Exploring Stakeholder: "Government of Ontario"

A Global News investigation has revealed how First Nations youths from remote, northern communities like Grassy Narrows are allegedly targeted by some for-profit group home companies because their owners can charge more for Indigenous children or because the kids provide a steady source of revenue, according to interviews with more than 50 former group home workers, former...

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...

Hospital received 298 birth alerts since October 2020, when Ontario ended them CBC News: Despite the fact that Ontario put a stop to birth alerts in 2020, Quebec child welfare agencies continued to send hundreds of the controversial notifications — which can be used to threaten to or actually seize newborns from their mothers — to Ottawa’s largest hospital....

NationTalk: (TORONTO) Multiple child welfare organizations failed to ensure the safety of a vulnerable Indigenous girl who repeatedly went missing while she was supposed to be receiving supervised services from a foster care agency, Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé’s latest investigation has found. In his report, Missing in Inaction, Misty’s Story, released today, the Ombudsman examines what...

Global News: Ethan Pokno’s knee shakes nervously as he recalls the moment he says his whole life flashed before him. He was 12 years old. He and his three younger brothers were sent to foster homes and — for Ethan and the second-oldest brother — ultimately a group home a 10-hour drive away. “Still scars...

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...

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...

NationTalk: ANISHINABEK NATION HEAD OFFICE (October 25, 2022) – On behalf of the Anishinabek Nation, Grand Council Chief Reg Niganobe and Anishinabek Nation Children’s Commissioner Duke Peltier have issued a statement in response to the long-awaited inquest into the death of Devon Freeman from Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation. “We continue to stand with the...

Lessons from 16-year-old’s life and death form a legacy that is changing how Indigenous youth who are in contact with the child welfare system are treated Hamilton Spectator: The voice of Devon Russell James Freeman — Muska’abo — has been heard. Devon was many things: a 16-year-old Hamilton boy trying to find his way; a member of...

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...

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...

Toronto Star – First Nations children in Ontario are excluded from the provincial governments commitments “that all schools in Ontario will have access to rapid COVID tests and N95 masks for teachers, as well as upgraded masks for students and HEPA filters in each classroom.” Excuses from provincial leaders hold that this is the responsibility...

72 Indigenous children connected to child welfare died in northern Ontario, where three Indigenous agencies covering most of the territory were underfunded approximately $400 million over a five-year period. The number of deaths jumps to 102 Indigenous children when looking at the entire province between 2013 to 2017. Almost half of the deaths, 48 in...

“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...