Current Problems: Child Welfare (1-5)
Exploring Stakeholder: "Government of British Columbia"
Updates on this page: 27
January 27, 2024
Judge overturns landmark $150K human rights award for mother who claimed discrimination
Decision says human rights tribunal asked wrong questions and erred in law in landmark decision CBC Indigenous: A B.C. Supreme Court judge has overturned a landmark human rights tribunal decision awarding $150,000 to a mother who claimed she was discriminated against by Canada’s longest-serving Indigenous child-care agency. In the original decision, tribunal member Devyn Cousineau found the Vancouver...
December 5, 2023
AFN national chief candidates would back inquiry into Sixties Scoop
National inquiry into removal of Indigenous children could become a key task for next AFN leader CBC Indigenous: Some First Nations chiefs say the next national chief of the Assembly of First Nations should push for a national inquiry into the “Sixties Scoop” and the continued removal of Indigenous children from their families. About 22,000 Indigenous children were...
November 28, 2023
Death of Indigenous boy at hands of mother, stepfather raises concerns about welfare agency
An Indigenous boy who died at the hands of his mother and stepfather had been returned to them because child welfare agency workers were confident she had made improvements to her life and saw no warnings he was being harmed, the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal Council president says. However, audits conducted by B.C.’s Ministry of Children and...
November 20, 2023
BC Granted ‘Limited’ Status in Human Rights Inquiry
The province says it was only alerted by the RCMP to the ongoing hearings in July. The Tyee: B.C.’s attorney general has been denied full party status in an ongoing Canadian Human Rights Tribunal inquiry into the RCMP’s handling of historical abuse allegations at northern B.C. schools. Instead, the tribunal granted the province “limited interested person status,”...
November 10, 2023
Indigenous mom’s discrimination payout hangs in the balance at B.C. Supreme Court
Child welfare agency tells court that tribunal ‘exceeded its jurisdiction’ in landmark ruling, which found VACFSS social workers relied on racist stereotypes Content warning: This story deals with child apprehension and discrimination against an Indigenous mother. Please look after your spirit and read with care. First Peoples Law Report: An Afro-Indigenous mother sat quietly in...
November 9, 2023
Why Are Ministry Child Welfare Workers in BC Exempt from External Oversight?
Legislation requires social workers to register with an independent regulatory body. Unless they work for the MCFD. The Tyee: When Misty Kelly tried to file a formal complaint against a Ministry of Children and Family Development child welfare worker in 2018, she went to the British Columbia College of Social Workers. Kelly was in a...
November 7, 2023
Cree mother, whose newborn was apprehended, says social worker told her to ‘stop wailing’
Chelsey Woodward has not been able to see her daughter consistently after MCFD took the two-day-old baby from a ‘Surrey’ hospital on Oct. 19 The Tyee: IndigiNews – Chelsey Woodward will never forget the moment her baby was taken from her by a social worker at Surrey Memorial Hospital. It was October 19, and Woodward...
October 20, 2023
‘He ruined so many lives’: Victim speaks out over release of social worker
Robert Riley Saunders was a social worker with the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Facebook. APTN News: A victim of social worker Robert Riley Saunders is speaking out after the man who was sentenced to prison for stealing money from Indigenous youth was released on parole. “The reality is that he ruined so many...
October 20, 2023
BC United, Greens Call for Children’s Minister to Resign After Damning Audit
A Tyee report sparked calls for accountability, not ‘bland, programmatic apologies. The Tyee: Opposition parties are calling for Minister of Child and Family Development Mitzi Dean to resign after a Tyee report revealed a damning audit showing consistent failures to meet ministry standards for protecting children. The audit found no evidence or documentation that social work teams...
October 18, 2023
Exclusive: Audit Reveals Major Failures in MCFD Region Where Boy Died
Review shows kids in care went months without visits from social workers and a lack of training and screening for foster parents. The Tyee: The Tyee has obtained a second damning audit of a region where one Indigenous child died after horrific abuse in the care of the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The...
July 12, 2023
Judge orders MCFD to reveal redacted records in birth alerts case
Ministry must disclose disputed information to privacy commissioner after B.C. Supreme Court justice sides with IndigiNews IndigiNews reporter Anna McKenzie holds her daughter in a moss bag she had made. Photo by Captured Memories Photography First Peoples Law Report: Indiginews – A B.C. Supreme Court judge has sided with IndigiNews in a case involving birth...
June 30, 2023
A Horrific Case Highlights Huge Safety Gaps in BC Foster Care
Two children endured abuse a judge described as ‘torture’ in a Lower Mainland region with abysmally low safety compliance rates. [Editor’s note: This story discusses child abuse and death. It may be triggering to some readers.] The Tyee: A B.C. region where two Indigenous children were horrifically abused in foster care — one of them...
June 26, 2023
First Nations leaders in B.C. call on child and family minister to resign
Ministry did not check on children, who were beaten and starved while in care. Warning: story has disturbing details of child abuse, neglect and death APTN News: First Nations leaders in B.C. are calling on Mitzi Dean, child and family development minister to resign for what they said is “an inadequate approach and ongoing lack...
