Slain tot’s sister takes on CFS

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/05/2019 (2482 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Almost five years after a toddler was killed by her parents on a Manitoba First Nation, a judge must decide whether her sister was wrongfully accused by the RCMP and a child-welfare agency.

In a two-day hearing last week, Court of Queen’s Bench Judge Jeffrey Harris said the federal law regarding a sibling’s obligation to care for another sibling is a “live issue” in the lawsuit, which the young woman launched after her baby sister’s death.

In July 2014, Kierra Elektra Star Williams died at the hands of her mother and after months of neglect by her father when she was not yet two years old. Her parents were both sent to prison. The Crown stayed criminal charges against Kierra’s older sister, Jasmine Bushie.

Bushie sued the RCMP and Intertribal Child and Family Services, accusing them of wrongfully accusing her in Kierra’s death. She alleged the RCMP didn’t have grounds to charge her, and she claimed she wasn’t considered a suspect until after employees from Intertribal CFS spoke to police.

The CFS agency and the federal attorney general have denied the allegations. Their lawyers argued the judge should dismiss Bushie’s claims without going to trial.

Bushie’s lawyers are asking for a summary judgment in their favour against the RCMP, but they want their case against the CFS agency to go to trial and are seeking unspecified financial damages for Bushie.

In January 2015, when Bushie was 20, she was charged with manslaughter and failing to provide the necessaries of life to her sister Kierra, who had suffered months of abuse and neglect after she was returned to her parents by CFS.

When she died on July 17, 2014, 21-month-old Kierra had internal bleeding, several broken ribs, a skull fracture, a dislocated shoulder, missing teeth and serious bruising. She was malnourished, emaciated and suffering from dehydration — signs of abuse and neglect that may have been happening as early as six months before she died.

The charges against Jasmine Bushie were stayed in December 2016, just as a preliminary hearing was set to begin for Kierra’s parents, Vanessa Bushie and Daniel Williams.

Although the case against her wasn’t considered strong enough to go to trial, Jasmine Bushie suffered because she had been accused in the homicide. In addition to spending 16 days in jail before she was granted bail, her lawyer, Theodore Mariash, argued she had been subjected to vigilante justice and had to move.

In the statement of claim for the civil suit, Mariash argued his client wouldn’t have been charged if CFS employees hadn’t “misrepresented” a respite-care agreement that required Jasmine to cook, clean and care for her siblings on behalf of CFS in her mother Vanessa Bushie’s home on Peguis First Nation.

“(Intertribal Child and Family Services) knew that they had the next Phoenix Sinclair case on their hands,” and they wanted to blame Jasmine Bushie, Mariash argued.

The judge repeatedly questioned him about the lack of evidence to support such claims.

The allegations were described as “ridiculous,” by lawyer Michael Finlayson, who is representing Intertribal Child and Family Services. In court last week, he quoted from Jasmine Bushie’s statement to police, using her words to point out that she knew about Kierra being bruised and having a difficult time eating, but didn’t tell anyone. When she talked to police, she wondered aloud why she hadn’t come forward about what was happening to her baby sister.

Jasmine told the RCMP Kierra wasn’t comfortable with her biological family after she was returned to her mother in July 2013 and seemed as though she was “starving herself.” Jasmine was living with Vanessa Bushie during the time Kierra was abused and neglected, and she moved out three days before Kierra died.

Police had enough information to charge Jasmine based on her own words, not because of anything CFS did, Finlayson argued.

Lawyers on all sides acknowledged Jasmine is innocent of any crime against her sister and never physically abused Kierra.

Alexander Menticoglou, the lawyer for the federal attorney general, argued Mounties were right to charge her.

“The RCMP arrested the plaintiff because there were grounds for the arrest, and the RCMP opposed bail because their case was strong. The fact that the charges were stayed doesn’t negate the work of the RCMP, which was thorough and professional,” Menticoglou argued. “And it doesn’t mean the decisions they took were anything but justified.”

Mariash questioned Jasmine Bushie’s legal obligations to her sister. He argued there has never been a reported case in Canada of a brother or sister being convicted of failing to provide the necessaries of life to their sibling. The judge accepted that as fact.

There is “no recognized duty of care” between siblings in Canadian law, Mariash argued. Finlayson argued otherwise, saying “it’s just not true.”

The judge reserved his decision.

Vanessa Bushie, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced in August 2017 to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years. Kierra’s father, Daniel Williams, was sentenced to eight years in prison after a jury found him guilty of manslaughter.

Kierra was apprehended by CFS at birth because the couple’s older children had been removed from the home following a domestic-violence allegation. The children were returned to their parents in July 2013. When CFS workers visited the home about seven months before Kierra’s death, they found nothing of concern.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay