Sadly, she was part of the "kinship program" that strives to keep native children with their relatives. Only this time, the whole thing blew up and was shoved under the carpet, with neither blame nor responsibility accepted by anyone anywhere, in any government department or agency.
All this happened more than two years ago and only came to light thanks to digging by a Calgary Herald reporter. In fact, even the girl's name had been changed to obscure the trail. As unreal as it sounds, little Serenity was essentially murdered while in kinship care, being looked after by family members.
Medical reports finally obtained show the severely underweight and malnourished Serenity was suffering hypothermia and had multiple bruises, including around the genitals and a missing hymen, when she was finally brought to hospital. "She fell off a swing," was what the woman who took her in claimed.
OMG!
Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley said she was willing to look at better safeguards for kinship care, but that "it must be balanced with concerns from indigenous communities about children going to outside families." I guess she means even if it kills them. There have been many such cases in Alberta, but I haven't written about them for fear of being accused of singling out natives. The bigger question is, what the h-ll was provincial Child and Youth Advocate Del Graff doing? He wrote his own dismal performance appraisal by saying "more thorough home assessments in kinship care, mandatory orientation training for caregivers and better appraisals of risks to the child's well-being are required."
"There are other people who actually did the terrible things to the little girl," wrote Herald columnist Don Braid in his column today. "They should be in jail." But guess what? The justice minister has yet to lay charges.
Sickening. Rest in Peace, Serenity.
No comments:
Post a Comment