Ontario Children’s aid societies call for mandatory inquests after child welfare deaths:
The Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies has added its voice to a list of organizations calling for coroner’s inquests into all deaths of youths in the child welfare system.
In recent months, there have been a handful of deaths in foster homes in Ontario, including two indigenous teens in Ottawa group homes last month. Amy Owen, 13, was found hanging in her room at an Ottawa group home on April 17. Four days later, on April 21, Courtney Scott, 16, died in a fire in her group home in Orléans. Both teens were from remote First Nations communities in northern Ontario.
First Nations organizations, including chiefs and the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, have called for coroner’s inquests into deaths of youth in the residential care system, as has Irwin Elman, the provincial advocate for children.
On Monday, the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies supported those calls, adding that children from northern indigenous communities who are brought south because mental health and other treatment resources are not available “are not well-served by the current residential care system.”
“The recent deaths of youth living in group homes in Ontario have deeply shaken the child welfare sector. We recognize our responsibility to take whatever action we can to prevent similar tragedies in the future. We must move past discussion and recommendations and into action.”