Killer foster mom was flagged by committee, fatality inquiry hears
The first day of a fatality inquiry into the death of three-year-old Kawliga Potts highlighted a possible communication gap in Alberta's child intervention system.
The inquiry was told Tuesday that a foster care committee report in 2006 determined that Edmonton foster mother Lily Choy should only be given school-aged children, five years and older, to look after.
Despite that, the three-year-old boy was placed in her care on Dec. 5, 2006.
Kirk Lambrecht, counsel for the inquiry, read an excerpt from that report during the first day of the inquiry.
Lambrecht asked his first witness, Melinda Lane, who was a licensing officer with child services at the time, why the placement had been made.
Lane said she did not recall seeing that 2006 report.
"What becomes of this information?" Lambrecht asked.
Lane, who was responsible for assessing whether Choy's home was a safe environment but not for pairing her with the little boy, said the committee's information would have been put in Choy's file.
On Jan. 26, 2007, Kawliga died from a brain injury. Choy, a registered nurse, was convicted of manslaughter in 2011 and is serving an eight-year sentence.
Lambrecht said he plans to call 11 witnesses over the three-day inquiry.
No one from the boy's family was in the courtroom Tuesday, and Lambrecht said he wasn't planning to call any family member to testify.
Judge Ferne LeReverend told the inquiry that recommendations have been made in the past but "deaths did continue" in Alberta's child welfare system.
When the inquiry wraps up Thursday, the judge said she will consider what recommendations may help the government improve the foster care system.
The most recent review of Alberta's child-intervention system was spurred by the death of four-year-old Serenity in 2014, and focused in part on the way the government managed the investigation.
The inquiry reconvenes on Wednesday.
