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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Enough -- litany of slain kids must stop

By: Lindor Reynolds

15/07/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 38

The woman accused of killing her toddler while living at a native women's transition centre is about to give birth again. Sweet Mother of God, will it never stop?

The accused -- and her dead baby -- were under the direct supervision of Child and Family Services.

The woman, whom the Free Press is not naming, has been charged with second-degree murder. Her baby was rushed to hospital on June 29 and died there.

The police said there were signs the girl had been physically abused throughout her life.

The mother, who has been charged with second-degree murder, follows a long list of other CFS-monitored clients who have injured or killed their kids.

The Free Press has documented the deaths, writing thousands of words about CFS, the flaws in the system, the damaged children, the overworked social workers and the lost generations raised by f caregivers, some sufficient and others simply evil.

For our efforts, we have been branded racists, accused of blocking the efforts to reform child welfare, charged with relaying too many details about kids in care and damned as naysayers who won't give CFS a chance to iron out the kinks -- And the kids keep dying.

The very day I wrote my last column about the failures of CFS, a piece that described the short life and brutal death of Venecia Audy, this latest mother was being charged with killing her two-year-old.

In Venecia's case, her mother was given a year in jail for failing to provide the necessities of life to her three-year-old. The woman's former boyfriend is charged with the actual killing. CFS had been involved with Melissa Audy from the time she had her first child. Venecia had been sexually tortured and her skull fractured.

How could this most recent death occur while both mother and child were supposed to be under supervision? Have we learned nothing from the sad litany of slain children?

The system has failed again, in spectacular, predictable and tragic fashion.

As for how the woman, who has already given birth to three children, is able to bring another child into the world, the mind boggles. She was living at the women's transition home, but was not a prisoner there. If she was looking for a date, she was able to find one.

The woman lost her first child to CFS in 2004. Her second was seized at birth, returned to the mother by CFS and seized again after ongoing concerns about the child's safety.

The dead girl was also seized at birth but, with CFS approval, was returned last December. The mom was ordered to live at the centre.

Presumably, this new child will also be seized at birth. One can only hope mommy doesn't get a second crack at this one when her trial is over.

I'm at a loss to understand any of this. There's no question that CFS is filled with compassionate people who work hard under tremendous stress. They need smaller caseloads, more training and the power to sometimes say that the best thing for a child is never seeing her birth parents again.

But change can only come from the top, from senior bureaucrats and politicians who can't be allowed to look away from the horror being inflicted on the children they are supposed to protect. It has to come from the aboriginal leadership, too, because so many of these children are members of First Nations.

It is also time to ask the uncomfortable, politically incorrect question of how many opportunities we allow women (and their partners) to continue the cycle of babies and abuse.

Enough standing by blindly as children have their own children, perpetuating the casual cruelties that formed their own upbringing. Enough continuing the cycle. Enough dead children.

lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 15, 2009 B3

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38 Commentscomment icon

Having a child should be a privlage, not a right. It's time we stand up and do somthing. People are just having babies for a second paycheck. Then we the taxpayer end up covering the kid for the rest of it's life.

If some one doesnt have the income to support them selfs (on welfare, disablity, ect) they should not be allowed to have a child. Enough is enough.

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I knew a woman once (a friend knew her) that had 10 children and they would all be taken away randomly sometimes together and sometimes not but they would always come back at one point or another. She told me straight up she had these kids for money from the government. 10 kids!! When the kids were gone and even when they weren't she was a drug addict and an alcoholic. She never even had toilet paper in her house nevermind food...

I know someone else who had CFS called on them because of a personal dispute between 2 adults (the call was made out of spite sadly). The call was claiming child abuse that was not there. That family is now torn apart and there really was no abuse, it was a very happy home. Court dates are now pending for this one. The hope is still there that the family will be reunited but I sometimes have my doubts. Someone who is a stand up citizen and with absolutley no criminal record is now being treated like a common criminal...

What's the problem here??

I once saw a documentary on a married Downs syndrome couple who opted themselves for the old 'snip snip' (it's not a big deal, and can be reversed). Too bad some 'normal' people cannot think so clearly as this lovely couple can when it comes to the issue of child-bearing and rearing.

I am a liberal person, I think. But I do not think that procreation is a human right. And I agree that LyzzaJane needs to have a big think about what she's saying...her post is a stretch and an insult.

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The damage that CFS causes is not just on Natives I know that Natives take a lot more coming from the past that is there I am not denying those facts. The agency as a whole needs to be changed drastically in all aspects. It effects everyone who needs to come in contact with them.

