National Post ePaper

Deaths of nine children lead advocate to offer new guidance

BLAIR MCBRIDE bmcbride@postmedia.com

Two young siblings who died by homicide were among nine youth who died while receiving child intervention services in a six-month period in 2021, said Alberta's child advocate.

In a report released Tuesday, Del Graff reviewed the circumstances leading up to the deaths of nine children aged seven months to 19 years old from Oct. 1, 2020, to March 31.

Graff points to insufficient intra-governmental information sharing, transition planning for adolescents aging out of care, and early intervention and service gaps for Indigenous people as contributing challenges in the lives of the youth.

Three main recommendations emerge from the review.

One is that the Ministries of Children's Services and Justice and Solicitor General should require that child intervention services be informed before an individual is released from incarceration for family violence where the family was involved with those services.

The second is the Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General should reassess the risk offenders pose and offer to safety plan with victims of family violence when offenders are released from jail.

And the Ministry of Children's Services should strengthen policy and practice supports related to the involvement of First Nations designates to include accountability measures when designates provide guidance on family and cultural connections.

Three children were receiving intervention services when they died and six were receiving services in the previous two years, putting them within the scope of mandatory reviews.

The reviews of two young people who died in the six-month period have been stayed and will be released at a later date; and reviews of two youth who died before the period have also been stayed.

Six of the youth were Indigenous, “highlighting the continued vulnerability and overrepresentation of Indigenous young people in government systems,” Graff said.

His third recommendation touches on the urgency for more accountability from the government to ensure strong cultural connections are maintained between young people and First Nation communities, Graff 's office said in a separate news release.

The names of the children in the review are pseudonyms.

BROOKLYN AND CINDI

Seven-month-old Brooklyn and three-year-old Cindi were Indigenous siblings. Both were subjects of a supervision order through child intervention services when they were victims of homicide. Their parents were raised experiencing substance use and violence, and their father had a criminal history of violent offences.

It is based on the siblings' circumstances and deaths that Graff made the recommendations to the Ministries of Children's Services and Justice and the Solicitor General.

KELSIE, AYVA AND LAYLA

All three teens died from fentanyl or methamphetamine toxicity.

Kelsie was diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and was raised by parents who used substances and struggled to find stable housing. She was 18 when she died of drug toxicity.

Graff based his third recommendation on Kelsie's situation.

Ayva and Layla were 17 and 18, respectively, when they died.

Mental health issues became apparent when Ayva was young. When she was 17, she gave birth to a daughter, who was taken into government care. Shortly after, she used fentanyl and was found dead.

Layla began using substances from a young age. She was found dead four days before her 19th birthday.

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