two Indigenous MLAs in the Progressive Conservative caucus in an interview in January. She also stressed the importance of having Indigenous representation in her party to more accurately reflect the population of the province.
“We need to attract more Indigenous candidates and we are working towards that … more diversity within our candidate selection,” Stefanson said.
When informed about the lack of proof of Klein’s Métis ancestry and the statements by Chartrand and Klein’s brother, a spokesperson who responded on behalf of Stefanson declined to say whether the premier still considers Klein to be an Indigenous PC caucus member.
“As we have worked hard to become Manitoba’s most diverse party, we are proud to have the first ever Muslim minister of the Crown, first Black minister and first woman premier in our caucus. Minister Klein is on the record stating clearly he is on a personal journey, and his ancestry is not for political gain,” the spokesperson wrote.
WATCH | Premier Heather Stefanson identifies Kevin Klein as Indigenous:
Premier Heather Stefanson identifies Kevin Klein as Indigenous
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Duration 1:30
Premier Heather Stefanson says Kevin Klein is one of two Indigenous MLAs in the PC government, along with Selkirk MLA Alan Lagimodiere. She underlines the importance of attracting Indigenous candidates to accurately reflect the composition of Manitoba’s population during an interview with Ian Froese in January.
The spokesperson said the premier is satisfied with the vetting of PC Party candidates, but questioned whether New Democrats are satisfied with their candidate vetting process in light of revelations in 2017 about NDP Leader Wab Kinew’s criminal convictions and stayed domestic violence charges from about two decades ago.
Métis lawyer Jean Teillet, who is Louis Riel’s great-grandniece, says universities, governments and other institutions are currently trying to recruit Indigenous people, which could give a candidate who claims to be Indigenous an advantage in an interview.
Teillet said it also benefits the PC party.
“They stand up and they say, ‘We’ve got Indigenous people, see, we’re not acting against Indigenous people because we’ve got Indigenous people in our party. Look, and they speak for their people.'”
His failed bid for mayor was followed by a victory in the Kirkfield Park provincial byelection.
At different stages of the campaigns, Klein identified himself as a “proud Métis Canadian” on his X, formerly known as Twitter, account and his website.
Over the course of the past several months, the word Métis has been removed from Klein’s personal accounts — first from his X biography, then from his personal website — but the government record hasn’t changed.
Kevin Klein posted this photo on his X, formerly known as Twitter, account on Aug. 2, 2022, with the caption: ‘Being a proud Métis Canadian I wanted to make my first @Folklorama stop the Métis pavilion, and it was awesome. Good food, good people, good crafts, and a great show. Including the winners of @CanGotTalent from this year.’ (KevinKleinwpg/Twitter)
When Klein was named to cabinet at the end of January, the government issued a news release with background information that says, “Klein is a proud Métis Canadian and continues to explore, working with Elders in Manitoba to research his connections to Indigenous community.” His bios on his official government web page and on the Progressive Conservative Party site also contain that exact phrase.
When CBC News asked Klein for an interview to elaborate on the biography in the province’s news release, his press secretary said he is not available and that his “bio seems to be self-explanatory.”
When asked by CBC News why the word Métis was removed from Klein’s personal website, Klein’s press secretary wrote, “As Minister Klein has stated before: ‘As I have indicated on several occasions, this is a private and personal journey.'”
His personal website has since changed again: “Connecting with my Indigenous heritage helps put life into context,” it now says, along with a “Re-elect Kevin Klein” banner at the top.
Screenshots show Kevin Klein’s personal website during his mayoral run, during his run for MLA of Kirkfield Park and after he won his seat in the legislature. The word Métis was removed from his website sometime after he was elected. (Kevinklein.ca)
Klein, 58, has talked with media in the past about his membership card from the Painted Feather Woodland Métis, a group not recognized by the Manitoba Métis Federation or the Métis Nation of Ontario.
Under a 2003 Supreme Court of Canada decision won by Teillet, a process called the Powley test determines whether an individual can be considered Métis with rights under Section 35 of the Constitution. Section 35 recognizes existing “aboriginal and treaty rights of the Aboriginal people of Canada,” without going into specifics of what those rights entail.
Part of the Powley test spells out the criteria for eligibility: a person must identify as Métis, must be an accepted member of a present-day Métis community and must have ties to a historic Métis community.