June 8, 2023
B.C. government fighting to keep birth alert records from public eye
On June 12 and 13, the B.C. Supreme Court is set to hear a dispute involving MCFD, IndigiNews and the province’s privacy commissioner. APTN News: A dispute over birth alert records involving British Columbia, IndigiNews and the province’s privacy commissioner is heading for the B.C. Supreme Court. B.C.’s Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD)...
April 27, 2023
Missing: Why are children disappearing from B.C.’s child welfare system?
Sixty-five per cent of the young people reported as lost or missing were Indigenous; Indigenous females (40 per cent) were found to be over-represented among the young people reported as lost or missing NationTalk: Stories of children and youth who are lost or missing from the child welfare system continue to emerge as an area...
March 21, 2023
Saskatchewan First Nation comes to B.C. to talk about taking over child welfare
The Globe and Mail: Leaders of a Saskatchewan First Nation are in Vancouver to launch plans to take over control of child welfare services for its members. It comes as the Key First Nation sent a letter to Premier David Eby expressing “heartbreak and outrage” at the loss of one of its teenage members while...
March 17, 2023
Gitxsan family wins full custody over child in controversial case
Child’s maternal Gitxsan family fought courts for custody, and paternal family over Métis claims There were hugs and cheers in a packed Hazelton courthouse on Thursday as a B.C. judge granted permanent custody to the family of a Gitxsan child whose fate has been up in the air until now. “I was so relieved it’s all...
January 6, 2023
Sixties Scoop survivor reconnects with birth mom, discovers her culture, decades after separation
It took many years for the pair to develop a mother-daughter relationship WARNING: This story contains distressing details CBC News: Tauni Sheldon remembers the first time she saw her biological mom. Sheldon was 23 years old. It was 1993 and she was in the Winnipeg airport, having just flown in with her adoptive parents, Jim...
January 1, 2023
Denial rates of services and supports for First Nations children varied drastically by region during the pandemic
The Globe and Mail: Marsha McLeod In 2007, just before the House of Commons rose for its Christmas break, parliamentarians voted unanimously to adopt a principle meant to put the needs of First Nations children ahead of bureaucratic government conveniences. Jean Crowder, the then-MP who brought forward the motion to adopt Jordan’s Principle, warned her parliamentary colleagues...
December 12, 2022
Children’s advocate questions B.C.’s ability to overhaul foster-care system after death of Cree teen
The Globe and Mail: B.C.’s independent Representative for Children and Youth is skeptical about the provincial government’s will or ability to successfully overhaul the foster-care system, saying a coroner’s inquest into the suicide of Cree teen Traevon Desjarlais-Chalifoux showed inadequacies flagged for more than a decade remained unaddressed while kids in care suffered. Jennifer Charlesworth...
November 28, 2022
Mother of Cree teen who died in B.C. group home testifies at coroner’s inquest
In the days after her son disappeared, Samantha Chalifoux said she knocked on doors and windows of the British Columbia group home where he was living, only to learn later that his body had been found hanging in closet of the same house. Chalifoux was the first witness to testify Monday at the BC Coroners...
September 21, 2022
‘The bond is broken’: Data shows Indigenous kids overrepresented in foster care
Statistics Canada released data from the 2021 census showing Indigenous children accounted for 53.8 per cent of all children in foster care. Toronto Star: WINNIPEG – A Winnipeg mother says she was scarred for life when her first child was taken away at birth by social workers, who told her she was unfit to parent...
September 19, 2022
Experts warn ending birth alerts not the only solution to keep Indigenous children with their family
Globe and Mail: Canadian Press – The number of newborns taken into care dropped dramatically as birth alerts ended across Canada, but child welfare experts warn ceasing the practice cannot be the only step governments take to keep families together. “(Birth alerts) really risk being kind of a red herring in the real issue of...
March 29, 2022
Discriminatory practices in Indigenous child Welfare funding
NationTalk – British Columbia’s Representative for Children and Youth (RCY) is calling upon the provincial government through the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) to end discriminatory funding practices and adopt Canadian Human Rights Tribunal principles for Indigenous child welfare funding in B.C. in a report released today. The report, “At a Crossroads: The...
March 17, 2022
Class Action Lawsuit for government use of Birth Alerts to apprehend Indigenous babies
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs – Earlier this week, a class-action lawsuit was filed in Winnipeg against the province of Manitoba regarding the controversial and discriminatory practice of Birth Alerts. The basis for the claim is that Birth Alerts are unconstitutional and are a Human Rights violation. “The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) has been a...
January 19, 2021
Detained: Rights of Children and Youth under the Mental Health Act”
CityNews 1130 – BC Child and Youth Advocate report “Detained: Rights of Children and Youth under the Mental Health Act” found involuntary detentions of B.C. youth rose 162 per cent between 2008 and 2018. In fact, B.C. is the only province in Canada where a capable, involuntary patient has no right to make psychiatric treatment...
March 21, 2019
Yellowhead Institue Critique of Bill C-92
“Bill C-92, An Act respecting First Nations, Métis and Inuit children, youth and families” was graded as follows by the Yellowhead Institute of Ryerson University based on analysis by five Indigenous legal scholars. (See also First Nations Child and Family Caring Society Information Brief in C2A # 4) GRADES: National Standards: …………………… C Funding: ……………………………………..F...
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