{"id":90820,"date":"2017-02-22T20:01:22","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T01:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=90820"},"modified":"2017-02-22T20:01:22","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T01:01:22","slug":"alberta-panel-on-deaths-of-children-in-government-care-hampered-by-secrecy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/02\/22\/alberta-panel-on-deaths-of-children-in-government-care-hampered-by-secrecy\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta panel on deaths of children in government care hampered by secrecy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Greg<\/a>
Greg Clark, leader of the Alberta party, says it’s becoming clear child-care workers don’t feel they can speak out publicly to the all-party committee. (Photo: Greg Clark\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EDMONTON \u2013Members of an Alberta legislature panel investigating deaths of children in government care say the committee will be ineffective unless it starts getting candid answers.<\/p>\n

Greg Clark, leader of the Alberta party, says it’s becoming clear child-care workers don’t feel they can speak out publicly to the all-party committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I think we saw evidence of is a culture of fear, \u201c Clark said Wednesday during a break in a committee meeting Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t want to be in a position of cross-examining anyone and making them feel uncomfortable, but there’s some essential questions that need answers. \u201c<\/p>\n

Two child intervention workers repeatedly deflected or declined to answer questions Wednesday about how they felt the system could be improved.<\/p>\n

Russ Pickford and Gillian Colquhoun outlined how there can be between five to nine separate reviews stretching over years when a child dies in government care.<\/p>\n

Panel member Jason Nixon of the Wildrose party asked if they felt there was a way to streamline the reviews.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould it make more sense to have fewer (investigations) and to make it more centralized? \u201c Nixon asked Colquhoun.<\/p>\n

Colquhoun responded: \u00a0\u201cI think that I would bounce it back (to you). \u201c She noted the panel has a mandate to make such recommendations.<\/p>\n

Clark later asked if there might help to have multiple investigations, but just one shared interview with a family that has lost a loved one so as not to re-traumatize relatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s one of the things that you’re going to bring to the table and that you’re going to explore, \u201c replied Colquhoun.<\/p>\n

Clark tried again: \u00a0\u201cWhat do you think? \u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cI have opinions but I’m also not here to be a spokesperson in terms of the child intervention system, \u201c said Colquhoun.<\/p>\n

At that point, Ric McIver, interim leader for the Progressive Conservatives, turned to panel chairwoman Debbie Jabbour and said, \u00a0\u201cWe were told they were free to talk. \u201c<\/p>\n

Jabbour told the pair: \u00a0\u201cWe’re hoping that this is considered a safe place where you can speak freely without any fear of any negative repercussions. \u201c<\/p>\n

Heather Sweet, an NDP panel member, pressed them on whether there is a better way to avoid duplication and stress on a family through multiple investigations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would be pretty nervous about reviewing another ministry or organization’s behaviour or supports, \u201c said Pickford.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not want to try to minimize anybody else’s expertise. \u201c<\/p>\n

Sweet said outside the meeting that there has been a long-standing culture of protection within the Children’s Services Department, but the panel will continue to push presenters to give more information.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to just keep calling it out, \u201c she said. \u00a0\u201cThere is still some trust there that needs to be developed. \u201c<\/p>\n

Nixon said the non-answers are becoming a pattern.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was exactly what we were worried about (when the panel was created) \u201c he said. \u00a0\u201cWe’re not getting answers in my opinion to most of the questions. \u201c<\/p>\n

McIver said he wonders why Children’s Services Minister Danielle Larivee is putting up experts who can’t or won’t give the panel the answers it needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s some work to do probably within the ministry to make sure that the people that present to us feel like they can give the answers, \u201c said McIver.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s still time for the minister to correct the course. \u201c<\/p>\n

Larivee was expected to comment later Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDMONTON \u2013Members of an Alberta legislature panel investigating deaths of children in government care say the committee will be ineffective …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":90821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[15636,15637],"class_list":["post-90820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-deaths-of-children","tag-government-care","mauthors-dean-bennett","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90820","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}