Good morning. Wendy Cox in Vancouver today.
On Saturday, The Globe and Mail asked the question: “Who failed Traevon?” Nancy Macdonald’s deeply reported and heart-wrenching story provided some unsatisfactory answers: Many, many people, but especially B.C.’s child welfare system, failed Traevon, a 17-year-old Cree teen whose death in a Fraser Valley group home went undiscovered for four days. And it appears there will be no public accountability for his death.
Nancy writes that Traevon Desjarlais-Chalifoux arrived at the Abbotsford group home in crisis. He was about to lose his uncle, who was like a father to him, to a terminal illness and he’d been in ministry care for the previous six years, shuffling between group homes and a flop house where he and others were unsupervised.
Aaron Hannam briefly cared for Traevon in 2015, and described the young man as quiet, delicate and small. Unlike some of the other boys Mr. Hannam worked with, Traevon didn’t use drugs, wasn’t violent, and had no police record. He was a “good kid who walked to his own drum beat,” Mr. Hannam told Nancy. He just didn’t want to be in foster care.
In all, Traevon spent six years cycling through multiple foster homes and was in the care of dozens of social workers and paid caregivers before landing at the group home in Abbotsford. He took his own life there in September, 2020. His body was eventually found in the closet of his tiny basement bedroom.
Traevon had been in the care of Xyolhemeylh, (pronounced yoth-meeth) one of 24 Indigenous Child and Family Service agencies charged with providing foster care to First Nations, Metis and Inuit children and youth in B.C.
Xyolhemeylh, in turn, contracted out the boys’ care to a company called Rees Family Services Inc., which runs 10 Fraser Valley group homes. Rees, is owned by Richard Rees, who markets himself as a personal trainer and runs nine Fraser Valley group homes. His group homes promise round-the-clock treatment that was “safe, supportive” and “trauma-informed,” according to the accreditation agency used by B.C.’s Ministry of Children and Family Development, or MCFD.
But Nancy instead found that the care workers were variously verbally abusive, neglectful or casually indifferent, information Nancy gathered after speaking with Jamie, a boy who was in the home at the same time as Traevon. Nancy interviewed Jamie and his sister Liz and viewed a trail of text messages the two exchanged during Jamie’s time at the home.
The workers sometimes withheld food as punishment and locked the boys outside when they left to run errands – sometimes for hours at a time – measures The Globe and Mail confirmed in an interview with a worker employed by Rees to care for them. No attention was paid to the boys’ First Nations backgrounds, and both workers who cared for them were white, Jamie says. (Privacy legislation bars The Globe from identifying Jamie and his sister, who were both in foster care.)
Traevon’s death is being investigated by the BC Coroners Service, though that probe has not finished. B.C’s children’s representative has also reviewed his case, though Jennifer Charlesworth’s office cannot move to the next steps towards issuing a public report until after the coroner has finished its work.
It is only the most recent tragedy involving kids in the care of Xyolhemeylh, the largest of the province’s Indigenous Child and Family Service agencies. Repeated audits and investigations into both Xyolhemeylh and the Ministry of Children and Family Development have shown that neither is adequately monitoring group homes to ensure they are safe and secure for the children who live there. No guardrails are in place to ensure that staff hired by group home operators are equipped to care for some of the most vulnerable, high-needs youth in the province. Neither the ministry nor Xyolhemeylh are ensuring that the care Indigenous youth receive in group homes like the one run by Rees are culturally appropriate and safe.
After our story was published, Ms. Charlesworth reacted with alarm, telling Nancy she was horrified to read about the conditions in the group home. She called on the provincial government to enact urgent measures to ensure youth are being safely cared for in B.C. group homes.
“Without a shadow of a doubt, the situation is getting more severe, and more acute,” she said.
A prominent Indigenous leader said there were red flags that could have saved Traevon’s life.
“We need to know who is accountable for his death,” Kukpi7 Judy Wilson of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs said in an interview Monday. The UBCIC will be raising its concerns with the ministry, she said.
The ministry has refused to say whether there have been any consequences for Xyolhemeylh as a result of Traevon’s death. The ministry will also not say what happens when agencies such as Xyolhemeylh fail repeated performance audits.
Instead, Mitzi Dean, the minister of children and family development, said Monday that in general, her ministry is making changes to improve in-care services. She called the changes “transformational.”
Her ministry said no new agencies will be added to the list of those providing care in specialized homes without approval from the provincial director of child welfare.
“I can absolutely assure people that the ministry holds all of our partner agencies accountable and to high standards,” Ms. Dean said. “So where there is a review, and if deficiencies were identified, if practice hasn’t been good quality or procedures are not followed, then there will be an action plan and that is monitored by the provincial director of child welfare.”
This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.
Wendy Cox
James Keller