VANCOUVER — An indifferent care system and persistent inaction by front-line workers led to the death of an aboriginal teenage girl in Vancouver, British Columbia's representative for children and youth has determined.
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond has released a scathing report after investigating the life and death of Paige, a 19-year-old who overdosed in the city's troubled Downtown Eastside in April 2013. The teen's last name was not revealed in the report.
Turpel-Lafond says the Ministry of Children and Family Development inexplicably allowed Paige to remain in the care of her mother, who struggled with substance abuse, despite being the subject of 30 child protection reports in her lifetime.
The report says Paige's life was chaotic from the start, as she was exposed to violence, neglect, open drug use and was moved more than 50 times to different homeless shelters, safe houses and single-room occupancy hotels.
It says the teen suffered from a syndrome that left her legally blind without her glasses and developed substance abuse problems that landed her in the emergency room or in detox centres at least 17 times.
Turpel-Lafond says social workers, police, health care workers and educators show constant indifference to aboriginal children, and she is demanding that the provincial government take immediate action.
Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux says she was horrified by the report and that her ministry will work with other service providers to learn from what happened.
