Family demands answers for child death in CFS care

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This article was published 28/06/2023 (854 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The mother of a toddler who drowned last week in Portage la Prairie while in the care of CFS authorities is distraught and seeking answers.

The woman — who cannot be identified because her two-year-old son was in the care of Sagkeeng Child & Family Services and living with a foster family — said he drowned June 19 in a retention pond.

“My boy, my only first son that was ever born, I can’t believe you are gone so soon,” she said Wednesday, her voice breaking at times. “I’m sad to be burying my own son.”

Family and community members are organizing a rally at the Manitoba legislature Sunday to demand more information and changes to how children are kept in care, so such an incident never happens to another family.

Last week, RCMP reported officers had responded to a report of a drowning at a residence in Portage. Mounties said a child was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced deceased.

Officers were told at the scene the boy was outside with foster family members but wandered away, and was later located in the retention pond.

The child’s mother said she had only been able to visit her son at the CFS agency office. While she has never been to the house he was living at, she has been told there is no fence separating it from the retention pond, the woman said.

“I have no sympathy for (the foster parents),” she said. “The other children should be taken away from there, but I’m told the reason they are not is because the (foster) family is grieving and the (foster children) are suffering.

“But it hurts my heart sitting here. It will take awhile to get over my anger. I trusted them with my child.”

An all-night wake was planned for Wednesday evening; the child’s funeral is Friday.

The child is survived by his mother, father, two brothers and a sister.

“We’re hoping for answers into the young boy’s death because the family hasn’t got any from the agency, RCMP or the (Manitoba) advocate (for children and youth),” the boy’s aunt said Wednesday. “We want the community to come together for support, to help the family, and see why this keeps happening with First Nation children in care.

“He was a two-year-old, out at 7:20 at night, in his pyjamas, and wandered off unsupervised — there’s so many questions and what ifs we have.”

A spokesperson for Sagkeeng CFS could not provide comment, due to restrictions of the Child and Family Services Act.

Manitoba advocate Sherry Gott could say little at this time.

“Under Section 10 of the Fatal Inquiries Act, the chief medical examiner must notify the Manitoba advocate for children and youth of the death of a child or a young adult under 21 years of age in Manitoba,” Gott said in a statement.

“We can confirm that we have received a notification of this death and are determining whether it meets our legislated mandate for a review under Section 20 of the (Manitoba) Advocate for Children in Youth Act. But this is all we can confirm at this time.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca