In a news article in the Edmonton Star on June 28, 2018 titled:
Alberta Promises “decisive steps” to overhaul child interventions in the province
The Minister of Children’s Services Danielle Larivee, Minister of Children’s Services as admitted:
- that there were generations of disparity between funding for on-reserve and off-reserve children
- jurisdictional issues between the federal and provincial governments allows children to fall through the cracks
- “in the past, Alberta governments allowed recommendations to gather dust on shelves”
For those of us who have been working with the Alberta Child Welfare system, these admissions come as no surprise. I think that it is common knowledge by everyone who reads the news, reads the reports and has to deal with Alberta Child Welfare that the system has been in and continues to be in a state of disarray.
At the beginning of the 1980s, the Cavanagh Inquiry identified the immense problem of children in the Child Welfare system falling through the cracks. Yet 35 years later, children are still falling through the cracks. That is simply unacceptable.
It is time for the children in the Child Welfare system to receive proper services. It is time for those who suffered abuse and neglect in the system, who fell through the cracks to receive justice, accountability and compensation for what happened to them.
For children in the Child Welfare system to have rights, they have to have a remedy when their rights are violated. Victims of Child Welfare deserve justice.
Robert P. Lee
Barrister & Solicitor
Victims Rights Law
108, 17707 – 105 Ave.
Edmonton, Alberta T5S 1T1
Ph/fax: 780 800 5584
email: leerobertp@netscape.net