“Pathways in a Forest: Indigenous guidance on prevention-based child welfare” is a law reform report developed collaboratively by West Coast LEAF and the families, Elders and staff at Tillicum Lelum Aboriginal Friendship Centre, Lii Michif Otipemisiwak and the Fraser Region Aboriginal Friendship Centre Association. The report highlights efforts by Indigenous families, communities and Nations to revitalize Indigenous approaches to child welfare, develop comprehensive community-based supports and fight for self-determination.
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First Nations governments
Recommendations for legislative reform
Recommendation 8: MCFD should, in consultation with Indigenous communities and Nations, amend legislated timelines to allow for an opportunity to develop creative family plans.-
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Recommendations for legislative reform
Recommendation 9: MCFD should review the legislation to assess how the legislation could support a more accountable and robust legal framework for prevention-based supports including by:- Adding a comprehensive list of functions for MCFD at the beginning of the legislation which includes:
- working with community and social services to alleviate and remedy the socio-economic conditions that place families at risk;
- developing and providing services and supports before and after intervention;
- proactively identifying groups of children the recognition and realization of whose rights may require MCFD to undertake special measures and develop special programming
- Replace the reference of prevention services in section 2(c) of the CFCSA, with a legislative provision that places a binding and measurable obligation on the Ministry to provide supports to keep families together who are at risk of having their children apprehended. The provision should place a positive obligation on the Ministry to take active efforts to provide remedial services and rehabilitative programs designed to prevent the breakup of the child’s family. The courts must then be satisfied that these active efforts proved unsuccessful in keeping the family together.
- Expand the list of supports under section 5 to include:
- improving the family’s financial situation;
- improving the family’s housing situation;
- improving parenting skills;
- improving child-care and child-rearing capabilities;
- improving homemaking skills;
- drug or alcohol treatment and rehabilitation;
- providing child care;
- mediation of disputes;
- self-help and empowerment of parents whose children have been, are or may be in need of protective services; and,
- transition supports for families who have just had a child apprehended or returned.
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- Ableism ,
- Accessibility ,
- Accessible services and technology ,
- Classism ,
- Courts ,
- Decolonization and Indigenous rights ,
- Disability and parenting ,
- Discrimination and hate ,
- Economic inequality ,
- Education and employment ,
- Health ,
- Health, wellness and services ,
- Housing and homelessness ,
- Human rights system ,
- Income insecurity and benefits ,
- Indigenous children and youth in care ,
- Indigenous issues in policing and justice ,
- Indigenous rights and self-governance ,
- International human rights ,
- Mental health and detention ,
- Policing and the criminal justice system ,
- Poverty ,
- Poverty and economic inequality ,
- Public services ,
- Racism ,
- Substance use
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Recommendations for legislative reform
Recommendation 10: Strengthen the legal duty of the Ministry to consider less disruptive measures by:- Adding legislative language in the CFCSA that explicitly directs the Ministry to actively and diligently pursue and implement less disruptive measures on an ongoing basis;
- Including a non-exhaustive list of less disruptive measures that the Ministry must consider on an ongoing basis including an order of preference of placements akin to that set out in section 16 of Bill C-92;
- Adding legislative language in the CFCSA that directs the Ministry to establish in court that social workers have made active efforts that proved unsuccessful to return the child to their family;
- Where parents and Nations have identified less disruptive measures, the CFCSA should direct the Ministry to provide prompt, clear, and written reasons for rejecting these less disruptive measures.
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- Access to justice ,
- Accessibility ,
- Classism ,
- Courts ,
- Decolonization and Indigenous rights ,
- Disability and parenting ,
- Discrimination and hate ,
- Health, wellness and services ,
- Human rights system ,
- Indigenous children and youth in care ,
- International human rights ,
- Policing and the criminal justice system ,
- Poverty and economic inequality ,
- Public services ,
- Racism
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Recommendations for legislative reform
Recommendation 11: Increase court oversight of MCFD’s efforts to identify less disruptive measures by adding the following provisions to the CFCSA:- The court shall not make an order removing the child from the care of a parent or guardian unless the court is satisfied that less disruptive measures, including services to promote the integrity of the family, have been attempted, refused by the parent or would be inadequate to protect the child;
- Where the court determines that it is necessary to remove the child from the care of a parent or guardian, the court shall, before making an order, consider whether it is possible to place the child with a person or group in accordance with the order of preference of placements.
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Discrepancies in the delivery of child welfare services
Subtitle:SYSTEMIC RACISM
Recommendation 12: Project participants also expressed the need for training to cover the following topics: genderbased violence; Indigenous rights, identities, and cultures; the role of ongoing colonialism on intergenerational trauma; the potential for communities and families to provide more appropriate solutions to family healing; and the importance of culture and connection to the child’s well-being.-
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Discrepancies in the delivery of child welfare services
Subtitle:A TOP-DOWN APPROACH
Recommendation 13: MCFD must review its policies and practices to increase the use of ADR processes, including changing the definition of family in ADR processes to recognize and honour Indigenous conceptions of family.-
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A pathway forward
THE RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION AND THE NEED FOR MORE SIGNIFICANT GOVERNMENT ACTION
Recommendation 17: Furthermore, the report calls on the federal government to ensure that there is full federal funding for Nations that assume jurisdiction over child welfare-
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A pathway forward
JURISDICTIONAL SHORTFALLS: THE LIMITS OF MODERN TREATIES AND BILL C-92
Recommendation 18: BC government and MCFD to ensure that children are provided with services while the family navigates the process and develop a consistent mechanism for repaying costs for services provided in the interim-
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