Canada: Over 250 Foster Kids Victims of ‘Sexualized Violence’

“More than 250 B.C. foster children were victims of sexualized violence over the four years documented in a disturbing new report — an increasing trend that demands improved response and treatment, the children’s representative says.

“The fact that response is so poor and the reported level is coming up, suggests there’s some need to make some investment here,” representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said Tuesday while releasing her latest report, Too Many Victims.

“B.C. should not tolerate or accept sexual victimization of children. The only way that will change is that we … do not sweep it under the carpet. Clearly, this report is about victims who have been swept under the carpet.”

The document counted 145 reports of sexualized violence against foster children from 2011-2014, the majority of the incidents against aboriginal girls. In 2015-16, there were another 112 reports of sexual assault, sexual abuse or sexual exploitation.

While Children’s Minister Stephanie Cadieux said even one complaint is one too many, she noted her ministry has “rigorous standards” to assess caregivers, such as criminal record checks, home studies and training.

The government is also implementing new measures to strengthen the system, she said, including updated standards for social workers who monitor foster parents; an expanded audit program; and revised protocols for responding to allegations of harm in foster homes.

“We need to ensure we are doing all we can to make our system of care a safe haven for these children and youth,” Cadieux said.

The high number of reports in 2015 isn’t proof of more abuse, she said in an interview, but of a better information-gathering system that social workers started using last year.

Past government reports have indicated that the sexual abuse of children in government care is a long-standing concern. B.C.’s Public Guardian and Trustee provided legal services to 557 youth, nearly all in the care of the province, who were victims of sexual assault between 2007 and 2012.

Turpel-Lafond, a former provincial court judge, said the number of victims, in reality, are likely much higher, estimating that only 10 per cent of sexual victimization gets reported to authorities.

The report details the “pervasiveness” of this problem, she said, and “the lack of both prevention and protective support.”

Training and resources need to be stepped up not only for social workers, but also for those in the education, health and legal system, so cases can be seen successfully through the courts.

he 145 reports in 2011-2014 involved 121 victims, and Turpel-Lafond’s findings about those cases are disturbing:

• Ninety per cent of the victims were girls, and a staggering two-thirds of those were aboriginal. Abuse was reported by 23 kids between three and 12, while the rest were disclosed in the victims’ teen years.

• The alleged abuser was someone known to the children in nearly all the cases, including acquaintances, other children in the home, family members, friends and foster parents.

• Twenty per cent of the victims later harmed themselves or attempted suicide; more than half had addictions, and nearly three-quarters had a mental illness. The victims had unstable lives, moving between foster or group homes an average of eight times each over their youth.

• The sexualized violence occurred both inside care homes and outside throughout B.C., although more incidents were reported in cities such as Vancouver, Surrey, Prince George and Burnaby.

• Assistance such as counselling was offered to victims in three-quarters of the cases, but specific sexualized-violence services were rarely offered.

Turpel-Lafond recommended the creation of a network of child and youth advocacy centres in B.C., such as the Sheldon Kennedy Centre in Calgary; and a lead government minister to create a strategy to prevent sexualized violence against foster children, especially aboriginal girls.

Cadieux said the government would examine these recommendations.

NDP critic Melanie Mark said many government ministries need to work together to end this violence, starting with social workers and ending with the courts.

“The staggering numbers here are the aboriginal victims,” she said. “And here we are in the wake of the missing and murdered aboriginal women’s inquiry.”

Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett cited Turpel-Lafond’s report in Question Period in Ottawa on Tuesday as one of the reasons Canada needs to take action immediately to protect vulnerable aboriginal girls and women. Bennett called the report “devastating.”

The B.C. Teachers Federation renewed its call for Cadieux’s resignation, alleging her ministry is failing to protect children.

Some of the examples cited in the report:

• Brianna, 8, and her three-year-old brother, Avery, were placed in care with extended family members. Three years later, Brianna told her foster father that they had both been sexually abused by an older foster brother. Brianna contracted chlamydia and developed PTSD.

• Rowan, who entered care at age six and has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, revealed at age 11 he had been abused by an older foster boy who had since left care. The offender was convicted of sexual assault.

• Eva, born deaf and with a mental illness, told her foster mother that a relief caregiver had repeatedly touched her inappropriately and exposed himself. Police made a report to Crown counsel, but charges weren’t approved because authorities believed her “cognitive deficits” would make it difficult to get a conviction.”

250-plus foster kids were victims of ‘sexualized violence,’ B.C.’s children’s rep says
[Vancouver Sun 10/4/16 by Lori Culbert]

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