How Could You? Hall of Shame-Canada-Vanatasia Green case-Child Death

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Winnipeg, Canada, “as Manitoba’s minister of families was questioned in the legislature Wednesday about the death of a baby in foster care, the four-month-old’s grieving parents were still waiting to see their child, two days after her death.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs said Tuesday that Vanatasia Unique Emerald Green was in a home run by B & L Resources, the agency under provincial review in November following a CBC investigation that revealed children were left in the same home as a minor who was sexually abusing them.

“No one knows … if anything was actually done for these children in care,” said Bernadette Smith, NDP MLA for Point Douglas, in question period Wednesday. “The minister’s accountable and she’s ultimately responsible. Is the minister planning to continue to place children in B & L agency?”

In total, 170 homes were involved in the review which included interviews with 409 foster children and a check to make sure all foster home licenses are up to date. A three-month moratorium banning the placement of children in B & L homes, which began after Green was taken into care, was lifted on March 11.

‘Absolute tragedy’

“The member opposite is just wrong,” Families Minister Heather Stefanson, shot back.

“Immediately upon finding out these allegations, we took immediate action and I put the deputy minister in charge of a review that took place with respect to B & L immediately. We didn’t take time to sit down and write out terms of reference or anything else. We made sure that we ensured that all of those children were safe.”

“This is an absolute tragedy. Any death of a child in our province and anywhere is an absolute tragedy. This matter remains before the chief medical examiner and we will await the results of his report,” she said.

Vanatasia Green’s parents, Daralyn Green, 21, and Reggie Kennedy, 31, told media on Tuesday that CFS workers came to their house in Bloodvein First Nation on Monday to tell them their daughter died after appearing to have choked on formula or vomit.[on March 18,2019]

Vanatasia’s parents said she was apprehended shortly after her birth on Nov. 6 and was placed into CFS care in Winnipeg, but had intermittent visits with them on Bloodvein First Nation. While they did not say why their daughter was taken into care, Daralyn Green said she was “happy and healthy” when they last saw her on Friday after a week-long visit.

An autopsy on the baby’s body was completed Wednesday, according to an advocate for the family, who said the family would be able to see her at the funeral home on Thursday evening. She added the parents yearn to speak with the foster parents about what could have happened.

“We know that the CF agency and the authority responsible for the child’s care are gathering information to find the family the answers that it needs,” said Stefanson in question period.

The director of the office of the chief medical examiner, Mark O’Rourke, told CBC the report could take up to six months to complete. Winnipeg police are also investigating the child’s death, as is standard when children die in the city.

A spokesperson for the province said the Southern First Nations Network of Care was the governing authority for the agency involved, but would not provide the name of the agency. The spokesperson added foster parents in Manitoba have access to CPR training, including safe sleep practices for infants, provided by authorities and agencies, although the training is not mandatory.

B & L Resources for Children, Youth and Families did not respond to the CBC’s request for comment.

During question period, Smith pressed Stefanson to conduct another review of B & L. Liberal MLA Judy Klassen called for a stop to all CFS apprehensions and said she planned to meet with Vanatasia Green’s family this week.

Minister Stefanson reiterated that the province is waiting on the chief medical office’s report, and expressed her condolences to the family and caregivers involved in Vanatasia’s life.

“We all grieve with the family at this horrible time.”

The family plans to bring their daughter home to Bloodvein First Nation this weekend.”

Families minister grilled over placement of baby who died in foster care

[CBC 3/21/19 by Erin Brohman]

“The mother of a baby who died in foster care says she should have been given a chance to care for her child, a cry echoed by Manitoba chiefs demanding revolutionary change to the child welfare system.

“I asked them if they could just give me a chance — I said ‘It’s my first baby’ — but they wouldn’t,” said Daralyn Green, 21.

Green’s baby, Vanatasia Unique Emerald Green, was apprehended shortly after birth in November and placed in a Winnipeg foster home run by a for-profit agency, B & L Resources for Children and Youth.

Over the next few months, Green and her partner Reggie Green, 31, travelled from their home on Bloodvein First Nation, about 215 kilometres north of Winnipeg, for supervised visits with their daughter every two weeks.

