Suits against CFS, custodians allege abuse in foster care

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This article was published 08/02/2011 (5674 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TWO recently filed lawsuits target foster parents and Child and Family Services for alleged abuse involving youth in their care.

In one case, the father of two boys is seeking damages for physical and sexual abuse he alleges his sons suffered at a foster mother’s home.

The statement of claim says the boys, now 16 and 17, went to live at a home outside the city with a foster mother in 2006 while they were in the care of Intertribal Child and Family Services. The claim alleges the boys were routinely abused by two nephews of the foster mother, who also lived with her.

“Almost on a daily basis, (the boys) were physically and sexually assaulted by (the nephews), including but not limited to blows to the head, blows to the body, fondling, digital anal penetration and being shot with a pellet gun,” the lawsuit claims.

The statement of claim alleges “Intertribal had not performed proper background checks” on the foster mother and her family. It names her, her nephews, the CFS agency and the provincial government as defendants.

The boys were returned to their biological family in 2007 and their disclosure of alleged sexual abuse led the boys and their father to contact the Children’s Advocate. An RCMP investigation led to criminal charges against the two nephews, who were both convicted.

“There was no system or practice or any adequate system or practice by the defendant Intertribal of oversight of the (placement), nor of supervision or monitoring of behaviour therein,” said the statement of claim, which notes the the experience left the boys “emotionally shattered.”

The claim said the boy’s father had tried to warn Intertribal staff about the alleged abuse after his sons confided in him.

The boys will now require “medications, therapy, counselling” as well as other forms of treatment, the claim.

In a second, unrelated claim, a 20-year-old man is seeking damages from Southeast Child and Family Services and his former foster parents for abuse he says he suffered while living with the foster parents from 1996 to 1999.

“(The foster parents) failed to protect him from sexual battery by another child in the care of and under the supervision of the foster parents,” said the statement of claim. It also said the foster parents “subjected (him) to physical and emotional abuse.”

The man does not identify the foster parents by name in the lawsuit, but says he’s suffered as a result of his placement. A spokesman for Child and Family Services said he could not comment on the lawsuits Monday.

“I am advised that lawyers for the agency and the department are gathering information and the facts that they will present when these matters get to court,” the spokesman said in an email.

No statement of defence has been filed yet in either of the cases.

gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca