Greyeyes Helps Manitoba Families

October 20, 2009 permalink

Jules Greyeyes, who came to our attention through Winnipeg newspaper articles, is organizing familes to check abuses by Manitoba child and family services. His website is at Northend Action Group (NAG) Inc,, and his welcoming letter is below..

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October 19, 2009

We (Northend Action Group (NAG) Inc.) are the first non-profit organization available to our community 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. We try to help prevent children and families from being torn apart by CFS through diligent case contact! This problem is not unique in aboriginal agencies, but all the Authorities have their proportionate amount of complaints, none of which have been resolved. The systemic abuse is also widespread across the country. Child deaths, neglect, and mental/emotional abuse of children sometimes resulting in suicide by parents.

In one case CFS was forcing one of my community members to get a restraining order against a cousin who had been helping her and they were coming to talk to her about in the morning. The day before CFS proceeded to come into the home when the grandparents had already intervened, as there had been an isolated drinking incident and apprehended the children, saying the grandparent's place was too small? Oh come on I thought! This should've been short term intervention, not long term plans (as CFS tends to resort to, so the money keeps rolling in), because the short term it was not a child protection concern.

I met the cousin and CFS showed up at her house as they said they would, much to their surprise I was there. Nothing was mentioned about the requesting a restraining order. The worker pretty well fancy footed around every question I had. Prior meetings when I wasn't present, CFS resorted to bullying, intimidating and disrespecting my community member. CFS was very nice this time!

Money from Child Tax Benefits and UCB of children in care apparently go to the Authorities? Where does that money go? That money should be helping to pay for the "differential response", as opposed to paying for more workers! The stats are disturbing. Let's say you have 7,000 kids in care all of whom received a CTB before coming into care. 7,000 X $250=$1,750,000 X 12 months + $21,000,000 per year!!! This is not inlcuding UCB!!

In rating the Authorities in appropriate handling of concerns on a 1-10 scale General a 7, Northern a 5, Metis and the Southern a 1. The General Authority and Northern Authority seems to be more willing to meet and work with our group in keeping families together. Metis meets with us but the only thing they do is ask us who we are instead of dealing with the issues. The Southern is the absolute worst! The people are like a legalized band of savages tearing apart of what society deems to be paramount! The family!

I have a case load of 24 right now with 5 more waiting to be responded to. We will be opening our storefront with a media partner who has agreed to be our outlet in November or December. We have our board of community members but are looking for professionals to join, as there are 5 more spots open. Natasha has been appointed our interim Vice Chair, and we have a long term plan to have her as the future speaker of child welfare reform. This is empowerment at it's finest, and I promise things will change!

As the mental/emotional abuse of families and children continue the government just sits there and "fails to act"! The Authority has zero control of their workers and after 5 years you would think a complaints process should've been implemeted by now. Instead acts of neglect, abuse of children in care are minimized and swept under the carpet!

In closing, we would like to see transparency in the form of how money is spent. I would assume they spend a lot of time and effort in builiding cases for family court as opposed to building families! Changes need to be fast and sweeping! Authorities need to be dismantled by getting rid of the Act, and have government take 3rd party control until these changes are made and workers are reprimanded.

Please let the people know we are up and running and you can call Jules at 282-6486 or email at [ nag at mail.org ]. Thank you!

Truly,

Jules Greyeyes - Chairman of the Board
Northend Action Group (NAG) Inc.
689 Magnus Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R2W 2E1
Ph: 282-6486

Source: email from Jules Greyeyes