Grieving mother, grandmother feels social services failed her family
‘Make sure these workers are educated on our history,’ inquiry panel told
Don’t just look at us as poor Indians and ‘Oh, they’re addicts.’ Get to the background, why are these kids in care.
Maxine Goforth wept SASKATO O N for much of the hour she spent testifying before the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Her voice trembled at times, but she appeared determined to keep going. While speaking Wednesday on the second day of the inquiry’s public hearings in Saskatoon, she said she wants the government to learn from the deaths of her granddaughter and daughter. She said she hopes the recommendations from the inquiry spark changes in social services to ensure that all children are cared for.
Goforth told the commissioner about her “beautiful” granddaughter, who was apprehended by social services before she was three years old despite Maxine’s efforts to foster the child.
“She would open up to only certain people and that was my pal, I would call her my pal,” Goforth told the commissioner. “I just loved her ... This little girl was so unique, so pudgy and so cute.”
In the summer of 2012, the little girl — then four years old — was rushed to hospital after suffering a heart attack. She was declared brain-dead and taken off life support two days later. She had been severely malnourished and was dehydrated and bruised.
The couple who had been caring for her — Tammy and Kevin Goforth, who are relatives of Maxine’s — were both sent to prison last year. Tammy received a life sentence without parole eligibility for 17 years for second-degree murder; Kevin received 15 years behind bars for manslaughter.
Tragedy struck Maxine’s family again in September 2013, when her 21-year-old daughter, Kelly Goforth, was found dead in a Regina trash bin.
Kelly’s killer, Clayton Bo Eichler, pleaded guilty in 2016 to two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Kelly and another young woman. He was sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility of parole for 20 years.
Kelly left behind a one-year-old son. Mere days after her death, someone from social services asked Maxine what she wanted to do with the boy. There was not question in her mind — she said she would raise her grandson, and that was the end of the conversation, she said.
“The thing that bothered me the most after: What if we were drinking in our house? What if we had not one thing of food for that kid? What if it was the most awfulest environment for him? They didn’t come and check. They didn’t come and make sure he had a bed or anything. They just said ‘OK, keep him,’” Maxine told the commissioners.
She said she feels social services “failed” her family, and she wants the provincial Ministry of Social Services to do more to ensure children are safe by mandating regular checks of children in care, even if they are taken in by family members.
“I hate to say, but it is reality: There will be other kids that are going to be left. (I want) for them to be thought of,” she said.
“Make sure these workers are educated on our history, our background, intergenerational effects that happen down the line. My dad was residential (school survivor), I am, right down the line. And whether or not we know it or want to admit it, it affects our kids, our grandkids. Make sure the workers understand that. Don’t just look at us as poor Indians and ‘Oh, they’re addicts.’ Get to the background, why are these kids in care.”
As she dabbed her eyes with tissue at the end of her testimony, Maxine thanked the people who had listened to her story and said she hopes something comes of it.
“It’s time to move on and it will never bring Kelly back, it won’t bring (my granddaughter) back; I didn’t intend for that to happen,” she said. “But I do know that hopefully my story of them will empower someone to reach out for healing, that it’s OK, reach out.”