Environment Minister Kevin Klein’s official biography in the cabinet ministers’ section of the government of Manitoba website says he is a ‘proud Métis Canadian.’ On his current personal site, he recently added ‘connecting with my Indigenous heritage helps put life into context.’ (Government of Manitoba/kevinklein.ca)
Painted Feather Woodland Métis rejects what it calls “unduly restrictive and unfair” definitions of who is Métis and states its definition is “simple — anyone with an aboriginal ancestor,” says the company’s website, which lists fees ranging from $57 to $320, plus provincial sales tax, for membership for adults.
Painted Feather declined an interview in the past, sending CBC News to its website for information.
Klein has said he did not claim to be Métis for political reasons, and he got his membership card before he entered politics.
Understanding that the issue of Indigenous ancestry is complex, CBC News undertook its research in consultation with Indigenous experts and journalists.
As an elected minister of the Manitoba government, Klein’s claims are subject to the same type of scrutiny routinely applied to high-ranking elected officials by journalists.
Klein’s lawyer says issue ‘personal’
Since becoming a cabinet minister, Klein has declined to be interviewed about new information CBC News has obtained about his claim of Métis heritage.
Klein’s counsel, Thompson Dorfman Sweatman lawyer Sacha Paul, sent a letter in April asking CBC News to stop asking about his heritage and to cease contacting Klein’s relatives about this topic.
Klein’s lawyer Sacha Paul is a partner with Thompson Dorfman Sweatman and the past president of the Manitoba Law Society. He’s a member of the English River First Nation, a Dene community in Saskatchewan, his firm’s web page says. (tdslaw.com)
“I am advised by Mr. Klein that the matter of his Indigenous heritage is indeed personal and that Mr. Klein’s campaign material is not highlighting his connection to his Indigenous ancestry,” Paul wrote.
Red flags
Jean Teillet said “once all of us can claim to be Indigenous for whatever reason, then there will be no more Indigenous people, because we will all be Indigenous.”
She says it’s harmful because it’s another step in eradicating Indigenous people, a process she calls “reverse assimilation.”
Teillet was appointed as an independent investigator by the University of Saskatchewan to figure out how to prevent illegitimate claims to Indigeneity in the wake of professor Carrie Bourassa being put on leave and eventually resigning from her positions after a CBC investigation found no evidence that she had Indigenous ancestry.
Canada Life announced a $500,000 investment for a new Indigenous-led student mentorship program at Red River College Polytechnic at the end of June. Environment Minister Kevin Klein is pictured second from the left. (CNW Group/Canada Life)
The Painted Feather Woodland Métis is one of many organizations that have “sprung up” since 2002 that “have a very, very loose definition of what they call Métis, which is basically anyone who has any tiny amount of Indigenous ancestry,” Teillet said.
Teillet’s report for the University of Saskatchewan, titled Indigenous Identity Fraud, found similarities between multiple cases of illegitimate claims of Indigeneity, which she calls “red flags.”
During his mayoral run, Klein told Dorothy Dobbie in an article for What’s Up Winnipeg that he took a University of Alberta Indigenous course “to learn more about his Métis and Cree background.”
“Blond and blue-eyed Indigenous people were not uncommon among certain groups in middle America. His family says his roots are evident in his cheekbones which Kevin says he could never produce a proper beard!” wrote Dobbie, a former Progressive Conservative MP who wrote the profile about Klein before the civic election.
Shifting Indigenous identities raise red flags, Teillet wrote in her report for the University of Saskatchewan.
“They shift their stories because people challenged them. Joseph Boyden was a perfect example. I think he had, like, 10 different identities over the years,” Teillet said in an interview.
An APTN investigation found no evidence Boyden, who has written books that centre on Indigenous characters and culture, has any Indigenous ancestors.
“If [Klein] follows the pattern that all the others have followed, he’ll keep shifting his stories again and again and again,” Teillet said.
When people who self-proclaim as Indigenous without verification speak for Indigenous people, it results in Indigenous people not being heard, Teillet said.
“Every time that someone like that speaks on behalf of Indigenous people, they take the microphone away from real Indigenous people,” she said.
‘It’s about my mom and my family’
When Klein sat down for an interview with CBC News last year to talk about his claim to Métis heritage when he was running for mayor, he said it was a way to connect to his late mother, Joanne Winacott.
She was killed in her Oshawa home by her second husband in 1991 at age 45.
Klein was 26 at the time.
“This isn’t about claiming any rights or trying to think that it benefits me in any way. It’s about my mom and my family,” Klein said in an interview in September.
