Indigenous Resources - Background, Policy, Analysis: Youth/Children

""An emergency national meeting on Indigenous Child and Family Services: Children and Families Together was hosted by Minister of Indigenous Services Jane Philpott, in Ottawa, Ontario from January 25 to 26, 2018. It provided an opportunity for federal, provincial and territorial governments and First Nations, Inuit and Métis leaders, Elders, youth, community service organizations and advocates to chart a future path together that will urgently address the child welfare crisis in Canada""

"Campaign 2000 is a cross-Canada public education movement to build Canadian awareness and support for the 1989 all-party House of Commons resolution to end child poverty in Canada by the year 2000."

The CCPA publications cover a wide range of Indigenous topics, including housing, Wet’suwet’en, experiences with racism, community development, voting, intimate partner violence, food costs, reconciliation, language revitalization, mining, and so on.

"Originally developed through the Centre of Excellence for Child Welfare (CECW), the Portal continues to maintain links with the Child Welfare League of Canada (CWLC), the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, and other groups and organizations that collaborated with the CECW.
The Portal is designed to provide child welfare professionals, researchers, and the general public with a single point of access to Canadian child welfare research, i.e. research on abused and neglected children and on the programs and policies developed to support and protect these children and to support their families. The Portal includes a searchable data base of Canadian research publications, a data base of Canadian researchers, and information and statistics about provincial, territorial, aboriginal and national child welfare policies, legislation and programs."

Tracia's Trust: Manitoba's Sexual Exploitation Strategy

"This report estimates the financial cost of complying with a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision (2019 CHRT 39) as it relates to First Nations children taken into care. It was prepared at the request of Mr. Charlie Angus, Member of Parliament for Timmins James Bay....In September 2019, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal (CHRT) ordered Canada to pay compensation to First Nations children and caregivers who were affected by the on-reserve child welfare system. The Government of Canada has applied for judicial review of the CHRT decision, which could result in the compensation order being dramatically narrowed or voided entirely. This report estimates the cost of complying with the decision as it relates to children taken into care...."

"This edition contains research articles, agency experiences, cultural perspectives and personal stories that highlight custom adoption from a historical and contemporary perspective."

"The Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth (the Advocate) is notified of all deaths of children, youth, and young adults up to age 21 in Manitoba. The Advocate holds the legal responsibility to assess each death and the discretion to further review or investigate the public services that were, or which should have been, providing support to the young person or their family....
The Office of the Children’s Advocate (now the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth) was notified of Angel’s death on the day she died in September 2015. Following receipt of the official notification, it was determined that Angel’s death was in scope for review because CFS was involved with Angel and her family in the year before her death. "

"Kiskisik Awasisak is the first report of the First Nations Component of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect 2008 (FNCIS-2008). The FNCIS-2008 is a study of child welfare investigations involving First Nations children which
is embedded within a larger, cyclical national study of the reported incidence of child maltreatment: the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child
Abuse and Neglect (CIS). The CIS-2008 combines a core national study, funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, with five provincially-funded studies – Québec, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia; the study also received additional support from the province of Manitoba. The CIS uses standardized data collection instruments and procedures designed to determine the rates and characteristics of maltreatment related investigations for the population as a whole."

"This enactment requires the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs to initiate consultations on issues related to registration and band membership and to conduct reviews on sex-based inequities under the Indian Act, and to report to Parliament on those activities. "

"The Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth is empowered by legislation to advise children, youth, and young adults of their rights and the services which should be available to them. The Advocate also has the responsibility to raise issues with government on behalf of the province’s children, and to advise the government on issues and areas of concern."

"To recognize the broad harm caused by the unreliable Motherisk hair testing, the Commission considered “affected persons” to include children, siblings, biological parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, extended families, and the bands or communities of Indigenous children."

"This Special Report is unusual in that it required a detailed examination of child welfare practice in two provinces in order to understand how custody of this child was transferred. The Representative’s statutory authority does not extend outside of B.C. Yet sometimes in child welfare, decisions in one province depend on assessments and assurances from another province. The interprovincial mobility of families and children is frequent and a part of practice, especially for certain very vulnerable groups of children, such as Aboriginal children. The Saskatchewan MSS and the delegated FNCFS agency in Saskatchewan cooperated with the Representative by providing file information and interviews with investigators."

"Every professional who works with British Columbia’s most vulnerable children – from those in child welfare, to those in education, health care and justice – has a clear responsibility to do everything in their power to ensure the proper care and safety of those children.
When that responsibility is not fulfilled over the 988 weeks that constitute childhood, the results can be disastrous. Such was the tragic case for Paige, an Aboriginal girl who, sadly, was treated with what the Representative for Children and Youth can only describe as professional indifference."

From the report: "In concrete terms, the mandate consisted of assessing whether the treatment of Indigenous peoples in the delivery of public services was marked by violence or discriminatory practices. The underlying question was to determine whether Indigenous peoples were treated differently by public services due to their distinctive characteristics, and whether this generated injustices, particularly with respect to the services provided, and hindered them in exercising their rights. It was also important to establish whether such observations stemmed from isolated acts or were the result of systemic ways of acting and of thinking, i.e. rooted in the organizations and fuelled by their operating logic...."

"Mental health and addictions issues affect Manitoba children and youth at soaring rates and, for years, demand for these health services has outpaced supply. In the last five years, suicide has become the leading manner of death for Manitoba youth ages 10-17. This special report dives into lessons learned from the suicide deaths of 22 Manitoba girls. The girls, ages 11-17, were primarily from rural and northern Manitoba communities and died between 2013 and 2019. Their struggles point to glaring cracks in provincial mental health and addiction services. The Advocate makes seven recommendations to the provincial government about how to fix these systems and therefore improve the wellbeing of Manitoba children and youth."

"In January 2012, the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, with the support of First Nations leadership and federal and provincial members of the Intergovernmental Network (IGN), began planning to bring First Nations young people from Ontario’s ninety-two remote and fly-in communities together with policy-makers and decision-makers to discuss the realities and issues of concern for youth living in the north. A small working group of IGN members was formed to support the creation of a forum in Thunder Bay for this important discussion. "

"On December 21, 2017, then Families Minister announced a formal review of Manitoba’s child welfare legislation. As community leaders, we were very pleased to be asked to lead this important initiative. Following our appointment, we spent the next four months holding meetings and reviewing written submissions and online survey responses. In addition to hearing formal presentations in Winnipeg, we met with key stakeholders in Thompson, Dauphin and Brandon. It is remarkable that over 1,540 individuals provided input in such a short frame of time.
As a committee, we are pleased to present the Families Minister the results of the child welfare legislative review. This report summarizes what we heard from youth, grandmothers, service providers, researchers, advocates, Child and Family Services (CFS) agencies and Authorities, and community leaders on ways the legislation should be changed to improve outcomes for children and youth. The report is not an academic or legal document. Instead, it is a tool to reflect child welfare calls to action.
The majority of the stories and information we gathered referenced Indigenous children, youth and families. This reflects the alarming fact that in Manitoba almost 90 per cent of children in care are Indigenous. The causes are deeply rooted in a legacy of colonial practices and policies, such as the legacy of the residential school system and the 60’s Scoop. These practices separated children from parents, family, community, culture and language and have been clearly linked to high rates of substance abuse, violence and poverty within Indigenous communities, perpetuating the cycle of children being removed from their familial homes. "