More predictable tragedy

British Columbia's representative for children and youth has released a report which says that native children in foster care in that province suffer four times as much sexual violence as non-native.  This is tragic, but no surprise. 

Without going into all the sad and chronic reasons why native children are removed from their families, what is clear is that the "delegated care model" -- the norm for on-reserve children -- is not working.  This is the model whereby authority for the care of neglected native children has been delegated to native organizations, along with the money required. 

Obviously, it's not working. 

What is galling, however, is that in all the columns and articles I read today about this mess -- and believe me I searched -- not one mentioned this glaring fact.  Not even a respected columnist like Andre Picard in The Globe and Mail did any research or wrote one word about who these children are being fostered out to.  The whole mess has been sanitized and depicted to infer that it is outside white families who are sexually abusing these children.  The facts don't bear this out and I am tired of lazy journalists simply picking up a report, reading through it and 'cutting and pasting' without doing a lick of digging into why it is happening. 

Here are a few facts:

• 48% of 30,000 children in care in Canada are native, yet they are only 4.3% of the population;
• Kinship care neglect is 12.4 times higher for native children than for non-native; and
• In B.C., 55% of native children live out-of-home, but are only 8% of the total population.

I could go on with statistics, but you get the idea.  The delegating of foster care at the insistence of native leaders has been a dismal failure, but you will not hear one of them take any community responsibility in the public thoroughfare for this on-going tragedy -- just as you will not hear one of them mention RCMP stats that prove murdered native women are in fact being killed by kith and kin. Political correctness in this country is so rampant journalists daren't breathe a whisper. 

As a retired, professional journalist, I am appalled by the lack of diligence and integrity applied by today's dismal, irresponsible and lazy gaggle.