Kevin Klein’s mother, Joanne Winacott, was killed by her partner when Klein was 26. This photo collage from Klein’s website includes an undated picture of Winacott with Klein when he was a boy. (kevinklein.ca)
Klein has been vocal about his mother’s murder. To this day, he devotes a section of his personal website — which he used for his campaigns — to his mother.
On April 5, he talked about his mother’s murder and domestic violence in the legislature on the anniversary of her birthday.
When Klein was the city councillor for Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood, he spoke of his mother’s killing during a debate about the Winnipeg Police Service budget:
“I want to speak from a place that no one else on council can speak from. My Indigenous mother was murdered,” Klein said in Winnipeg city council chambers in December 2021.
On May 5, 2022, Red Dress Day, the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Klein posted an Instagram video saying, “My mother was murdered by her partner and she was Indigenous,” in front of the red dresses on display for the event at Winnipeg City Hall.
In an April letter, Klein’s lawyer said the media, including CBC, may inquire into Klein’s record and the actions he has taken on behalf of constituents but not into “personal matters.”
“In our client’s view, his heritage is one of the few connections he has to his late mother, who was taken from our client when he was quite young,” wrote Paul.
In a subsequent email sent in mid-July, Paul wrote that Klein is “a firm believer in the freedom of the press and responsible journalism.”
“However, continuing to raise a personal matter that is connected to the tragic death of my client’s mother is not responsible journalism,” Paul wrote.
The lawyer asked for confirmation that CBC News “will not run this story now or in the future.”
Joanne Winacott graduated with a nursing degree in 1985. Klein’s brother, Christopher Rout, attended the ceremony at the Oshawa Auditorium. (Submitted by Christopher Rout)
Repeated references in public settings to life experiences of Indigenous trauma are also a red flag, Teillet’s report says.
“His mother was murdered. That’s real trauma, but it has nothing to do with Indigenous identity,” Teillet said in an interview. “It’s a tragic story about his mother being murdered.”
Teillet does not understand why Klein links his Métis heritage claim to the death of his mother.
“Is he saying, ‘Oh, she was murdered, you know, she’s part of that murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls story,’ and so then there’s this idea that if you can show somehow trauma in life, that’s a legitimate reason to identify as Indigenous?”
Teillet points to a trend among the cases she examined in her report for the University of Saskatchewan.
“Indigenous identity fraudsters often play heavily on stereotypes of alienation from their culture and heritage, intergenerational trauma, family violence, addictions, racism and poverty. The fraudsters doing this are ‘marketing trauma’ using ‘stolen trauma and stolen valour,'” Teillet wrote in her report, citing research by Sherry Farrell Racette.
Christopher Rout is the youngest of Kevin Klein’s two brothers. He says he does not like the way Klein uses their mother’s memory on his website and in his social network posts. (Submitted by Christopher Rout)
Rout says he’s upset about how Klein portrays their mother’s death in public.
Klein’s Instagram account — which he started shortly before his run for city council in 2018 — contains at least 15 posts related to his mother’s killing, in addition to campaign ads for city councillor and his 2022 mayoral and MLA runs.
He also talks about his mother’s murder on his personal site, which he also uses for campaign purposes.
Rout said he dislikes the way Klein uses his mother’s memory in his public posts.
“To me, a son’s job is to defend their mom, defend their mom’s story, not exploit it for any gain. So I will stand and defend it all day long,” Rout, a paramedic with Alberta Health Services, said in an interview with CBC News.
Indigenous identity requires connection
Klein completed the University of Alberta’s Indigenous Canada course in 2020 and posted the certificate on his website. The free online instruction program covers the histories and current perspectives of Indigenous Peoples in Canada.
Early in the course, University of Alberta professor Kim TallBear says having an Indigenous relative does not make you Indigenous.
“You don’t just have the right as an individual to go claim to be a member of a community that does not know you, within which you have not been socialized and that does not claim you,” TallBear said in a module of the course.
Jean Teillet says you can’t just claim that you are Indigenous. You have to have some blood ties, some relationships to communities that are alive today that acknowledge you. (Brian Morris/CBC)
Klein is adamant that his Métis heritage is a private and personal journey, but Teillet says that’s not how it works.
“This idea that it’s a personal journey and no one can question it … it’s BS, right? We shouldn’t give it credit. And so if he’s on a personal journey for six to eight years, trying to find an Indigenous identity somewhere, then personally, I think he should shut up about it until he figures it out,” Teillet said.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
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Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
