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By Shari Narine
Windspeaker Contributor
EDMONTON
When the names of children who die in care are not publicly released “You steal their spirit. You steal their soul,” said Donald Langford, executive director with Metis Child and Family Services.
The ministerial panel on child welfare has put off a decision on the issue of releasing the identities of children who die in care.
In 2014, former Conservative Human Services Minister Manmeet Bhullar tasked a panel on child welfare to bring forward recommendations on reforming and streamlining the child death review system. That panel made the recommendation to release names.
Bhullar got it right to name the child, says Langford, but the ministry put in other conditions.
“I was at a meeting (Bhullar) had at the legislature where he was going to reveal the identity of children and very shortly thereafter the assistant deputy minister put in conditions that the director could refuse to release the names.” It was also reasoned that if the child had siblings in care, they didn’t have to release a name.
“Which I thought was wrong. It was just another cop out,” Langford said.
In the 20 years Langford has been in his job, he says approximately 800 children have died in care.
Whether the child welfare panel members will include the question about publicly identifying children who have died in care as part of their scheduled consultations in the second phase of their work or as a special query is yet unclear.
The panel will have the Child Services ministry back in two weeks with a plan for consultation the panel could undertake, along with a report and any notes regarding Bhullar’s 2014 panel.
Some of the confusion around how to proceed, said panel chair Peace River MLA Debbie Jabbour, is that the topic was not included as part of the panel’s mandate, but instead came up as part of discussion with community members.