But not everyone sees it quite the same way.
Yellowknife family and child protection lawyer Sukham Dhindsa is critical of the recently released 2023-2024 annual report from the Northwest Territories (NWT) Director of Child and Family Services (CFS), which, according to its own description, “provides a detailed summary of services delivered in the [NWT] between April 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024.”
Sukham Dhindsa, SKD Law
It points out where CFS has gained ground. For example, the number of children and youth receiving “out-of-territory” services with their families “surpassed the number in individual and group treatment programs.” And of the 1,067 kids served that year, 76 per cent of them “remained in their family of origin home.”
But the report is also quick to point out that Indigenous children and youth continue to be vastly over-represented in the territory’s child protection system.
Indigenous children and youth make up 58 per cent of the overall child and youth population in NWT, yet 99 per cent of children receiving CFS services identified as Indigenous, it states.
According to the NWT Bureau of Statistics, the 2021 Census listed the territory as having the second-largest Indigenous population in Canada; Indigenous people accounted for 49.6 per cent of the NWT’s total population.
The report breaks down child and youth maltreatment into five categories: physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, family violence and neglect.
Neglect accounted for 56 per cent of cases of suspected maltreatment — the highest of those categories.
But that category of neglect “is missing key information” as to why kids are taken into the child protection system, Dhindsa told Law360 Canada.
“The neglect category really misses what is actually at play and what is actually happening on the ground,” she said. “When you think neglect, you think of not being fed; maybe not being clothed; maybe not being housed properly. But the majority, from my experience, of these cases are alcohol-related, and it’s not painting the picture properly that a lot of these kids get taken out of their homes when the parents are intoxicated, and that a lot of these children aren’t being returned to their family because the parents use alcohol outside of their time with the children.”
She elaborated.
“[O]ftentimes, if a parent is seen in the community using alcohol, it is a barrier to having their children returned, even if the visits are going well between them and the children and no other concerns are noted with the conduct of the parents. This in and of itself should not be a barrier to children being returned to the care of their parents, but CFS uses it as a way to say the protection concern has not been addressed appropriately.”
Dhindsa was asked if she thinks the subject of alcoholism was left out of the report due to stereotypes around drinking in Indigenous communities.
She does not think so.
“People are generally aware that that’s an issue. The communities themselves … are taking action … to prevent alcohol misuse, so I think it’s not really a stigma thing. … I think it’s very open and in the air here that, yes, alcohol misuse is a really big thing. Communities are aware of it; community leaders are aware of it; it’s in the media all the time.”
One NWT government document speaks to the problem of alcohol abuse in Indigenous communities.
An Alcohol Strategy for the Northwest Territories, 2023, states that while “[a]lcohol use disorders and harmful alcohol use patterns exist in all social groups within the NWT,” harm related to alcohol use “disproportionately impacts First Nations, Métis and Inuit individuals and communities.”
“Alcohol is often used as a coping mechanism as people experience intergenerational and ongoing trauma and the impacts of colonization, forced displacement and residential schools,” it states.
It also notes that alcohol-related harms can be caused by systemic racism, in that some in those communities may be less able to hide heavy alcohol use due to their living situations, and are more likely to be arrested for public intoxication “or other altercations while intoxicated.”
Not everyone agrees with Dhindsa’s views on how alcoholism factors into the child protection issue.
Fellow Yellowknife lawyer Margo Nightingale says more information is needed before one can make such a call.
“I’m uncomfortable with the suggestion that alcoholism is ‘a big part of the problem,’” said Nightingale. “Without a lot more facts and context that statement risks simplifying complex issues and amplifying harmful stereotypes.”
The discussion should be on other things, she said.
“The report infers that having so many Indigenous kids in care is a symptom of systemic racism. How ‘systemic racism’ is defined and how it operates in the child protection system is worthy of a lot more discussion.”
But Nightingale does agree that the report lacks specifics.
In a written note to Law360 Canada, Nightingale says the report does not go into the “detailed summary” it claims to in areas such as protection and prevention services, family preservation and adoption.
“When considering the data in the recent report, it sometimes uses percentages and then sometimes uses raw numbers. Sometimes about the same fact, sometimes not. This is confusing and makes it really hard to form your own picture or assess what’s happening.”
Nightingale also said the report lacks details around “plan of care agreements” — particularly “when a child is removed from their home and stays in someone else’s care.”
“[T]his can sometimes extend for a long time,” she said.
Like Dhindsa, Nightingale questioned the report’s findings on “complaints related to ‘neglect.’”
“What does that concept include?” she said.
The NWT government was asked to comment on what Dhindsa had to say — both about the report lacking information and the absence of discussion around alcohol abuse.
A spokesperson called the report “a high-level overview of services, along with aggregate key data points,” and said that the NWT’s Child and Family Services Act … “outlines the specific circumstances in which a child may be in need of protection, including neglect.”
“There is no uniform and/or simple response to the reasons for children coming into care,” the spokesperson said in an email. “Any decisions are informed by a complex combination of risk and safety factors, assessed against protective factors, social supports and resources. The department, and the territory’s health and social services authorities, strive to keep families together, and to provide support to children and youth in a way that promotes their overall safety and well-being.”
The spokesperson also said it is “important to note that not all cases of substantiated maltreatment result in children coming into care or being placed outside their family home.”
They made no mention of alcohol.
Law360 Canada requested comment from three Indigenous groups in the territory: Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, Northwest Territory Métis First Nation and Akaitcho Dene First Nation.
None responded.
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