September 21, 2005

Special Child and Youth Officer Investigation

In Question Period on September 19th, Adrian Dix asked Minister of Child and Family Development, Stan Hagen, to confirm that the Ministry changed the terms of reference for the director's review into the death of Sherry Charlie so as to eliminate questions regarding whether the Ministry's response to child protection concerns was adequate. Hagen took the question on notice, but before question period began the next day he gave a "ministerial statement" in which he announced that the Attorney General would direct the Child and Youth Officer to conduct a review in accordance with Section 6 of the Office of Child and Youth Act. That is the section which authorizes the Child and Youth Officer to go beyond her normal job of making generalizations and to focus on a particular investigation:

Instead of heading off the Opposition in question period, Hagen's statement resulted in a half hour of questioning regarding the limited scope of the investigation. Hagen ignored the questions and repeatedly stated the three areas for the requested review:

The terms of reference for the review deal with how the Ministry handled its investigation, but do not permit the Child and Youth Officer to examine questions which the Ministry excluded from the initial report, especially the role of the Ministry and whether cutbacks contributed to the death. There will be a coroner's investigation into Sherry Charlie's death but that investigation is specifically prohibited from finding fault.

BC's Child and Youth Officer, Jane Morley, fiercely maintains that she is "independent" and that nothing but bureaucracy and duplication was lost when she replaced the former Children's Commission and the Child, Youth and Family Advocate. The former officers were eliminated based on a report Morley wrote for government. Morley's argument that she is independent rests heavily on reference to her personal integrity while sidestepping structural issues including limits placed on her by legislation. No one questions Morley's integrity, but many question her ability to act independently. The former Children's Commission would not have required a directive from the Attorney General or anyone else in government in order to conduct an investigation. Under intense questioning regarding limits to the investigation Morley has been directed to do, Hagen answered that the legislation permits Morley to obtain whatever information she requires. That might have been a weak attempt to suggest that she could go beyond her narrow terms of reference, but she can't. That is precisely why the government gave her three specific issues to investigate, and did not ask her to investigate the role of the Ministry in the death.

Hagen argued that cost saving had nothing to do with Sherry Charlie's death. He pointed out that the costs of a "kith & kin" placement were 100% absorbed by the province, whereas the federal government would have born the costs of foster care since she was on a reserve. That muddies the water and misses a very important point. It takes a lot of social work to qualify a family for foster care, including a home study that can take months and repeated visits. Kith and kin placements are seen as an alternative to taking a child into care; they are not foster care. The guidelines for kith & kin were faxed out without any training for social workers who would be using them. There is some argument that the tragic death would not have occurred if errors had not occurred in following the guidelines, but that misses the point that the guidelines remain a cheaper alternative. It takes less social work time to qualify a "kith & kin" placement than it does to qualify a foster home. That is important at a time when the government has laid off line level child protection workers.

When she appeared on the Rafe Mair show on August 12th, Morley was asked about the questionable short cuts for approving kith & kin placements. She ducked the question by simply saying they are not foster care. If she takes that approach in conducting her directed investigation, it won't make any difference whether she operates under limited terms of reference or whether she behaves as if she were independent.

In early September, Morley released a four page report on early childhood development in which she used the word "nonpartisan" six times. There are partisan differences with respect to child protection. The Campbell government cut services and implemented inadequate alternatives. Placing children with family members can be better for the children, but those family members need to be screened just like any foster parent whether its called fostering or not. Kith & kin includes "friends"; social workers report cases where a friend is found by running a want-ad looking for someone to take a child. That's not extended family; that's cut-rate foster care that can produce disasters. Those cost-driven policies are evidence that there was an environment where budget cuts, not child welfare, were the highest priority.