Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond is calling on British Columbia’s Attorney General to intervene in the adoption case of a three-year-old Métis child known as “S.S.” to ensure that the girl’s cultural rights are properly considered in her placement.
The Representative, acting on advice from three leading Métis cultural experts, believes that the child’s Métis heritage has not been given substantial consideration in the case (L.M. and R.B. v. The Director of Child, Family and Community Services, 2016 BCCA 367). The Representative wrote Attorney General Suzanne Anton this week, asking that the child’s status with her B.C. fosterparents be preserved until Anton can consider how the policies and laws of B.C. should be interpreted to give due consideration to the Indigenous expertise and guidance provided by experts Dr. Nicolas Vrooman, Dr. Maria Campbell and Dr. Paul L.A.H. Chartrand.
