System in crisis
Indigenous children ‘warehoused,’ face racism: report
MONTREAL — A new report details a crisis in one of Quebec’s largest youth protection centres where workers display “racist attitudes” toward Indigenous families, children are signalled because their communities lack access to health care and families have little recourse to hold the system accountable.
Further compounding the problem, Batshaw Youth and Family Services does not track the number of Indigenous children in foster care — something that’s become standard practice in provinces like Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
These are among the most scathing findings by a team of Concordia University researchers who spent three years investigating Batshaw and the branch of Quebec’s health and social services ministry that oversees it. The Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal worked with Concordia on the project.
The report is due out later this month but the Montreal Gazette obtained an advance copy.
Among its most notable findings:
There is no “direct or transparent” way for families to file complaints against Batshaw and they often don’t raise concerns for fear their children will be taken away.
Indigenous families face “systemic discrimination” in the youth protection system.
There is no budget for workers and managers to be educated about best practices with Indigenous families at Batshaw and the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux (CIUSSS) de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.
There is only one Indigenous liaison officer at CIUSSS l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal — the worker is not Indigenous — and roughly 10 Indigenous workers in a network that employs 1,000 people.
“We also have open cases for children who don’t have physicians in the community and who never had medical care or have a lot of health problems,” said one
Batshaw worker quoted in the report.
Investigating or placing a child in care because of lack of access to resources contradicts international norms for how the state should care for children.
A CULTURE OF ‘BIAS’
Batshaw Youth and Family Services covers child protection on the western half of Montreal. Some of the Indigenous children in their care come from remote communities and can be sent hundreds of kilometres away from their parents .
The Quebec human rights commission launched an investigation into Batshaw last year after reports that Inuit children in foster care were punished for speaking their language. The commission also investigated claims that the Inuk children received inadequate care from the social services centre.
Because of that inquiry, Batshaw developed an action plan that’s monitored monthly by the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services and the human rights commission.
In response to the Montreal Gazette’s questions about the Batshaw report, the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal issued a statement reaffirming its commitment to the action plan. The statement added that it’s of the utmost importance for Batshaw to safeguard the “cultural integrity” of Indigenous families they work with.
“Providing quality care and services to the children and families they serve is the top priority for both Bathshaw Youth and Family Centres and the Montréal West Island IUHSSC,” the statement reads. “Batshaw Youth and Family Centres have a well-established reputation for their experience and openness in working with ethnocultural diversity.”
Even so, Elizabeth Fast, one of the report’s authors, says a culture of bias persists at Batshaw. She says that once an investigation into an Indigenous family is open, national studies show that children are more likely to be placed in foster care than if they were from a white family.