Montrealers honour life of teen stabbed outside high school

A friend holds up a photo of Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, 16, two days after he was stabbed outside his school. (Andrew Brennan/CTV News)

Montrealers gathered Thursday night to celebrate the life of 16-year-old Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, who was killed outside his high school in October 2021.

At the commemoration, friends, family and community members spoke of the importance of love, seeking support and preventing youth violence.

According to court documents, Dopwell-Bailey was pepper-sprayed, beaten and stabbed 11 times by a group of teens outside Programme Mile End in Montreal's west end Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood.

Two men were arrested in connection with the assault.

Last September, a 19-year-old man convicted of second-degree murder in the killing was sentenced to six years in prison.

As he was a minor at the time of the offence, his identity cannot be revealed.

At the time, Dopwell-Bailey's mother, Charla Dopwell, expressed her contempt, saying, "the punishment does not fit the crime."

Last June, another man, 21-year-old Andrei Donet, was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 13 years.