Indigenous newborn back with family after outcry online, in house

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This article was published 20/04/2023 (1216 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An Indigenous newborn apprehended by child welfare authorities at a Winnipeg hospital this week has been reunited with her young parents following social-media outcry and an appeal for intervention at the Manitoba legislature.

The baby girl was taken into the custody of child and family services on April 17, three days after her birth, according to the family.

Video of the incident posted by the baby’s aunt the same day circulated widely on social media and amassed thousands of views across various platforms as the family advocated for the child’s return.

The child’s 18-year-old father said the apprehension of his daughter was devastating.

A case worker arrived to take the child as they were being discharged from hospital and refused to elaborate on reasons for the apprehension, claimed the man, a member of an Ontario First Nation.

The baby’s 17-year-old mother is in the Manitoba child welfare system and in the care of her adult sister. Family members said they had developed a kinship plan with CFS and were prepared to take the baby home.

“They didn’t tell us, they didn’t warn us, they just showed up,” the father told the Free Press on Thursday outside the Winnipeg CFS office.

A meeting between the family and CFS officials Thursday concluded with the decision to send the newborn home with her parents and aunt that night.

“(The baby) is coming home. They were trying to argue facts that were not even updated, but we argued back, and she’s coming home tonight,” the aunt said.

NDP families critic Nahanni Fontaine advocated on behalf of the family in question period Thursday, asking Families Minister Rochelle Squires to explain why the child was apprehended days after her birth when the Tories had ended the use of so-called birth alerts in 2020.

Squires said after the matter was brought to her attention, she instructed the General CFS Authority to provide “extreme oversight” of the case and ensure officials were at the table with the family to come up with a plan.

The minister said she could not discuss specifics of the case.

“Provincial law and federal law outline that family reunification is a priority, and so my instructions to the General Authority was to remember, reflect and ensure that this tenet of the law is being upheld and fulfilled,” Squires told the Free Press after question period.

Prior to July 2020, birth alerts were used to notify hospitals and CFS agencies when a parent was considered high risk and required further assessment before their child could be discharged to their care. Alerts were issued prior to the child being born.

The policy change has led to a 70 per cent reduction in newborn apprehensions since 2014, when 289 babies were taken into CFS custody, Squires said.

“There are still apprehensions, there are still children who are not living with family or there’s not kinship care arrangements for some children,” she said.

”We have a lot of work to do.”

Improvements to the child welfare system — which Squires described as the decades-old creation of a colonial environment — are necessary to better protect parental rights and prioritize family care arrangements, she said.

“We will continue to work on the system to ensure that families are better served. Our intent is to completely transform the child welfare system.”

A review of the case will be conducted, she said.

According to the baby’s aunt, CFS told the family the baby was apprehended because she had an open file with child welfare authorities from four years ago that was never closed, and because of old charges filed against the mother that the aunt said were also dismissed.

Advocates and a case worker with Anishinaabe Child and Family Services were present at the meeting and confirmed the aunt’s file was supposed to have been closed, she said.

The baby’s father said he and his partner are ecstatic but hurt the incident happened in the first place.

“It was a relief. I was excited and still am excited that I get to see my baby again because what they did was not right. It’s not right at all,” he said.

Manitobans should be upset about the handling of this case, said Fontaine, who has been in touch with the family and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs’ First Nations family advocate.

“Here’s a really good example of doing everything you’re supposed to, and that’s still not enough,” Fontaine said.

“That’s still not enough for an Indigenous family coming forward and doing everything they did to be allowed to parent and keep our children.”

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca