A letter to the Minister of Children and Family Development (prepared for my policies class)
April 5, 2008
Minister Tom Christensen
Ministry of Children and Family Development,
Victoria, British Columbia
Dear Minister:
I am writing with respect to your Ministry’s recent 2008/09 Annual Service Plan Report, in which you have projected a target of only 33% of Aboriginal children in care being served by delegated Aboriginal agencies for both the 2009/10 and 2010/11 fiscal years. On behalf of many affected groups and individuals, I am asking you to review and raise this target goal.
This decision is a great oversight of the support that the province of British Columbia needs to provide to Aboriginal children in care.
First, the decision goes against what your Ministry personally committed to the Aboriginal communities in 2002, when you stated your goal “to promote an environment where the most vulnerable children and youth are protected and supported by families and communities” and set a target of having 50% of Aboriginal children in care served by delegated Aboriginal agencies by the fiscal year 2005/06.
Second, the decision is reflective of the experiences that the Aboriginal communities have been continuously subjected to on behalf of the Canadian government, including child welfare interventions with First Nations families living on reserve without any legal basis. These are families who are still living with the shame inflicted on them because of the physical, psychological, and sexual abuse experienced in the residential school system as their culture and language were destructed and they are forced to assimilate into `Canadian culture’.
Third, the Ministry of Children and Family Development created delegation agreements between the province of British Columbia and the First Nations communities so the Ministry could work towards transferring the responsibilities for child protection and family support from the Ministry of Children and Family Development back to the Aboriginal communities and allow Aboriginal agencies to carry out the administration of the Child, Family and Community Service Act. Let me remind you, Minister, that it was the revisions to the Indian Act in 1951 that allowed the provinces to first legally administer their own child and family services to Aboriginal communities, surrendering the federal government from legislatively enforcing specific Aboriginal child welfare laws. This was when the provincial government was given the ability to extend their child welfare services onto Aboriginal reserves – a service that only 30.4% of Aboriginal children in care are currently receiving from Aboriginal agencies, according to your 2008/09 Annual Service Plan Report.
Fourth, the decision is reflective of the deaths of nineteen-month old Sherry Charlie and two-year old Chassidy Whitford, two Aboriginal children who had been under the “careful eye” of the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Adrian Dix, the NDP Opposition critic for your Ministry stated that he felt your government, headed by Gordon Campbell, “failed in its implementation of a key policy change and put financial concerns before the needs of children”.
Will it take the death of another Aboriginal child in care in over for the Ministry of Children and Family Development to remember and keep their promises to the Aboriginal communities?
Aboriginal children in care are over represented within the child welfare system. Their lives are affected by neglect, poverty, substance misuse, and poor housing. The Ministry of Children and Family Development needs to provide more funding for primary, secondary, and tertiary child maltreatment intervention services and the measures surrounding intervention need to be less disruptive to the families. Aboriginal children are being denied or delayed services that are available to other Canadian children because of jurisdictional disputes between and amongst federal and provincial governments. Because of this oversight, the needs of Aboriginal children in care are not being met and they are being exposed to even more abuse and neglect by the hands of the federal and provincial governments, including your Ministry.
The Ministry of Children and Family Development needs to become more sensitive and aware of the issues surrounding Aboriginal children in care and work towards developing trusting relationships with Aboriginal children and delivering transparent services to children and their families.
There needs to be active work towards reducing the feeling of constant surveillance that many Aboriginal families experience, especially when looking at child protection issues as many families and their children already feel as if they are being until scrutiny throughout their everyday lives.
Many families are feeling isolated because they are unable to receive updates on the cases around their children. The Ministry need to be transparent in their actions and involve the families through every step that is taken in the cases so that a level of trust can be developed and Aboriginal people can work towards beginning their healing from the oppression that they have experienced.
The Ministry needs to look at how the child’s heritage can be preserved and how the child’s family can be supported through the progress, as many children are experiencing much of the isolation and assimilation into non-Aboriginal culture that the children of previous generations experienced in the residential school system and the sixties scoop.
The needs of Aboriginal children in care need to be addressed by the Ministry of Children and Family Development. I ask you to consider this oversight that has been made about the ongoing needs of the children that have been promised to be served by Aboriginal agencies. I ask you to review your decision on the goals for the 2009/10 and 2010/11 fiscal years and work towards providing accountable and caring services to the Aboriginal children in British Columbia.
Yours Sincerely,
Nathaniel K. Wolfe
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