But Vanatasia died in the foster home on March 18, three days after a five-day visit with her parents in Bloodvein.

Vanatasia was born at St. Boniface Hospital on Nov. 6, full-term and weighing seven pounds, 10 ounces. She spent two days recovering in hospital from jaundice, and Daralyn looked forward to taking her home.

She’d been in Winnipeg for two weeks prior to her daughter’s birth to rest in a hotel because she had gestational diabetes. Two cousins from Bloodvein First Nation were with her to provide support and planned to travel back with her and the baby after the birth. She never expected that wouldn’t happen.

“I shared with a nurse I drank a couple times during my pregnancy, but not throughout,” said Green, adding she wanted to be honest. She had spent a year herself in the CFS system as a child, and she and Reggie didn’t have a house of their own. She’d also missed some prenatal appointments in Winnipeg. She said hospital staff asked if the baby could go with someone else in her family, and she suggested her cousins.

The next day, a social worker told her Vanatasia would be apprehended into care.

“I just broke down and asked them if they could give me a chance. And I guess they wouldn’t,” she said.

The following day, she said nurses took her daughter from her, telling her Vanatasia would go to the nursery and a social worker would take her to a foster home from there. They told Daralyn she was discharged from hospital.

“I didn’t get to like, see the social workers or at least talk to them, like where is she going to be placed or anything like that, they weren’t there when the nurses came and like, took her from me,” said Green, tears rolling down her cheeks.

She cried the entire trip home.

Cause of death unclear

Four months later, just days after their last visit, two CFS workers came to Daralyn’s mother’s house to deliver the news: Vanatasia had died.

“I was just like, ‘No.’ Burst out crying. Went and told my mom. She was sleeping. And I went and told her, she got up right away and she started getting mad at the CFS, telling them that they should’ve just gave me a chance.”

CFS workers originally told Daralyn it appeared the child had choked on formula or vomit, but on Wednesday, the medical examiner told Daralyn’s mother Vera Green that the baby’s lungs were clear.

“We won’t know until three months time how she really passed. But the medical examiner said that she was healthy, her lungs were good, everything was good with her. So I don’t know what happened.
– Daralyn Green”

A spokesperson for the province said it’s not mandatory for foster parents in Manitoba to have infant CPR and safe sleep technique training.

When the supervised visits in Bloodvein First Nation began, the entire family saw a change in Daralyn and Reggie.

“CFS didn’t see it, but we saw it,” said Glen Kennedy, Reggie Green’s father.

“That baby brought the whole family together.” he said.”They should’ve given them that chance to be parents. She would still be here today. I know they would not leave her alone. That’s how much love I seen in them, holding baby.”

Kennedy said his son has a criminal past like he does, but when he moved back to the community from Winnipeg and after the birth of his daughter, for the first time, family became his priority. Both of them are now sober, he said.

“I just feel like they’re judging from our past,” said Kimberly Constant, Reggie’s step-mother.

The young couple had secured a stable living situation in Reggie’s mother’s house and Daralyn had gone to some treatment classes. She said she stopped drinking in December.

“I was changing my ways. I stopped drinking because I wanted her to come home. And I was doing good. Because they told us on our last visit on [March 15] that we would be getting her back soon,” she said.
“She didn’t even come home. She came home all right, but she came home in a casket. And CFS put her there. That’s how I feel,” said Constant, before breaking down.

Chiefs condemn apprehensions

Bloodvein First Nation Chief Roland Hamilton is among a growing number of First Nation leaders calling for an overhaul of the CFS system.

“It’s very sad to have, still today, to have our kids taken away. Especially as a newborn, for a mother to lose a baby like that, first to Child and Family and then to a death. Makes it very sad,” said Hamilton.

He said he and his council will meet with Southeast CFS to learn more about what happened, but he believes Vanatasia should have been placed with extended family until her parents were ready.

“You’ve got two grandparents. One from the father’s side, one from the mother’s side, and they could’ve looked after the baby. With the help. That’s what the CFS should’ve looked at. Is helping the grandmothers to look after the child.”

In his community of about 1,700 people, 1,100 of whom live on reserve, about 300 children are in the care of CFS, he said. 

