Ministry of Children and Families continues to take indigenous children
In the Legislature this Monday Premier Horgan said that the idea of taking indigenous children away from their families and teaching them to be white was “unimaginable today.” One has to presume he knows nothing about the actions of his own government in this regard, because there are more First Nations children “in care” now than there were in the days of the residential schools. The ministry just keeps them in group homes instead of large institutions.
This is hard to believe, I know, but it is absolutely true. When my own grandson, who is three quarters Tsimshian, was taken by the Ministry of Child Abduction, [he was] kept isolated from his father for over three years. His family was forced to hire a lawyer and ended up paying more than $30,000 to get him back in a process that saw government workers submit openly dishonest “assessments” in order to justify their actions. While lingering in waiting rooms at their various offices his white relatives discovered that our own was not an isolated case. The difference was that we had enough money to buy a lawyer, while most First Nations families do not.
I will never forgive those sanctimonious bureaucrats for stealing a happy and well adjusted child from his loving family and returning a 12-year-old who had learned to tell people what he thought they wanted to hear. These scoundrels speak of truth and reconciliation, but that is lip service so long as they continue the ruthless theft of children whose parents’ main disqualification is poverty. As a lifetime New Democrat voter and volunteer I am appalled that John Horgan seems unaware that his government is simply applying new paint to the same old structure.
So, John, please spare us your apologies and return the children. You might also give me my retirement savings back but you will never be able to repair the damage done to my grandson. The best you can do is close the entire Ministry of Children and Families long enough to see if a total absence of “help” does not improve the situation.
David Lowther
Mesachie Lake
