{"id":173582,"date":"2018-07-27T05:00:05","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T09:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=173582"},"modified":"2018-07-27T05:00:05","modified_gmt":"2018-07-27T09:00:05","slug":"no-charges-saskatchewan-rcmp-investigation-land-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/27\/no-charges-saskatchewan-rcmp-investigation-land-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"No charges after Saskatchewan RCMP investigation into land deal"},"content":{"rendered":"
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File Photo: NDP deputy leader Carla Beck says there must be an immediate change to ensure vulnerable children can be kept in their homes. The New Democrats also want a review of child-welfare legislation. (Photo<\/a> by Carla Beck\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

REGINA \u2014\u00a0Saskatchewan’s Opposition is calling on the provincial government to appoint an Indigenous children’s advocate.<\/p>\n

NDP deputy leader Carla Beck says there must be an immediate change to ensure vulnerable children can be kept in their homes. The New Democrats also want a review of child-welfare legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an issue that with the status quo, with promises by the government but not backing them up, is getting worse,\u201d Beck said Wednesday. \u201cWe are seeing a higher percentage of kids in care and we are seeing the overall numbers increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of children in out-of-home care in\u00a0Saskatchewan\u00a0was 5,257 at the end of March.<\/p>\n

The government says that figure represents all children in the province’s care, including kids who are in the care of extended family or who are seized off-reserve and then transferred to a First Nations child and family services agency.<\/p>\n

Beck says the creation of an Indigenous children’s advocate is supported by\u00a0Saskatchewan’s children’s advocate and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations.<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan\u00a0children’s advocate Corey O’Soup said in a statement Thursday that he supports an Indigenous children’s advocate who works for the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations and is not provincially funded.<\/p>\n

The government issued a statement saying it believes all children should have access to an independent advocate. The statement didn’t specifically address the call for a separate Indigenous children’s advocate but noted that O’Soup is the first Indigenous person to hold the position.<\/p>\n

A camp with more than a dozen teepees has been set up across from the legislature since late February, in part to highlight the disproportionate number of Indigenous children apprehended by child-welfare workers.<\/p>\n

Protesters and government officials met July 2 to discuss concerns but protesters have said they will stay put until at least a second meeting is arranged.<\/p>\n

Regina police officers moved in to break up the camp last month \u2014 arresting six people before releasing them without charge \u2014 but more teepees were set up again a few days later.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot arrest your way out of this,\u201d said Buckley Belanger, NDP critic for First Nations and Metis relations. \u201cThere has to be some significant work in fixing the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

REGINA \u2014\u00a0Saskatchewan’s Opposition is calling on the provincial government to appoint an Indigenous children’s advocate. NDP deputy leader Carla Beck …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":173583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","mauthors-ryan-mckenna","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}