The incompetence of child-welfare agencies in two provinces condemned a little girl to 18 months of terrible abuse. She was lucky to escape with her life.
Reading the summary by Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, sa国际传媒鈥檚 representative for children and youth, the mismanagement is glaring: 鈥淗ow is it that a grandfather with 70 criminal convictions, a deep child-welfare history, who was unable to parent his own children, and an active drug addict, could so easily have a child pass to his custody?鈥�
The answer is: Because a lot of people didn鈥檛 do their jobs.
When the girl was 17 months old, she was taken by sa国际传媒 social workers because of her mother鈥檚 drug problems and placed in a foster home. In 2007, sa国际传媒 officials approved her transfer to the care of her grandfather, who lived on a First Nations reserve near Fort Qu鈥橝ppelle, east of Regina.
The approval was based on a home assessment by a First Nations agency, which either missed or ignored his criminal and child-welfare background. The sa国际传媒 workers apparently didn鈥檛 raise red flags when the grandfather hitchhiked to sa国际传媒 with another child, behaved erratically, demanded plane fare home and spent at least some of the money on drugs.
In Saskatchewan, the girl was locked in a furnace room, starved and physically injured. She was rescued after a neighbour called police, who found her emaciated, with many scars and an untreated fractured clavicle.
Today, the girl is a healthy nine-year-old living in a different First Nations foster home; her grandparents are serving three years in prison.
Child-welfare social work is one of the toughest jobs out there. Social workers鈥� decisions can save children鈥檚 lives, tear families apart, give youngsters a chance at a productive future or 鈥� as in this case 鈥� send kids from a bad situation to a worse one.
The underlying principle for social workers is to act in the best interests of the child. Case loads, staffing and money issues can make it difficult at times, but the mistakes in this case were glaring.
They began with the sloppy report on the grandfather by the First Nations Child and Family Service agency in Saskatchewan, which said his criminal record check was clear. sa国际传媒 workers then dropped the ball by approving the move despite never receiving a copy of a criminal record check and not following many of their own procedures to ensure the girl鈥檚 safety. There is no record that they gave the Saskatchewan workers her medical records, which included several significant issues.
The Saskatchewan agency compounded the errors by not watching over the girl during the 18 months she lived with her grandparents. The ministry in Saskatchewan failed in its duty to ensure the First Nations agency was following standards of practice. In July 2007, the FNCFS agency closed the grandfather鈥檚 foster home because of drug use, but left the child there. A few months later, the FNCFS agency and provincial officials visited the home because of abuse reports, but didn鈥檛 go inside or see the child.
The case demonstrates the potential problems when children are moved between provinces.
Turpel-Lafond wants sa国际传媒鈥檚 ministry to require that its own social workers go to the other province to make sure the proposed foster home meets standards. She also proposes that the ministry review the protocol among provinces and territories that governs such transfers.
The representative鈥檚 report must move officials here and in Saskatchewan to improve the way they look after children.
There were many chances to rescue the girl, but each time, someone slipped up. The abuse went on for 18 months before help finally arrived.
