Tim Petruk – Kamloops This Week
The NDP’s spokesperson for children and family development is calling on the provincial government to reunite the children of a woman killed in Clearwater last year with her family members in Hope.
Doug Donaldson said he also wants to see an investigation launched to determine why it’s taken so long to do so.
Angila Wilson was murdered in her Clearwater home on April 20, 2014. Her three children — ranging in age from three to seven — have been in foster care since, despite Wilson’s brother’s family attempting to take them in.
“I think that when you look at the horrific situation that started this — the murder — this is one of the most grievous cases one could imagine,” Donaldson said.
“I believe what’s needed is for the children to be placed in permanent care immediately with the family and an investigation be held to determine how this happened.”
Wilson’s estranged common-law husband, Iain Scott, is charged with first-degree murder. He was denied bail this week and is slated to return to court for a preliminary inquiry in May.
Frank Wilson, Angila’s brother, said he told his sister before she died that he would take her kids in if anything happened to her.
“I’m here to try to have my sister’s wishes met,” he said. “I feel as though they [the children] have been let down by the system because they are still in foster care and they should be in the care of a family member.
“The whole point was for them to be integrated into our family as an adoption.”
Leanne Bowcott, who is married to Frank Wilson and was close with his sister, said Angila Wilson fled Scott three times in the years leading up to her murder — at one point staying in Bowcott’s Hope home for three months.
“She expressed to us on several occasions that if anything happened to her, ‘Could you please take care of my three children?’” she said.
“We want the children to have a home — a permanent home. They’ve experienced trauma like no child should experience.”
Bowcott said the Ministry of Children and Family Development refuses to transfer the file for Wilson’s children to Hope from Clearwater — a necessary step to have them re-united with family members.
“She would just be horrified that her children are not with us,” she said.
“It’s been a rough 10 months to say the least. They need a home. They need to be loved. They need a family.”
The children are presently in foster care in Hope, and they are allowed limited visits with family members.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Ministry of Children and Family Development called the situation “tragic and difficult,” but said he could not speak to the specifics of individual cases.
