Serenity’s family demands a full public inquiry
‘Our leaders turn a blind eye to children dying,’ great uncle says
Serenity’s family is demanding a public inquiry into the little girl’s death.
They sat in the legislative gallery Wednesday, stone-faced as they surveyed question period below.
The family members made their way to the legislative building in Edmonton to get answers about the little girl who died, aged four, after a traumatic head injury while in kinship care. Under the provisions of the province’s Child, Youth and Family Enhancement Act, the Journal cannot publish information which would serve to identify Serenity’s surviving siblings.
Serenity’s great uncle, who saw himself as more of a grandfather to the child, labelled government inaction on the file as “bureaucratic stupidity at its best,” and said Premier Rachel Notley should be ashamed.
“We’re supposed to be a progressive society, but I don’t see it,” he said.
“When our leaders turn a blind eye to children dying, it’s unacceptable.”
Serenity was just 18 pounds when she died, the weight of a typical nine-month-old infant, and had arrived at hospital with severe hypothermia, a fractured skull and a body covered in deep bruises, including her anal and genital areas.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Mike Ellis, Progressive Conservative MLA for Calgary-West, asked questions on behalf of the family, yet the answers from Notley and Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley provided little comfort.
Ellis wanted to know why Serenity’s mother hasn’t been kept abreast of developments in the police case, why the government has withheld information from her since her daughter’s 2014 death, and why no moves have been made to take other children from the same home where Serenity was living.
Ellis also repeated a call he has made numerous times this session, which was echoed by the family afterwards — there should be a public inquiry into Serenity’s death.
Serenity’s uncle acknowledged there are cases where blind disclosure is inappropriate, but demanded action on the file.
He came to the legislature Wednesday hoping for some resolution to the family’s ordeal.
“But honestly, I got what I expected out of Premier Notley today, which was nothing,” he said.
STILL NO JUSTICE
The case is currently with a Crown prosecutor, but it took more than two years after Serenity’s death to get there.
In fact, it took two years just for the autopsy report to be done.
While Notley offered an apology to the family Wednesday, she said it is important for the justice system to do its work.
“It is frustrating for all of us, but we can’t compromise that, because that would be yet another injustice,” Notley said in the legislature.
“We absolutely owe them an apology, all of us do, because there are so many ways in which the work that we do to support these children and their families can and must be better. That’s absolutely true. There’s no qualification to that.
“It must be done better.”