Baby Protected to Death

September 21, 2007 permalink

A baby girl taken into custody by child protectors in British Columbia for no disclosed cause has died, just days days after the seizure. The girl's name remains a closely guarded secret.

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Baby died days after entering foster care

SCOTT SUTHERLAND

The Canadian Press

September 20, 2007

VICTORIA -- The British Columbia government is being asked to give a grieving Vancouver Island family some answers after their two young girls were taken into foster care and one of them died just days later.

The NDP critic for the Children's Ministry said yesterday a four-month-old girl died in foster care in Nanaimo on Sept. 11 while her two-year-old sister remains in government care. "The family, until today, didn't receive any reason on why the children were removed or how the child died," said Nicholas Simons, the MLA for Powell River-Sunshine Coast.

"The family needs support in getting through this difficult time. And I think the mother and the grandmother in this case deserve some answers. It's certainly troubling."

Mr. Simons, a former child-protection worker, said no social worker has visited the family since the children were taken away, noting a written explanation for the removal would have come in court.

"Unfortunately, on the day of court the mother was told her child had died," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Children and Family Development said because of privacy considerations the ministry will not comment on specific cases.

"What we can say, though, is that in any instance where a child in care and child receiving ministry services dies the situation is carefully assessed by the director of child welfare and ultimately that assessment could lead to a full case review," the official said.

Mr. Simons said the case is indicative of the serious level of neglect that B.C.'s families are suffering under the current Liberal government. He said he would like some answers himself about the reorganization of ministry services that's taken place in Nanaimo.

"A number of contracts have been farmed out to various agencies," he said, adding the continuity in services recommended in two past provincial inquiries into child deaths in care seems to have been lost.

Source: Globe and Mail

Addendum: Another news source, A-Channel, gives the names. The parents are Rose Touchie and Ray Dewell and the deceased girl is Caroline Touchie.