WINNIPEG — Manitoba's First Nations children's advocate says social workers are seizing an average of one newborn baby a day and "shoving them anywhere."
Cora Morgan told The Canadian Press she was with a mother on Monday who had her three-day-old boy taken from her in the hospital.
Morgan says the reason the baby was taken was because his mother had been a ward of Child and Family Services until she was 18.
Morgan says Manitoba is seizing a record number of children — the vast majority of them First Nations — rather than supporting parents.
She says the province has one of the highest apprehension rates in Canada and adds the seizures are as damaging as Indian residential schools.
Morgan says Manitoba must start supporting families rather than taking children and placing them in "loveless" and unsafe situations.
Manitoba recently became the first province to apologize for systematically apprehending aboriginal children starting in the 1960s and placing them with non-aboriginal families — a practice known as the '60s Scoop.
"They're still taking children," Morgan said. "How can they not want to address what they're doing right now?"
Manitoba has more than 10,000 children in care. The system has been under scrutiny for years following several high-profile deaths and assaults of children in care.
