They wanted it

I refer to the 'Native kinship program' whereby native children, whose parents are unfit, are placed in foster care with relatives.  The whole idea, dreamt up by natives who pushed for it (afterall, they get money for taking a child in) is to raise native children within their own cultures.

Great idea in principle, except it is often fatal to the children who live in it. 

Such was the case of little Serenity, a toddler who was beaten, starved and sexually abused by her relatives when she was removed from her parents' squalor and abuse.  Severely under-nourished at the time of her death, she died from having been beaten and abused over a considerable length of time.  Finally charged, the relatives who killed her still have other children in their care while the trial unfolds. 

It's ludicrous.

But what is even more ludicrous and outrageous is that the family blames the Alberta government and wants an inquiry into her death.  Whaaaaaaat??!!??!!  These are the same people from whom she was taken because they were deemed unfit to raise their own child.  Extremely difficult to prove, it must have been a very bad situation for this baby.  My question is, where is the shame of the family?  How can they stand in a press conference with their faces hanging out and take absolutely no responsibility for the death of this innocent little girl.  Were a child of mine taken into care because I had been unfit, I would have hidden in the basement for the rest of my life. 

But no, it's all the government's fault for turning a "blind eye" they insisted.  I was absolutely appalled and sickened by the attitude and entitlement shown by these natives.  (I was going to use the word "bums", but you get the picture.)  Frankly, they caused the child's death by neglecting her in the first place.  And obviously, she would have been better placed with an ordinary family instead of into the 'kinship' program that killed her. 

Complete BS.

I wrote a letter to the editor of The Calgary Herald a while ago, one which I thought reasonable and measured.  Here it is:

"Dear Editor,

"Why is it the government's fault that a baby had to be taken into care in the first place?  The birth parents obviously failed the child and so did the extended family in the kinship program into which she was placed.  Where is the parents' sense of responsibility for this tragedy?  Civic leaders didn't turn a "blind eye".  The parents have as much to answer for as anyone.

Nancy Marley-Clarke"

I thought this a pretty objective letter, but it did not get published.  Such is the political correctness surrounding natives in this province.  The truth cannot be spoken.

Sickening.