Lawsuit: Nova Scotia and Children’s Aid Society

“Siblings who were placed into the care of the Children’s Aid Society in Halifax after moving from Somalia are suing the Nova Scotia government for failing to protect them from “physical, sexual and psychological abuse.”

Fatouma and Abdoul Abdi were taken from their aunts by the Children’s Aid Society in December 2001, shortly after arriving in Nova Scotia.

According to documents filed at the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax Tuesday, Fatouma and Abdoul, ages 10 and eight at the time, were placed at Dayspring Children’s Centre in Bridgewater.

“They would be punished if they were caught speaking their own language,” says the document, noting Fatouma’s hijab was confiscated and she was not allowed to wear it.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

In 2003, the siblings were placed with a foster family in Halifax, despite protesting their placement due to concerns of the family’s shared culture of a Somali tribe rival that the Abdi family was part of.

“Upon their placement in the Gal foster home, Fatouma and Abdoul were subjected to mental, physical and sexual abuse,” the document alleges.

Fatouma reported the incidents to the Children’s Aid Society but her concerns were turned away. After being ignored, she ran away from her foster family’s home multiple times, but was always returned.

In 2004, one of Fatouma’s teachers reported concerns of abuse to the organization and she was removed from the foster family, yet Abdoul was required to stay in the foster home.

Abdoul lived with the family for three more years and was “continually subjected to mental, physical and sexual abuse” until he was removed in 2007.

In an interview in 2017, Abdoul told The Chronicle Herald the foster family “was the most traumatic in my memories of being in care. The group homes, they had their bad, but that was definitely the worst.”

After being removed from the home, Fatouma was placed in the Sullivan House in Halifax and Wood Street Secure Treatment Facility in Truro.

At the Sullivan House, she said she was assaulted multiple times by men in the community and feared being stalked. At the Wood Street facility, she said she was subject to physical abuse and prolonged periods of confinement and psychological abuse.

While under the care of the Children’s Aid Society, Fatouma gave birth to four children.

Two were taken by the organization and eventually adopted.

One child was placed into the care of his paternal grandparents, while another was taken into the Children’s Aid Society’s care four years after he was born. That child died seven months later and the cause of death remains unknown.

After being removed from the family’s home, Abdoul was placed in numerous short-term foster placements before being placed into the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children for five months.

“During his time spent at the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, Abdoul was repeatedly sexually abused by a staff member,” the document says. “On one occasion, the abuse was witnessed by another NSHCC staff member.”

Mike Dull, the lawyer representing Fatouma and Abdoul, said they experienced “the opposite of safety and security” when they sought refuge in Nova Scotia.

“The experiences of Fatouma and Abdoul as children in the Nova Scotia care system are shocking and disappointing,” Dull said. “They deserved much better when, as young children, the government forcibly removed them from their loving family.”

The lawsuit, which lists the attorney general of Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, the Akoma Family Centre Incorporated and the Akoma Holdings Incorporated as the defendants, claims the province’s actions “have caused serious psychological stress” on the Abdis.

In 2017 and 2018, Abdoul faced deportation to Somalia after completing a prison term, but both orders were overturned by the federal court.

Fatouma said she and her brother filed the lawsuit to shed light on “how they run the system and what they did to the other kids.”

“I hope this forces them to change. But for me, I don’t think it will ever bring me justice because it doesn’t take away what Abdoul and I went through, nor does it take away what my children
went through,” Fatouma said.

“I don’t think it will ever truly bring justice, but it’s a start.””

Refugee siblings sue Nova Scotia for ‘physical, sexual and psychological abuse’ in foster care

[The Chronicle Herald 9/2/2020 by Nicole Munro]

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