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NELSON HOUSE, Man. — The mother of a man charged with impaired driving after three boys were killed in a northern Manitoba community says her heart and soul are broken.

“(I am) still in disbelief,” Valdine Linklater said Tuesday.

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Todd Norman Linklater, 27, is facing numerous charges, including impaired driving causing death and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.

RCMP say Mattheo Moore-Spence, Terrence Spence and Keethan Lobster, all between 11 and 13, were walking and riding bikes on Saturday night when they were hit on a road near Nelson House, about 850 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

During a brief interview over Facebook messenger, Valdine Linklater said that as a single mother it was always her and her boys “all the way.” Now she is relying on her faith to help her and the community get through “the hardest thing ever.”

“Hopefully this is a wake-up call for a lot of people that drinking and driving has consequences,” said Marcel Moody, chief of Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation, which includes Nelson House.