The NDP is raising concerns about the way the Ministry of Children and Family Development removed a six-year-old aboriginal girl from experienced foster parents who had raised her almost since birth.
Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons said teachers and others in the community have contacted him to express shock at the ministry’s handling of the case.
“It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “They describe the child’s behaviour as changing immediately and significantly.”
Simons did not identify the girl or the foster parents, but provided a redacted copy of a letter he wrote Children’s Minister Stephanie Cadieux last month, requesting an “immediate and impartial review.” The Times Colonist also spoke to concerned people in the community who know the child and the foster parents.
Simons said he’s unhappy with the ministry’s response to date given the seriousness of the case.
He said two social workers showed up at the girl’s school in June and told her she would not be returning home that night. They then took her to a “new adoptive home,” Simons said.
“This was a surprise to her,” Simons states in his letter, adding that the girl had never had an overnight visit to the adoptive home previously.
At the same time, the ministry informed the foster parents that the girl would not be returning home that evening, Simons said.
“The ministry is prohibiting all visits, and no opportunity to say good-bye has been offered,” he wrote. “Nothing can appropriately explain the actions of the ministry.”
Simons, a former social worker, said in an interview that he’s not questioning the adoption, but rather the ministry’s callous treatment of the girl and her foster parents, who have had more than 300 children through their home and raised eight children of their own — four of whom were adopted.
“What possible circumstance can justify telling a child at school that they’re not going home again that day?” he said. “And then, having a meeting with the foster parents and telling them that that child that they’ve raised since four months is not coming home and, if they see her in the community, they are to wave and turn away.”
The ministry issued a statement Thursday, saying it is unable to comment on specific cases. “However, [the ministry] takes a child’s move between homes seriously and plans for that move,” the statement said.
“If a concern arises about how a child is transitioned from one home to another, the ministry looks at those concerns and addresses them.” Possible solutions can include counselling and providing other supports, the statement said.
Simons said the community members who have contacted him fear the girl, who has special needs, was traumatized by the ministry’s actions.
He also worries the rushed approach and lack of planning reflects a provincewide pattern linked to high caseloads and poor oversight.
“Something has to be done to reduce the trauma that has already been caused to [the child],” he wrote. “Someone has to say this shouldn’t happen again.”
