Government responses to child deaths not clear enough for youth advocate

The province's child, youth and seniors advocate wants the government to be more precise about whether it plans to follow recommendations made by the child death review committee.

On Monday, Families and Children Minister Stephen Horsman released a response to the committee's review of five different child deaths.

But advocate Norm Bossé says the language used in the minister's response wasn't clear.

It left Bossé trying to fill in the blanks about what government is actually doing.

"I think a whole lot of this is not clear to the public, to be quite honest," Bossé said.

"You have recommendations that come — I won't say out of the blue, but almost out of the blue — in that there's no substance to this."

The child death review committee is required to review deaths of children known to child protection officials.

Then the minister has 45 days to respond to the committee's recommendations.

But both documents come without any context that explains how, where or when a child died.

Bossé knows these details but the law prevents him — and the child death review committee — from sharing them with the public.

He believes the public should know where and how a child died, along with some of the circumstances of the death.

"They do it in other jurisdictions across Canada," he said.

"I haven't really been convinced of a downside to that yet."

'A little bit problematic'

In one case it recently reviewed, the child death review committee calls for social workers not to place a child back in the home if the child suffered a "non-accidental injury" and the perpetrator was never identified.

It doesn't say whether abuse was involved in the child's death.

The minister accepted the "intent" of that recommendation but doesn't say what will change as a result.

"I find that a little bit problematic," Bossé said.

"The language is not as clear as I might have otherwise thought that I would see in these responses."

Bossé has been monitoring the case of that child's death. He may call a review into the death if he isn't satisfied with the government response.

He also said the public should be concerned by the case and should be asking for more information, even if it identifies the family involved.

"Whose personal privacy are we trying to protect?" he asked. "Certainly not the deceased child."

Wants full mandate to investigate

In another case, the committee asked the government to give it power to access children's mental health records after they die.

But the minister's response doesn't make it clear whether government will pass a law to do that.

The committee needs that information to do a full report on the child's death, Bossé said.

"Unless you give this committee the full mandate to receive any and all documents, like I have in my powers, in my legislation, then they are hamstrung," he said.

At least 56 children known to child protection officials have died from unnatural causes in the last two decades.

A CBC News investigation, called The Lost Children, found the details of many of these deaths remain secret.

The government is now reviewing its child death review system to try to make it more transparent, while also balancing privacy. It has promised an update later this year.

Bossé is optimistic the public may soon know more about how at-risk children are dying.

"I'm convinced that there is the will," he said.

"I'm taking them at face value that there is some need to change and they recognize that and they're willing to go ahead and look at other options."

Part 1: The Lost Children: The secret life of death by neglect

Jackie Brewer, the 2-year-old who was ignored to death

How New Brunswick's child death review system works

Part 2: The Lost Children: 'A child that dies shouldn't be anonymous'

Haunted by Juli-Anna: An 'agonizingly painful' preventable death

Part 3: The Lost Children: Change on horizon for First Nations child welfare

Mona Sock, a life stolen by abuse

Part 4: The Lost Children: Government weighs privacy over transparency in child deaths

Baby Russell: A few minutes of life, then a knife in the heart