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Ontario’s Ombudsman is critical of two child care agencies in the handling of a teenaged girl from northwestern Ontario.
In the report called Missing in Action: Misty’s Story, the Ombudsman says the Indigenous girl ran away 7 times, once for 19 days while in care.
Paul Dube says one of the agencies violated it’s own protocols for dealing with the youth in care.
“What we addressed in the recommendations is the fact that Johnson Family Services failed in it’s duties to Misty and the home agency that it contracted with,” explains Dube following the release of the report.
“They didn’t provide adequate supervision. They didn’t provide one-to-one supervision, and that was why she was able to run away.”
Dube says there is evidence that Misty was physically and sexually assaulted, used hard drugs, and suffered an overdose when she ran away.
“When Misty went missing, they didn’t treat it seriously enough. They even downplayed the risks to the police. When the police inquired, they failed to submit a Serious Occurrence report to the Ministry and they failed to submit a Serious Bodily Harm incident report to us, which is required by law.”
Dube adds other agency singled out was Anicinaabe Abinoojii Family Services which provides child welfare services in the Treaty #3 area.
“The First Nations agency was very grateful for our work and thanked us for our input and said it was very thorough and very fair. I won’t name the community, but they’ve invited me to meet with them and present report and I’m honoured to do that and having that dialogue.”
Anininaabe Abinooji Family Services works on First Nations in the northern half of the Treaty #3 area, with offices in Kenora, Dryden and Wauzhushk Onigum Nation.