“We don’t know where half of them are,” he said.

“We’ve been trying to get the legislation changed regarding CFS to try and keep the kids in the community as much as we can, and I think intervention would be the thing, intervention and prevention to keep the kids within their communities. So that they may be raised here, with family, then they don’t get placed anywhere where they lose their identity.”

“The long-term effects of a child being taken away from families, I think it harms, harms it more as they grow up.”

Poverty, alcohol abuse, drugs, a housing shortage, overcrowding and crime are all issues in his community, he said, but shouldn’t necessitate the removal of children.

“There’s a lot of family members that can look after a child. It’s all about money I think. Kids get taken away, they [CFS] get funded, a lot of jobs are created because of our kids are taken away.” He said CFS could provide the funding to the extended family instead of foster care homes.

He said CFS requires parents to have stable housing, but in Bloodvein, the demand far outweighs the supply of houses  — many of which are decades old and falling apart. Although seven homes were recently built under a provincial program and went to young families and people with medical needs, 70-80 more are needed, he said.

“We don’t have an empty house. With these young families that want to start their own families, they’ve got no place to go.”

Last week, Daralyn and Reggie Green spoke about their daughter’s death with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Women’s Council, made up of female chiefs in Manitoba.

“Do we really have to lose our children to these homes provided by the province?” said War Lake Chief Betsy Kennedy.

They’re calling for systemic change to Manitoba’s CFS system and decried the province’s ability to safely care for Indigenous children.

“Why are we going to allow it? We, as the Women’s Council will not do so. We will do whatever we can to help families. From stopping to losing their children.”

Hamilton said he stands with them.

“It’s happening, what’s happened 60 years ago. Back in the ’60s. Still happening. Kids get taken away. And they get lost,” he said.

CFS response

The province is waiting for the medical examiner’s report to determine the cause of death, and they continue to work on getting the answers the family needs, according to a spokesperson.

Privacy concerns mean the province can not comment directly on the Greens’ situation.

“The removal of a child is never done lightly,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“Manitoba is in the midst of a child welfare reform and formed a committee to examine current CFS legislation.”

Instead of apprehension, the spokesperson noted a CFS agency can issue something called a place of safety licence. It’s more flexible than a foster placement and is done by the agency to identify family members or friends who can help raise a child.

Other changes under consideration include customary care, doulas, flexible block funding and a legislative review, the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Southern First Nations Network of Care said best practice should be for CFS agencies to seek placements within the extended family and community.

“Sometimes identified family members have their own struggles, which necessitates that agency to keep exploring options provided by the family, or other placements if those other options cannot be safely supported,” said Southern Network of Care spokesperson Jim Compton in an emailed statement.

CBC’s repeated requests to B & L Resources have gone unanswered.

‘Trying to think positive’

Daralyn Green believes her daughter would still be alive if she’d been in the care of family, because she and her partner never left Vanatasia unattended. She’s speaking out publicly to demand CFS provide supports to at-risk mothers, rather than apprehending at birth.

“Give the mothers a chance to bond with the baby, and bring up the baby and parent the baby,” she said.

The Greens held a funeral for their daughter at Bloodvein’s band hall, the only building large enough to accommodate everyone, on Monday. The casket was adorned with flowers and wreaths, which now cover her burial site. Vanatasia was laid to rest behind Reggie’s mother’s house, the home they planned to raise her in.

We won’t know until three months time how she really passed. But the medical examiner said that she was healthy, her lungs were good, everything was good with her. So I don’t know what happened,” said Green.

“I’m just trying to think positive. Not trying to think negative or anything.”

It’s difficult for them to speak of the child they lost. They think of her constantly.

“She looked beautiful. Peaceful. It was hard seeing her like that. But I kind of get comfort that she’s not the only baby that died. That there are other babies. And she’s in heaven with them, watching over us,” said Green.

She and Reggie are expecting their second child. She hasn’t told the public health nurse yet, terrified of losing another child to CFS, but is determined it will never happen again.

“They could’ve just given me a chance.””

‘They should’ve given me a chance’: Mother, chiefs call for child welfare reform after infant death

[CBC 4/1/19 by Erin Brohman]

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