Child welfare system rigged against black families

Posted on December 12, 2014 in Equality Delivery System

TheStar.com – Opinion/Commentary – African Canadian children are being apprehended by child welfare agencies, on dubious grounds, often without the slightest understanding of care opportunities in the community.
Dec 11 2014.   By: Bryant Greenbaum

In Canada we are often reminded of the legacy of First Nations Residential Schools and the apprehension of thousands of children who were placed in non-aboriginal foster care and adoptive homes in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission winding down, no one disputes that this cultural genocide was based on a racist understanding of the capacities of First Nations’ families to properly care for their children.

Today, in urban landscapes across Canada — from Toronto to Halifax — a similar situation is now occurring as thousands of African Canadian children are being apprehended by child welfare agencies, on dubious grounds, often without the slightest understanding of the kinship ties that bind the community together and without respect for the extended care opportunities that exist in African Canadian families and the community.

Many reports and academic journals suggest that the root of the problem is racism. A discriminatory child welfare framework exists that penalizes African Canadian families living in poverty — suggesting that parents who work multiple part-time jobs are unfit parents — while rewarding Children’s Aid Societies with huge financial rewards for increased apprehensions and interventions.

While Ontario recently changed its approach for the better, here and elsewhere the funding formula remains largely negative. When a child welfare worker knocks on the door of an African Canadian family, after being referred to the home by a principal that overreacts to a minor schoolyard scuffle, the cards are deeply stacked against the family.

All it takes is a few dirty dishes in the sink or a small bruise from a bicycle fall or a small apartment where children all sleep in the same room. All of these innocent happenings have a different angle when unconscious racism is involved and systemic discrimination is left unchecked at an institutional level.

Clearly, racism has resulted in the disproportionate levels of African Canadian child welfare apprehensions and cross-cultural foster care placements. According to a study in the International Journal of Child, Youth and Family Studies, black youth represent 65 per cent of the children in care in the GTA despite the fact that the black population in this urban centre totals only 8 per cent. Furthermore, research from jurisdictions across Canada confirms that African Canadian families are reported to the system at a greater rate than white families despite the fact that African Canadian families do not abuse or neglect their children at a greater rate.

It is now time to create structures within the existing system to analyze and address repeated problems experienced by African Canadian children in child welfare. It is time, too, for the provincial government to step in and ensure that there are no more unnecessary knocks on the door, no more punitive use of discretion, and no more misinterpretation of cultural cues where African Canadian children are concerned.

If there is no progress in the foreseeable future then the creation of an African Canadian Child and Family Services in the GTA must become an immediate priority for Queen’s Park. As is the case with the Jewish community, the First Nations community and the Catholic community in Ontario, where specialized Children’s Aid Societies were set up to serve these populations, this is a better way to deal with distinctive cultures, ethnicities and religious affiliations in a booming multicultural landscape.

The disparate effects of the current child welfare system on African Canadian children and families can no longer be tolerated and ignored, as the African Canadian community does not wish to repeat the painful journey that our First Nations brothers and sisters are currently experiencing in the Truth and Reconciliation process.

Dr. Bryant Greenbaum is Director of Legal Services at the African Canadian Legal Clinic.

< http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/12/11/child_welfare_system_rigged_against_black_families.html >

Tags: , , , , ,

This entry was posted on Friday, December 12th, 2014 at 9:47 am and is filed under Equality Delivery System. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply