Solomon Reece spent a decade in Vancouver before being elected councilor for Key First Nation in Saskatchewan last year.
While he remained connected to his First Nation, Reece grew up on a Gulf Island off the west coast and said moving from British Columbia to his new position took some adjustments.
“I really recognize my privilege in terms of growing up in an urban center and having access to good quality health care, clean water, quality education,” Reece said.
“It was a very eye-opening and humbling experience for me as a councilor, coming from this very, frankly, urbanized and very wealthy city to now go to the front lines of colonization. »
Reece is one of many Key Nation members who was raised off-reserve but stayed with his family.
Other children across the country have been removed from their families and placed in government custody, including Noelle O’Soup, who, aged 13, disappeared from a group home in British Columbia only to be found dead a year later.
Following his death, Key First Nation chose Vancouver as a symbolic location for the suffering of Indigenous youth in care for the child welfare reform consultation process.
Indigenous children in government care across the country end up suffering in provincial welfare systems, cut off from their families, communities and culture, Reece said at a news conference on Tuesday.
“And I could also say that the government has worked very hard to eliminate our culture. Now he has to work even harder to help us restore it,” Reece said.
First Nations children taken from their families
Chief Clinton Key said a big step forward in repairing their community is reforming a system that sees many First Nations children removed from their families.
The federal government changed the law in 2020, allowing Indigenous communities to exercise jurisdiction over child and family services, while Ottawa set national minimum standards.
Reece said the First Nation hopes provincial governments in British Columbia and elsewhere will work “proactively” to draft new laws that address their litany of concerns.
The Key First Nation, he said, is particularly focused on self-government legislation in British Columbia that does not meet the needs of “extra-provincial” First Nations that have members spread across the country.
Reece said collaboration between First Nations and provincial governments is paramount to reforming a system that has seen many Indigenous children die in care while leaving families and their communities with “no answer”.
Call to address systemic failures in child protection
Key told the press conference that his country was proud to take its first steps to controlling its own child welfare and welfare services.
“We plan to craft a new law that upholds the ancient human right to care for and nurture our children to be a reflection of who we are, our ancestors and our teachings. »
It comes after Key First Nation sent a letter to Premier David Eby on Monday expressing ‘sorrow and outrage’ at the loss of O’Soup while in the child welfare system of British Columbia.
The letter outlined the country’s grave concerns about the BC government’s inaction on the teen’s disappearance and death and called on the government to address systemic failures that were compromising the girl’s safety and life. his family’s access to information.
“Our community is devastated by the tragic death of Noelle and outraged by the inaction of the police and the (Ministry of Children and Family Development) inadequately investigating her death and ending her case,” Key said during of the press conference.
“His family deserves closure. »
The girl’s body was found inside a Downtown Eastside rooming house, and while the tenant of the room was found dead inside in February 2021, officers initially missed the remains of O’Soup and another woman, which were also in the chamber.
“Torn apart by a system”
The letter to Eby says the disparity between outcomes for Indigenous and non-Indigenous children in government care needs to be identified and changed.
Indigenous children are disproportionately over-represented in BC’s child and family services system, representing less than 10% of the child population, but representing 68% of children in care.
“Too many of our families have been torn apart by a system that doesn’t serve their best interests,” Key said.
“We believe there is another way. »
Key said the First Nation cannot fix the system alone, and cooperation with provincial governments is paramount to moving forward with a new, self-sustaining system that doesn’t see Indigenous children placed in non-Indigenous care.
For Reece, child welfare systems in Canada reflect the “intergenerational impacts” of the country’s colonial past.
He said he was the first of three generations of his family to be raised by his own parents; his mother was taken in the Sixties Scoop, while his father was a residential school survivor.
“It’s not lost on me again, the privilege I’ve had in terms of having a loving, cultural home and two parents who have done their job, their emotional labor, to provide me with the best parenting possible. “, did he declare. .
“For members of our community, there is a lot of need, a lot of need for healing, a lot of need for resources and access to a better life, and that starts with policy, but also tangible reforms. »
