Budget cuts may have cost Sherry her life
Liberals rushed program into place to save money
Michael Smyth
The Province
The case of Sherry Charlie, the little aboriginal girl brutally killed by a government-sanctioned caregiver, raises many disturbing questions about B.C.'s child-welfare system.
But few people question the fundamental wisdom of keeping native foster kids close to their own relatives and culture when they're separated from their natural parents.
That's one of the primary goals of the so-called "kith-and-kin" program, under which Sherry was placed in the care of her uncle, Ryan George.
George was entrusted with the 19-month-old girl and her three-year-old brother in 2002.
Just one huge problem: George was a violent criminal and drug abuser.
Within 22 days of taking custody of the children, he had kicked and beaten Sherry to death.
It should never have happened.
This little girl didn't just fall through the cracks of B.C.'s child-protection system. She tumbled headlong into a gaping chasm of catastrophic mistakes and incompetence by the government and the aboriginal child-welfare agency that co-approved the placement.
The government, in its defence, insists the intent and philosophy of the kith-and-kin program is sound.
And they're right.
The program began in July 2002. Between that point and March 2005, 619 kids were placed with relatives. At the end of their kith-and-kin agreements, only 21 per cent of them became wards of the state.
The governing Liberals have seized on these positive numbers to accuse the Opposition New Democrats of playing gutter-level politics with Sherry's awful death.
"Perhaps it's time for the other side of the house to say whether or not they support kith-and-kin agreements," Children's Minister Stan Hagen said in the legislature yesterday.
It's a desperate tactic.
In the nine months that I've been writing and talking about this sad case, I have never heard the New Democrats criticize the concept of kith-and-kin agreements. In fact, they have said just the opposite.
What the NDP has diligently uncovered -- to the Liberals' endless frustration -- is how the program was rushed into place with flawed "draft" guidelines and inadequate training for the social workers involved.
NDP critic Adrian Dix yesterday released a stack of internal government documents showing the kith-and-kin program was originally supposed to take effect on Sept. 3, 2002. But the implementation date was moved up to July. "The policy was deliberately fast-tracked, rushed and mishandled," he said.
The Liberals say regional managers in the Ministry of Children and Families were begging for the program to be implemented early because it made so much sense for aboriginal kids.
But another document released by the NDP points to a darker motive: money.
Kith-and-kin caregivers are paid less than foster parents.
"The rate creates some savings for the ministry," said a briefing note.
But rushing the program into place, in part to save money while the government was slashing the ministry's budget by 23 per cent, may have cost one innocent little girl her life.