By The Canadian Press

Metis commission criticizes B.C. government, child advocate over toddler case

Sep 26, 2016 | 4:32 PM

VANCOUVER — The representative of the Metis community in British Columbia’s child welfare system says both the province and the children’s advocate have assumed the Metis are “helpless” and can’t be trusted to make their own decisions.

The Metis Commission for Children and Families of B.C. has issued a news release criticizing both parties’ handling of a case involving a Metis toddler being adopted to non-aboriginal parents in Ontario.

The commission supports the Children’s Ministry’s plan to remove the nearly three-year-old girl from a Metis foster mother and move her across Canada to live with her sisters and their adoptive parents, whom she has never met.

But commission CEO Eva Coles says the situation has revealed systemic issues, including that social workers lack cultural training and are so overburdened that children are being left in foster care for too long.

She also criticizes children’s representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond for sending a letter to the attorney general last week asking the province to listen to the input of three Metis experts, all based outside B.C.

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Coles says Turpel-Lafond didn’t consult with her group about the child and hasn’t suggested any ideas for resolution, adding it’s another example of the government’s “paternalistic” attitude.

The Canadian Press