4 in 5 people who died last year while receiving child welfare in Alberta were Indigenous – CBC

49 children, youth, young adults died in 2021-22 — 39 of whom were Indigenous

Aug 09, 2022

Advocates and researchers are calling for the Alberta government to decolonize the child welfare system after a record number of children, youth and young adults died last year — about four-in-five of whom were Indigenous.

Provincial data shows 49 people died while receiving child intervention services in fiscal 2021-22 — the most in a year according to publicly available data. It is an increase of 15 deaths from the previous year.

Thirty-nine of those who died were Indigenous — the most since at least 2008-09, and an increase of 16 deaths from the previous year.

“[The deaths] may be surprising to people who are not Indigenous,” said Audra Foggin, a Sixties Scoop survivor and a Mount Royal University assistant professor of child studies and social work. She is a member of Frog Lake First Nation.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-child-intervention-services-deaths-data-1.6540218