Child Protection in BC These Days

Neglected by the province, foster care is a fast track to the streets
News Features

By Pieta Woolley. Publish Date: December 13, 2007
Georgia Straight. Excerpt:

Jody Coyen isn't surprised that half of the women Robert Pickton is guilty of killing are alumnae of the provincial foster-care system. At 34, she's already a veteran of the Downtown Eastside's street life and was friends with many of the missing women. In an interview at the Ovaltine Cafe on December 11, Coyen told the Georgia Straight that "most people down here have the same story. They were abused as children, come from alcoholic homes, stayed in foster care."

In fact, 65 percent of people who live on the street are former kids in care, according to a study commissioned by the B.C. Federation of Foster Parent Associations. The statistic chills the federation's president, Melanie Filiatrault. Having fostered 42 children, she knows some of them are not making good choices and are vulnerable, just like Pickton's victims.

"It just makes my heart ache," she told the Straight in a phone interview. "It's almost criminal."

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It is criminal, not just almost. Canada became a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989. The BC government is well aware of that fact and the responsibilities this entails. The provincial & federal governments have perpetuated and encouraged an onslaught on the human rights and needs of children, youth, marginalized and vulnerable citizens. Why has this happened and why does it continue? In spite of numerous child protection reviews, inquiries and recommendations, government, media and academic reports, coroner's inquests, advocates and the Representative and the pleading of many to stop the carnage and destruction of a generation or more of people. The answer is and always has been greed, power and a complete lack of concern and disconnection from the lives of those who need and deserve government care the most.

And just so people are clear, it's no surprise Vancouver has also now been chosen as the break-in capital of North America. That the UN Special Rapporteur on Housing was shocked and brutal in his assessment of housing and homelessness BC. That BC leads the country in child poverty for the 4th year in a row. And that thousands of people in BC cannot even access income assistance to provide even basic shelter, income, food and much needed medical benefits.