Philpott calls emergency meeting with provinces on Indigenous child welfare
OTTAWA — Indigenous Services Minister Jane Philpott is calling for an emergency meeting early next year on Aboriginal child welfare, declaring that the current situation resembles the horrors of Canada’s residential school system that forcibly removed young Indigenous people from their families and communities.
Philpott, who fired off a letter this week to her provincial and territorial counterparts requesting their attendance at the meeting, said the rate at which Canada is apprehending Indigenous kids is among the highest in the world.
“To me, this is arguably the most pressing priority of my new department,” Philpott said in an interview.
There is no cohesive plan to examine how to get children back into Indigenous communities, she said, suggesting it is necessary to get everyone together who has a role to play, including First Nations, Metis and Inuit leaders, child and family services agencies and groups such as the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.