We are all to blame for Evander
So you think you’ve had a bad week? Consider the past few days for Social Services Minister Donna Harpauer.
On Wednesday, Harpauer found herself at a long table filled with cameras, microphones and reporters.
Sitting at the other end was an angry and still-grieving Chris Martell — father of Evander Lee Daniels, the toddler who died in a scalding hot bath five years ago while living in an overcrowded foster home under the guardianship of Harpauer’s ministry.
For this, Harpauer did the only thing she could have: She looked Martell in the eye and said she was sorry. She publicly admitted she and her Saskatchewan Party government had failed little Evander.
But then she did something more: She held Martell’s hand as he wept. She vowed she would be at the June 12 memorial ceremony and community feast to honour Evander at the northern Sturgeon Lake First Nation. There, she would also apologize directly to other family members.
Essentially, she took responsibility for something she truly might not have the power to change.
You want to get into politics or cabinet? Prepare to deal with days just like this when you have to own problems that might be beyond your capacity to fix.
The above is in no way intended to deflect from the real story about the death of a little boy and the recommendations from Children’s Advocate Bob Pringle aimed at ensuring such a tragedy isn’t repeated.
Pringle’s report, “No Time for Mark: The Gap Between Policy and Practice” (as per law, he used a pseudonym for Evander’s real name) is nothing short of damning and harshly criticizes Harpauer, who he says “did not act as a prudent parent and violated Mark’s right to a safe and secure environment” resulting in a “death (that) was preventable.”
“There was an absence of critical thinking when matters were reviewed and approvals were provided with insufficient information to make decisions,” Pringle wrote.
“On a number of occasions, supervisory approval was provided despite non-compliance with policy.”
Clearly, it does defy all known logic to have placed a 22-month-old in an Aberdeen foster home (recommended to have a maximum three children) that already had two other children under 30 months plus a four- and five-year-old, plus a school-age child of its own.
For Social Services to have even contemplated a sixth young child for this home defies anyone’s view of good parenting. Even the big families of past eras rarely had so many small babies in one house. And if they did, they would have received extended family or community support in the way today’s rare multiple birth situations do.
Nor is this meant to apologize for Harpauer or politicians in general. Politicians usually understand this is the job they signed up for, which also includes a lot of public accolades for the work of others.
As social services minister now (and also for the three and a half years after the Saskatchewan Party’s election in November 2007 to mere days after Evander’s death on June, 8, 2010), Harpauer would also recognize her role as legal guardian to children like Evander.
Moreover, former children’s advocate Marvin Bernstein had been pleading for three years prior to Evander’s death for an end to overcrowded foster homes. He complained to Harpauer that the problem would simply return after government clamped down for a while.
Harpauer is a tough lady and, as shown this week, a compassionate one. But she hasn’t always been the best social services minister.
That said, was it completely fair for Pringle — a former social services minister himself — to fault Harpauer and essentially ask her and her ministry to fix a problem all levels of government haven’t been able to solve in 150 years?
As Pringle noted, 78 per cent of Saskatchewan’s 1,200 foster kids are First Nations. And Evander’s story was an all-too-familiar one of a First Nations family in crisis without the skills or resources to cope.
Born into a dysfunctional home of domestic and substance abuse and depression, Evander’s short life was spent being shuffled from extended family to state care homes.
His last stop was an overcrowded foster home — our go-to solution after 150 years of failing to provide First Nations families with jobs, education and support.
Even the courts ruled Evander’s death accidental, finding the late Eunice Wudrich not guilty of criminal negligence causing death. So instead, we all now feel the need to blame the politician in charge.
We all bear the blame for not committing to the costs, hard work and patience needed to address this issue. This week, Harpauer at least said sorry. Now, she doing her best to rebuild trust with one First Nations community that lost a little boy.
Maybe the rest of us need to follow Harpauer’s lead and accept a little responsibility as well.