Another tragedy may be waiting to happen
Children's agency failing to protect kids, says native leader
Brian Lewis, The Province
Published: Thursday, October 26, 2006

Is there another tragedy waiting to happen to an aboriginal child because governments can't get their acts together?

A recent report by B.C. child and youth officer Jane Morley slamming the placement of Sherry Charlie's three-year-old brother in the Port Alberni home of the 19-month-old girl's convicted killer may be only the tip of the bureaucratic iceberg.

In the Fraser Valley, many who are familiar with the 2002 fatal beating of the Vancouver Island girl found the case hits too close to home.

Similar concerns over child welfare in the Valley have been raised for several years now over the Xyolhemeyhl Child and Family Services agency, which is funded by the federal and B.C. governments but is run by the Sto:lo Nation Society.

Already we've seen two public protests in downtown Chilliwack focusing on the agency's performance, and more may be coming.

"We're stuck with an agency that's not protecting our children," says Ernie Crey, a senior policy adviser with the Sto:lo Tribal Council.

"And if the status quo remains, we're going to have more tragedy."

He's referring to the fatal beating in August 2002 of two-year-old Chassidy Whitford by her father in their home near Mission while she was under XCFS supervision. Her father was later convicted.

Since then, reports in local papers have told of other incidents where children under the agency's care have, in Crey's words, "fallen though the cracks and been left to roam the streets or are bounced from one foster home to the next."

Unfortunately, the problem is compounded by political infighting among the bands within the Sto:lo community, which has now split into two rival groups -- the Sto:lo Nation Society, which operates XCFS, and the Sto:lo Tribal Council.

The tribal council represents eight of the 24 bands in Sto:lo territory, but those bands comprise about 65 per cent of the region's total native population, Crey says.

His group's aim is to shut down XCFS and replace it with a new agency it recently created -- the Fraser Salish Children & Family Services Society.

There's just one small problem here, however.

The federal Indian and Northern Affairs Ministry and the province's Children and Family Development Ministry are still backing -- and funding -- XCFS.

"Because both these levels of government refuse to take action, they're putting more of our children at risk," Crey says.

But XCFS executive director Darin Park says his agency's problems are partly due to the provincewide shortage of trained social workers.

He explains that while the agency caseloads have increased dramatically, the current staff of 40 social workers have their hands full, and 10 additional openings still wait to be filled.

He also says the agency wants to sit down and settle its differences with the tribal council and is attempting to organize a meeting just for that purpose.

Meanwhile, even though this particular aboriginal child-services issue has been examined ad

nauseam for several years now by government, the Child and Family Development Ministry's latest word is that, yes, it's about to issue another report.

Typical, so typical.

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If you have a story idea or noteworthy item about anything going on in the Fraser Valley, you can e-mail Brian at blewis@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Province 2006