VICTORIA — The deaths of three girls and the anguish of a mother who needed help for her schizophrenic daughter are described by British Columbia's new children's watchdog as life changing.
Bernard Richard said those cases also motivate him to improve the lives of vulnerable young people.
"These are three tragic, tragic, horrific deaths," Richard said Wednesday from his home in Cap-Pele, N.B. "They've changed my life most definitely. Those three moved me and us to dig deeper."
Richard, 65, replaces Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, a former Saskatchewan judge who held the post of B.C. children and youth representative for a decade.
He is a former cabinet minister in New Brunswick, holding a variety of portfolios including education and aboriginal affairs.
The three cases he investigated as New Brunswick's youth advocate involved a neglected two-year-old girl who died of a perforated bowel, a 13-year-old aboriginal girl who hanged herself outside a recreation centre and 19-year-old Ashley Smith, who died in a federal prison.
The death of the two-year-old girl in April 2004 saw Richard release Broken Promises, a scathing report on child welfare services.
The girl's mother was found guilty of criminal negligence and sentenced to 27 months in prison. An autopsy found a plastic pencil-shaped toy, nine centimetres long and one centimetre in diameter, caused the perforation.
In 2008, Richard released a report into Smith's death in an Ontario prison after tying a cloth around her neck while under suicide watch. Guards who were ordered not to intervene stood watch outside her cell.
Richard's report examined Smith's jail time in two New Brunswick custody facilities before her move to the Grand Valley Institution for Women at Kitchener, Ont. The report made 25 recommendations focusing on early intervention options for youth and improving mental health and education services for youth in custody.
After writing a report about seven children in New Brunswick with mental health issues, Richard said he often hears the voice of a mother who pleaded for better supports for her daughter with schizophrenia.
"She told me, 'I wish my daughter had cancer instead of schizophrenia. They would spare no expense to cure her cancer,' " he said. "It shook me to the core."
Richard said it's these tragedies and others that drive him to push governments to do more to protect children.
"I want to be optimistic, but when things need to be said I know they need to be said," said Richard. "I took my government to court when they resisted in providing full disclosure on the death of a 27-month-old girl. It was a Liberal government. I was a former Liberal minister."
Richard said he has been working with First Nations leaders in New Brunswick for the past three years to restructure child and family services agencies.