I think what needs to be done is make it a requirement to access to your children: have the single parents go back to school, keep up their grades, lower the age maximum to 4yr olds not 6 for welfare, force parents to attend any training or courses as part of a contract with CFS that encourages better parenting and/or skills to better themselves, encourage depo or long-term birth control for women with 2 or more children (in reality a single mother can only support 2 while working).
I agree with Mr. Buors. Too much reliance on a system that coddles you will make you too dependent on that system. Unless said system forces you to earn your right to those benefits (not popping out babies left, right, & centre) they'd lose that dependency & start looking to themselves for the solution.
China's law about having only 1 child in a marriage seems to be working well for them.
Here's a reality check for the welfare dunces: [Edited] 41% have been on welfare for less than 2 years while 57% have been on welfare for MORE THAN 5 YEARS!!!
'female respondents on average had 3 children living with them in the household' while 'Male respondents, on average, had only 1.4 children living in the household'
====>I wonder why the babies daddies weren't involved in the picture? Maybe if they were, would the children still be here today?<====

Well said...s.julian.

For years the Children's Aid took many of our First Nation Children who were phsically, sexually and emotionally abused in there non-native foster homes.

I have met street people who have told their stories of being beaten every evening at 7 p.m. living in these foster homes. There were countless children who died.

The Native CFS Agencies are now dealing with the generational effects of abuse endured while under the white agencies. And now the Native CFS Agencies are constantly being put down for what damage has already been placed on our people!

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On the subject of the racist crap. I get called racist a lot.. Sometimes for just looking in the wrong direction downtown.. not kidding. The things is I am not and in fact all those natives who judge me because I am white.. they are racist. Now this may sound bad I'm not going to lie because people take things the wrong way all the time it seems. People REALLY need to take a look at the word racist before throwing it around so much.

racism - the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior to members of other races
racism - discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race

Maybe I am just crazy but I feel attacked on a daily basis by some people in the central area (I work in this area so I have no choice but to visit it daily). I get called whitey or dumb whitey.. Among a lot of other names... and I get dirty looks constantly! One time I smiled at a woman and told her she had a very cute little girl which in fact she did and the mother in front of her child told me to F off... no joke.

This article is not racist. Just because a white person mentions Natives does not make that white person racist. Honestly!

oldcrow

What exactly is rude and ignorant about wanting to end welfare and the mindset it breeds?

People talking about forced sterilization...like they would murder children before they are conceived to save them from being murdered by their parents and I'm ignorant?

I have read The Income Tax; The Root of All Evil by Frank Chadorov. Some insights.

"The reason for the failure of social security in Germany, and wherever else it has been tried, is psychological, not political. When the individual is relieved of the obligation of self-respect, he acquires the habits of helplessness; he is inclined to retreat to the security of the prenatal state....
The more he is taken care of the more he wants care.

" Wardship under the State, by way of unemployment insurance, public housing, gratuities for not producing, and bounties of one kind or another, has become the normal way of getting along; and in this habit of accepting and expecting handouts, the pride of personality is lost."

"Socialism has a way of corroding human dignity. so the loss of one moral value must ultimately undermine the sense of morality."

I agree with Chadorov.

Welfare hasn't done Canadians any good and has in fact done a great deal of harm by institutionalizing poverty and including encouraging people who ought to not have children to have them for the sake of a paycheck.

Self education has cleared up any ignorance I had on Welfare's so called benefits.

@ s julian:

Being hypocritical does not get your argument across. You say not to blame Natives, yet completely critisize Whites...

And all the "negative" comments...it's the TRUTH! An innocent BABY was killed because of gross negligence and even more disturbing lack of ANY type of parenting skills or love. I am sick of hearing of these poor babies being killed because of their parent/s disfunction already! The funding IS in place for family violence prevention, brighter futures, anger management, healthy baby, you name it, it's there....but what help is it when you don't or won't use it! *sick*

I don't care if a person is black, white, brown, green, purple, even magenta, child killing and neglect is sick sick sick and no one can be blamed except for the person/people responsible. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! No one should bring these angels into the world unless the intent to properly parent is there.

I could never even THINK of hurting my little 2 year old girl. Those who do so should suffer severe reprocussions for their actions.

Please ignore anonymous posts. They are usually quite irrelevant and responding to them is annoying,to say the least. For the real commenters, it's good to know we can communicate by name, thank you. For those that continue anon comments, I reiterate, cowards.

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