VANCOUVER — British Columbia's representative for children and youth is urging the province's attorney general to intervene in the case of a Metis toddler being adopted to non-Metis parents in Ontario.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond says she is acting on advice from three leading Metis cultural experts and believes that the little girl's heritage has not been given adequate consideration.
The nearly three-year-old girl has been in the care of a Metis foster mother since she was two days old and the Vancouver Island woman and her husband have lost multiple court battles to adopt her.
The Ministry of Children and Family Development removed the girl from the couple's home on Sunday and plans to move her next week to Ontario to live with the adoptive parents and her older sisters, whom she has never met.
Turpel-Lafond wrote to Attorney General Suzanne Anton this week asking that a decision on the child's placement be delayed for a short time so proper indigenous consultation can take place.
The Children's Ministry says it has a cultural plan to preserve the little girl's aboriginal identity, but Turpel-Lafond says the plan is weak, was developed without Metis expertise and relies on stereotypes.
