Not Safe, Not Sound

Is a change in the child welfare system failing Manitoba's native kids?

Allison Hanes, National Post

Published: Saturday, October 06, 2007

The safety of a five-year-old girl on a northern Manitoba reserve has ignited debate this week about the vigilance of the province's child welfare system where foul play, abuse and extreme neglect have already led to the deaths of eight youngsters in care in the past four years.

The latest case involves a shy little girl who has endured more than her share of tragedy. In July her father was fatally hit in the head with a two-by-four -- a beating she may have witnessed. Her 16-year-old half-brother is one of the people charged with the murder. The girl may also have been sexually assaulted at age three. Another older half-brother, then 17, was suspected but not charged. The child has grown up in an impoverished household where drug and alcohol addiction were rife.

But when her aunt in Winnipeg, who is not Aboriginal, demanded the child be removed from this environment, she found herself locked in a three-month battle against bureaucratic resistance, ironclad confidentiality and cultural hostility. She was accused of racism and exploiting her niece for daring to question the motives of a system focused on maintaining the ties of First Nations youth to their communities.

Welfare officials have investigated the case and decided the girl was safe and should remain with her mother under the watchful eye of local child protection authorities.

Manitoba's Minister of Family Services and the province's Child Advocate took the rare step of speaking out despite strict privacy laws to reassure the aunt about the child's well-being.

And Marcel Balfour, the chief of Norway House Cree Nation, a reserve of about 5,000 where the girl lives, also insisted she is in good hands.

"All I can say is that the child is safe," he said. "I am more than confident, in terms of the processes that are in place, in terms of putting all the issues into context -- including these allegations that would have necessarily have to have been looked into-- that the child is safe."

"And I stand by the decision of the local childcare agency," the chief added.

But the aunt remains skeptical that a system that has already failed eight children will adequately protect her niece.

"They're stepping up and saying they will take responsibility at this point as a system, and they will do what they can to ensure her safety, so if anything happens to her, it's on their heads," said the aunt, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the girl.

"I said to them: 'Not one of you would put your children in that home. Let's pack their backpack and stick them in their overnight. You're not going to do that, are you? Not one of you will tell me you would let your children sleep in [that] house -- why do you think [my niece] should stay there?' "

The case has once again put the spotlight on a system where the welfare of the child is sometimes superseded by cultural considerations.

The Winnipeg woman first learned the heartbreaking details of her five-year-old niece's young life as her brother lay comatose in hospital in July.

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