VANCOUVER — British Columbia's representative for children and youth has released a scathing report in response to an independent review calling for major changes within the Children's Ministry.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond criticizes most of the methodology and conclusions by former B.C. bureaucrat Bob Plecas, saying he was supposed to examine a specific case involving abuse of children who'd been ordered removed from their mother's care.
Instead, Turpel-Lafond says his report calls for sweeping policy, program and legal reforms within the ministry without consultation with her office, aboriginal leaders, communities or any children in care.
She urges the ministry and the legislature to stop any implementation of the Plecas report until consultation can occur and to revise its terms of reference because the findings come before completion of the case he was originally hired to review.
Plecas was appointed last July to review ministry practices after a B.C. Supreme Court judge found social workers showed "reckless disregard'' by ignoring a court order and allowing a father unsupervised visits with his children.
That allegedly led to the abuse of one child, although the father is appealing that court decision.
