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FINDING THE WAY BACK: AN AGGREGATE INVESTIGATION OF 45 BOYS WHO DIED BY SUICIDE OR HOMICIDE IN MANITOBA
FINDING THE WAY BACK: AN AGGREGATE INVESTIGATION OF 45 BOYS WHO DIED BY HOMICIDE OR SUICIDE IN MANITOBA.
Too often unseen, boys in Manitoba need our attention. As a follow-up to a 2020 investigation focused on the suicide deaths of girls, the Manitoba Advocate set out to see what common issues exist among boys in Manitoba who are at risk of suicide or homicide and what systemic improvements can be made to help young men, particularly those who are First Nations, Metis, or Inuit. Of the 45 boys with experience in the child welfare system who died by either suicide or homicide and whose stories inspired this special report, 78% were identified as First Nations youth and 49% lived in northern Manitoba.
Guided by the office’s Knowledge Keeper and Elders Council, the Manitoba Advocate combined investigative and qualitative research approaches in the drafting of this report. Together with Dr. Marlyn Bennett, an Indigenous scholar and professor at the University of Manitoba, the office also held a digital storytelling workshop with two First Nations young men, Michael Breland and Trevor Merasty. They created a music video being released alongside the report, which details some of their lived experiences. In accordance with her authority under The Advocate for Children and Youth Act, and in alignment with Calls to Action from the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Manitoba Advocate is making four recommendations in this report to improve the effectiveness and responsiveness of child welfare, education, and youth justice services in Manitoba.
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MACY hosting new webinar series on children’s disability rights
Dr. Richard Antonelli will appear in MACY’s webinar on Oct. 20.
The Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth (MACY) is hosting a new webinar series this October, following the release of a special report on Children’s disABILITY Services in spring.
The new series, Achieving Substantive Equality for Children with Disabilities in Manitoba, will offer three webinars to the general public. The webinars will be free, though registration is required.
All webinar participants who fill out evaluation surveys will receive MACY certificates of completion, which may be used for learning credits through some professional regulatory bodies.
Manitoba Advocate Releases ReconciliACTION Framework
September 29, 2021
Statement from the Manitoba Advocate for Children and Youth in honour of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
On September 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation offers an opportunity to remember and honour survivors of residential schools and the thousands of children who were forcibly taken from their parents and never returned home.
Between the 1870s and the late 1990s, children were made to feel inferior and were subjected to abuse at residential schools because of their ancestry, their language, and their culture. Children like Phyllis Webstad from the Sswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation were stripped of their clothing in an intentional and systematic effort to inflict cultural genocide. In telling her story, Webstad helped create Orange Shirt Day, which we honour on September 30 as well.
More recently, the effects of the Sixties Scoop, the child welfare system, and ongoing inequities in social determinants of health continue to negatively impact Indigenous families. Discrimination affecting Indigenous Peoples in Canada is ongoing.
While we must face the uncomfortable truths at the root of Canada’s history, we must also work to acknowledge and address the harms and children’s rights abuses that are a shameful part of our present and past.
