This First Nation says Indigenous-run child welfare systems can help families heal

As It Happens6:25Peguis First Nation welcomes Supreme Court ruling on Indigenous child welfare law

Earl Stevenson remembers the first time two Peguis First Nation parents got to spend time with their babies in their own home. 

In was 2022, and the children, aged one and two, had just been transferred out of Manitoba's provincial child welfare system and into the custody of Peguis Nation's Child and Family Services.

Under the provincial system, the parents were only permitted to visit the children at the Child and Family Services office in Winnipeg. 

"So our worker took those two infants to visit Mom and Dad at their home," Stevenson, in-house counsel for Peguis' Child and Family Services, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

"It was an actually very emotional moment there for Mom and Dad, and for our agency worker as well, to be put into place to help this family work on reunification — which was ultimately, you know, the end goal of this process."

That goal came to fruition, he says, and the babies were eventually removed from care and reunited with their parents. It's the kind of success story he says is possible when Indigenous communities have sovereignty over their own child welfare systems.

The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday rejected Quebec's appeal of Bill C-92, the 2019 federal law that affirms Indigenous nations' jurisdiction over child and family services.

Stevenson says he hopes the ruling will inspire more First Nations to follow in Peguis' footsteps. Here is part of his conversation with As It Happens. 

What does the Supreme Court decision say to Indigenous people?

The decision is very positive in the sense that there was recognition and affirmation of First Nations' inherent right to enact their own child welfare legislation. And this child welfare legislation is, therefore, protected as well by Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982.

So it's a very good day in the sense of looking at how Indigenous legal traditions can properly locate themselves with respect to the child welfare regime.

Peguis First Nation, with your help, took matters into its own hands long before this decision. Why did the First Nation want to do that, and not wait for this?

There is a humanitarian crisis in the Indigenous child welfare forum. 

We wanted to get our children out of the provincial system as soon as possible so that we can enact our own system in a culturally relevant way, and in a more responsive way, that acknowledges our community's strengths and as well as our community's needs.

What kinds of changes have already come through?

Back in December 2019, there were about 452 children in care … under our agency's provincial mandate.

We've been implementing our law for the past two years now. And as of October 31, 2023, we only have 214 children in care. So there's been a substantial decrease in that number.

But there's been other positives. And these positives are we have 57 customary care agreements to date, as of last month.

Customer care agreements are agreements where, if there's a child that perhaps isn't doing so well at home … we need to bring in extended family — whether it's a cousin or a grandmother or grandfather or an aunt or uncle — to help care for the child.... And we provide support to the care provider for the upbringing of that child while Mom and Dad are at work on their healing journey.

We're using these alternatives, such as customer care agreements, to divert families from the court system.

The adversarial court system is obviously a traumatic process and something that we don't want the children and the parents to have to go through. So if we can work on a preventative matter in a really positive way, then that's what we aim to do.

You also have a program set up for young adults who have aged out of care.

We call them extension of service agreements. So from ages 18 to 26, for those youth that were involved in the child welfare system, they can certainly reach out to the agency and work with us to enter into an agreement. And we'll provide financial support and other types of support such as, you know, financial literacy programming — for example, how to get a bus pass, how to properly budget. 

As a young Indigenous person, it's very difficult to secure a rental property. The main reason is systemic racism. So … we're providing letters of guarantorship. And the agency would step in and pay for a month's rent if this young adult failed to meet that specific month's rent. So the landlord would be secure in the knowledge that that rent will be paid.

In its appeal, as you know, Quebec was arguing the federal government overstepped its legislative authority, infringed on provincial jurisdiction, and effectively recognized Indigenous Peoples as a third order of government. What did that argument say to you?

Quebec's argument is still colonial-based. And we're in this era of decolonization and an era of reconciliation.

As [First] Nations across the country … start the process of creating their own child and family laws ... as Peguis already has, what is your advice to them?

Get your laws drafted up and implemented as soon as possible. Rely on your elders. Rely on your knowledge keepers. 

It's a way for them to be innovative in terms of dealing with the challenges that many families are facing today. And, you know, it's really important that this work be done sooner rather than later.

Should they give you a call if they need advice?

You know what? Our lines are open in terms of helping our brother and sister First Nations across Canada. So we're certainly open to that. 

That's the direction we've been given by our board of directors — to share our experience with other nations so that they can benefit as well.