Showing posts with label Manitoba Legislature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manitoba Legislature. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

NEWBORN TAKEN FROM MOTHER & DIES WITHIN 4 WEEKS

Manitoba Child and Family Services seized Matias de Antonia at birth, and on March 27th, he died while in foster. The baby’s mother Maria Herriera’s family roots are in Colombia and their first language is Spanish. She has been in Canada for six years and she is a permanent resident of Canada. She had no record of neglect during her pregnancy. She has no record of mental illness. CFS were concerned about her ability to care for the child. The boy’s uncle, Carlos Burgos said that the family disagreed with the CFS’s action and says, “I’m not against CFS at all. CFS is there it help people, it’s just some people they don’t know how to do their jobs properly. They were very rough with my family. They didn’t give us the opportunity to show we could raise Matias. They took the baby away from our sister, from us.”

This data and interview details are part of a Global network article authored by By Eric Szeto, Reporter/Anchor.


Every province has its stories that raise concern over deaths of children while in government initiated and sponsored foster care. Concern must result in better management. This cannot be allowed to continue. Legislators, government Ministers, Judges, politicians from all parties have to take notice of this.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Let the Child Advocate be Heard / Part 218 / For Love and For Justice / Zabeth and Paul Bayne/

My involvement with Paul's and Zabeth's campaign for justice has alerted me to related news from across the country. I am still amazed at the issue parallels in all provinces. I am not a news network so I am a day late, yet BC-rs, where have you heard something like this before?

From Winnipeg CBC news sources on Thursday came this information. Manitoba has a Children's advocate position just as British Columbia does. Billie Schibler is the current children's advocate who has been an outspoken critic of the government with regard to issues facing children in care. In April she left her post on indefinite leave due to personal family reasons. Hers is to be an office independent of government, dealing directly with the Manitoba legislative assembly – an office similar to our B.C. Advocate Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond. Ms. Schibler's term in office is scheduled to expire in April 2011. she left very early. Without an advocate in place, Bonnie Kocsis is the acting children's advocate, and an acting officer is not viewed as healthy because of the reluctance to affect necessary changes. An all-party committee will convene soon to discuss potential candidates to replace Schibler. Her office is in the news now because on Wednesday a private Advocate's report was leaked. It declared that provincial child welfare system is in a state of crisis. Manitoba has an NDP government. Although it was intended to be private, Liberal MLA Kevin Lamoureux who had access to the report because he is a member of the budget committee, forwarded it to the media. Lamoureux's defence of his action stated, "our children are much more important than something that happens beyond closed doors." The report stated that children in care have increased from 6600 to 8600 over a five year span. It claims that social workers are quitting due to overwhelming caseloads that are two-and-a-half times larger than is reasonable. It referenced critically the government policy of placing aboriginal children in non aboriginal foster homes. When this report was leaked, the Opposition requested that the Advocate appear to answer questions about the report but the government would not grant this and came under immediate heavy pressure. Then on Thursday, news broke that the NDP government will introduce a bill requiring the Children's advocate to appear annually before a legislative committee to answer questions about child welfare in Manitoba. Ostensibly the intention of this government action to create an interactive forum with the Advocate is to provide greater insight to the government and to Manitobans regarding the challenges as well as the accomplishments of child welfare. One is compelled to trust the government's motive integrity. Yet Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh was quick to defend the government's past responses to the Advocate's concerns.
What do you think about that?

Read more: CBC children's advocate story

Advocate warns of state of chaos

Children's advocate website

AM 1150

Advocate on indefinite leave

Brandon Sun – social workers leave

Winnipeg Free Press – backlog a challenge for agency

Chaos

What is Advocacy