Taking Responsibility

"Oftentimes our young people are becoming lost in the system, and they're not developing the same type of normative standards and morals that you'd expect growing up in a more nuclear or extended family setting."
"We need to look toward nurturing the spirit. That's completely absent from the equation right now."
Derek Nepinak, Grnd chief, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs

"If they're [wards of the province] not getting sufficient contact, love and support from a loving family, then children end up with maladaptive behaviours."
"They might act out because they haven't been given the basic necessities of life -- and the basic necessities aren't just food, water and a roof, it's also human contact and love."
Dawn Harvard, interim president, Native Women's Association of Canada

A handbag, wallet and makeup are seen in a cordoned-off area on Hargrave Street where a teenage girl was found critically injured early Wednesday morning. (CBC)

Yet another dreadful attack on a young aboriginal girl. The violent sexual assault that took place on April 1 in Winnipeg involved two teens, both of whom are foster children, both 15, both aboriginal, placed by the child-welfare system in the same hotel. The Office of the Children's Advocate and Child and Family Services has launched a probe into the incident during which it will review the services both teens had received.

The young girl remains in critical condition after the assault. The fifteen-year old male assailant was known to his victim. He has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault; while awaiting trial he is being held at the Manitoba Youth Centre. He had, in fact, alerted a passing police cruiser, to bring the injured young girl to their attention. He swiftly turned from witness to accused.

The province's child welfare authorities move in to protect children who are living in neglectful and abusing home situations. Ms. Harvard of the Native Women's Association of Canada, stated her fear that wards of the province of Manitoba are not receiving needed counselling addressing the neglect or violence they may have experienced before being received into care.

The assaulted young woman and her assaulter are both of aboriginal background. The great-aunt who raised another teen, Tina Fontaine, who was killed while in custody of child welfare in similar circumstances a year ago, stated she has "no confidence" in the province. And the province, quite obviously, had reason to believe that they should have no confidence in the manner in which the girl was being raised by her aunt, which led to her being taken into protective care.

Young aboriginals raised in dysfunctional households are all too commonly taken into protective custody. It is a child-welfare system far from perfect. Almost 90 percent of the more than ten thousand children and youth in care in Manitoba are native. Obviously, foster parents are in short supply when there are such needy numbers. As a result, some children are placed in hotels for weeks at a time. They come from backgrounds where physical and sexual abuse run rampant.

After this latest assault, Family Services Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross stated that she had ordered her department to find "alternative safe places" for children within 60 days. Native leaders view this statement with skepticism, questioning the motivation of the government. This is a telling response, more than predictable, from a culture that fails its young, and demands services, then derides and faults society's efforts.

Without feeling the necessity to themselves examine just what it is about aboriginal culture that mitigates against parents of children failing their most basic responsibilities to the young. Blaming the greater society for all the ills that befall aboriginal groups gets fairly shopworn when First Nations themselves take no steps to address these issues.