B.C.'s government should take the blame for instituting a flawed program that in part led to the death of a 19-month-old child, according to the social-worker-turned-politician who wrote the original report into the tragedy.
Nicholas Simons, New Democratic Party MLA for Powell River - Sunshine Coast, said this week his 2003 review of the death of Sherry Charlie was delayed because he blamed the government for its implementation of the kith and kin program, which he said was seriously flawed.
"They wanted to show how people failed, how individual social workers failed, how individual clerical staff failed or family support workers or family members failed," said Simons. "But the truth was they could not succeed under the program as defined by the government. It was flawed from beginning to end. It was a bad program and badly implemented."
The toddler was beaten to death by her uncle after being placed in his home in Port Alberni in 2002 by a First Nations social agency. The uncle, who had a history of violence, was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Simons was hired to review the child's death before he entered politics. But his original 2003 report was not released until 2005, when a heavily edited version of it was made public.
B.C. Child and Youth Advocate Jane Morley investigated why Simons' 2003 report was delayed and concluded the Ministry of Children and Family Development needed to help him fix it, Simons said.
"If you look at [Morley's] report it basically looks like the reviewer didn't know what he was supposed to do," Simons said. "And the terms of reference were changed because nobody really knew what the terms of reference were supposed to be. It doesn't hold weight, especially when you look at the fact that every single one of my recommendations was implemented and most of the ones that didn't make it to the final report are being implemented. If my report was accurate in 2003, why was it not released?"
Simons said the reason for the delay was because his report pointed to some serious flaws in the government and some serious organizational problems, and the government was reluctant for the information he was providing to be made public.
Morley's report stated the government removed his criticism of kith and kin, Simons pointed out.
"It was a good criticism of kith and kin," he added. "Everybody agrees children should be with family first, with friends second, in the community third, in a similar type of community fourth. All those things social workers had to do by legislation before kith and kin. All kith and kin did was make it easier and faster to do it with fewer regulations."
The ministry didn't have to pay the same amount for foster care because they didn't call it foster care, Simons said, and it didn't have to count the children who were in that form of care because they were not considered in care.
A spokesperson from the Ministry of Children and Family Development said the ministry appreciates that Simons would like to revisit this issue, but external review processes have taken place and significant changes have resulted over the past four years.
Today, the ministry's budget is higher than at any other time in history. This has, among other things, enabled the ministry to hire 100 front-line staff this fall with plans to hire an additional 300 new front-line employees over the next two years to provide added flexibility at the community level.
The ministry is improving case review policies and is enhancing the skills and abilities of analysts and reviewers through strengthened mentoring and training programs.
The spokesperson added, "We could engage in a game of political rhetoric but we believe it's more important that we continue to learn and improve our practices to avert tragedies like this in the future.""I expect the government to be accountable, but I haven't seen any evidence of it yet. This is a systemic issue that didn't need to be like that," he said.
