Exploring Theme: "Systemic Racism"

by Alexandra Champagne More posts by Alexandra » NationTalk: SLAW – On August 17, 2014, fifteen-year-old Tina Fontaine was found dead in Winnipeg’s Red River. It had been over two weeks since Tina was reported missing. Among the more disturbing details of Tina’s death was the fact that in the twenty-four hours prior to her disappearance,...

APTN News: Rod Vienneau reaches over and brushes away some of Paul St-Aubin’s hair from his temple. The gesture seems almost tender until Vienneau’s hand reveals what lies underneath St-Aubin’s thick head of hair… a grid of scars. “Here on this side of his head as well, look,” says Vienneau pointing to the other side...

Ruling says systemic discrimination deprived teenager of her cultural identity CBC Indigenous: A Quebec court judge has issued a scathing decision identifying major long-standing problems in youth protection services for Inuit children in Quebec’s North, in a case where a teenage girl was sent to 64 different foster homes in less than 10 years. For most of...

National inquiry into removal of Indigenous children could become a key task for next AFN leader CBC Indigenous: Some First Nations chiefs say the next national chief of the Assembly of First Nations should push for a national inquiry into the “Sixties Scoop” and the continued removal of Indigenous children from their families. About 22,000 Indigenous children were...

NationTalk: Wendake — On the occasion of Early Childhood Week, the First Nations of Quebec and Labrador Health and Social Services Commission (FNQLHSSC), in collaboration with the Observatoire des tout-petits, is unveiling the results of a survey carried out among the Quebec population by the Léger firm. The results confirm that concerted actions must continue with a...

September hearing was held to decide if class action can go ahead. APTN News: Former Inuit wards of the state in Quebec are waiting for a judge to decide if their class action lawsuit against the province and the federal government will proceed. On Sept. 25 and 26, Quebec’s Superior Court heard Tanya Jones and second anonymous...

In legal first, judge says cash is only way to try to rectify years of neglect CBC News: In a legal first, a Quebec Court judge has awarded cash compensation of $25,000 to a 19-year-old Inuk woman who was forgotten by the youth protection (DPJ) officials responsible for her care for nearly 15 years. In the judgment, rendered last...

Hospital received 298 birth alerts since October 2020, when Ontario ended them CBC News: Despite the fact that Ontario put a stop to birth alerts in 2020, Quebec child welfare agencies continued to send hundreds of the controversial notifications — which can be used to threaten to or actually seize newborns from their mothers — to Ottawa’s largest hospital....

It took many years for the pair to develop a mother-daughter relationship  WARNING: This story contains distressing details CBC News: Tauni Sheldon remembers the first time she saw her biological mom. Sheldon was 23 years old.  It was 1993 and she was in the Winnipeg airport, having just flown in with her adoptive parents, Jim...

The Commission launched an investigation of its own initiative after being informed of the situation of an Inuk child who had allegedly been placed in isolation in a rehabilitation center of the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal. NationTalk: Montréal – The Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse launched an investigation of...

Statistics Canada released data from the 2021 census showing Indigenous children accounted for 53.8 per cent of all children in foster care. Toronto Star: WINNIPEG – A Winnipeg mother says she was scarred for life when her first child was taken away at birth by social workers, who told her she was unfit to parent...

Globe and Mail: Canadian Press – The number of newborns taken into care dropped dramatically as birth alerts ended across Canada, but child welfare experts warn ceasing the practice cannot be the only step governments take to keep families together. “(Birth alerts) really risk being kind of a red herring in the real issue of...