Indigenous leaders sign document demanding changes to CFS care

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This article was published 16/10/2014 (4084 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba aboriginal leaders signed an agreement Wednesday aiming to change the system of apprehending children of families in crisis by getting more First Nations communities involved.

Grand Chief Derek Nepinak of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Grand Chief David Harper of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO), Grand Chief Terrence Nelson of the Southern Chiefs Organization and Manitoba Regional Chief Bill Traverse of the Assembly of First Nations signed the agreement on the heels of a news conference earlier this month announcing 10 proposals for change in a report called Bringing Our Children Home.

The agreement between the chiefs is aimed at “deconstructing the child-apprehension industry, known as Child And Family Services (CFS),” a news release stated.

“We’re seeing an acceleration of children in (CFS) care through that, a lot of tragic outcomes and consequences in a system that’s become self-contained and self-realizing in how it approaches the task of providing families with protective services and safety for children,” Nepinak said in an interview.

The chiefs will be part of a leadership-council meeting during the first week of November with provincial Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross, Nepinak said.

“We need the minister to bring a commitment to recognize the binding effect of decisions that are made and vetted through our leadership tables,” he said.

Nepinak said the chiefs would like to see a redirection of the approximately $6 billion expected to be spent by the provincial government in the next 10 years seizing and holding aboriginal children in the current system. It could be used to create care options within First Nations communities.

If children can’t be in their own homes, the safest place for them is in their own communities, surrounded by their own traditions and the security of familiar faces, Nepinak said.

“We’ve said for a long time, sometimes it takes a community to raise a child, and we’re being denied that opportunity for the community to help raise the child because children are being moved from our communities and into private homes that aren’t part of our collective,” Nepinak said.

He said the provincial government’s message is it wants to work with the aboriginal leaders, but that has not yet translated into action.

“What we’d like to see is a funding mechanism that actually provides real prevention, healing and pre-emptive services for the families instead of paying lip service that’s there right now,” Nepinak said.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca